Kursk Icon of the Mother of God brings peace....

Sermon July 28
By Fr Nicholas Karipoff
 
In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The reading that we just heard, the healing of the demon-possessed Gadarene man, is prescribed twice annually by the church lectionary; on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost – today - and then on the 23rd Sunday.  Today the story was from the Gospel of Matthew 8: 28 – 34) while the reading on the 23rd is from Luke (8:26 – 39).  Luke, and also Mark (5:1 – 20), gives us an additional dimension to the story than Matthew’s shorter version. They tell of the transformation of this man who was possessed by a legion of demons.
The story shows, of course, the destructive power of the demons.  Secondly,  it shows what a huge transformation occurs when we are liberated from the demons, as in the case of this man.  
 
The ugly face of the demon contorts and disfigures God’s beauty. When our being is energised by the awful energies of the demons, by any passion, it is distorted. As one modern Orthodox preacher puts it: Have a look at your face in the mirror.  You are in hell already! Where there is repentance, there is liberation from hell, of course. Any passion is an addiction, a loss of our spiritual freedom to the demon. There is a book called “The Gurus, the young Man and Elder Paisios” by Dionysios Farasiotis. The young Greek man. In the book describes how he received a demonic anointing and was literally possessed by a demon.  Afterwards, he was walking in a city in India and came across a large group of thugs.  But he described having no fear, instead he went straight at them. The thugs were planning to rob him and beat him up, but when they saw his face, they ran in terror from him because he had a demonic face. 
 
Any passion is a possession to varying degrees.  Think of a face filled with hatred and anger, how distorted that is.  People in that state are capable of horrific things, as we see in the examples of  those mass murders, especially in the US. People in that state of possession are capable of these things.  It is so different to the state that we have just heard described in the Gospel. We heard today how the demons rushed into a herd of pigs and destroyed them all.  The biblical image of the pig is an image of humanity possessed by carnal and material passions. That shows how destructive any revolt against God can become.  Some pigs, material and carnal people, can even mutate into dogs. This is another biblical term and we see it illustrated in every revolution since 1789. 
 
When a person cries out to God from the depths of his hell like this demoniac did, saying Lord have mercy on me, then Christ, the Saviour, comes and liberates the soul. We see the transformation of that man. He is sitting at the feet of the Saviour, dressed, completely different physically and spiritually.  He is glowing with the peace of Christ. People might think, this happens to other people, not me.  I am a free human being.  But as  St Anthony the Great says an eagle is a great bird but if one of his talons is caught in the net, the whole eagle is captive. It does not take much to lose our spiritual freedom.
 
Before Great Lent we to try and observe ourselves and count how many times during the day we mentally judge people. During Lent people were coming to confession and saying: I didn’t realise how bad it is!  This is just one example.  We do not know ourselves.  We fail to  look closely enough at ourselves in the mirror.
 
Today also we celebrate a vast number of saints, beginning with the Evangelizer and Apostle of Rus, St Vladimir.  The term Rus covers all the Eastern Slavs - Russia, Ukraine and Belorus.  St Vladimir was a wild pagan and loved the life of the passions.  But then he transformed just like the  Gospel demoniac.  He became a loving caring father of his people.  As well we celebrate the Holy Fathers of the first six ecumenical councils.  Through the prayers of the Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ God have mercy on us. 

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Sunday July 21
Metropolitan Nicholas Olhovsky
 
The holy Kursk icon is visiting Australia, and today this parish. I always say that the icon visits each one of us personally.  It is wonderful to see all the clergy here today, to hear the singing from the choir, to see all of you, to see the children, their parents and the elderly, so many receiving Holy Communion. We can come and look at the icon and walk away, or we can come and truly understand that the Theotokos has come to us. This image is over 700 years old and has blessed the four corners of the earth,  bringing comfort to many Orthodox and faithful in the Diaspora, and in the homeland.  We can come and venerate the icon, understand that there is holiness there. Remember that St Seraphim as a boy prayed before this icon.  Our ancestors in the homeland venerated this icon, St John of Shanghai and San Francisco prayed before this icon and received a blessed repose.  We can bring our prayers, our repentance, our petitions and the Theotokos will hear our prayers.  She will listen but we truly have to pray. Think of the  millions of prayers that have been brought before this holy icon over the 700 years.  Think of all the tears that have been poured, the tears of repentance and of gratitude. We can act in the same way and truly know that there is holiness amongst us.  
 
Miracles do happen in our lives , even in our sinful states, but we often have closed eyes and ears.  We do not see or hear these, but they exist and happen often.  Here we have the chance to truly put aside all the problems and worldly temptations, and  look at the icon and pray to the Theotokos. We should give her our hearts;  she gave us our Saviour. What can we offer to our Mother of God today?  This is the question we have to ask ourselves.  I pray that we do offer something pure, something humble, something kind, something with repentance.  Then the Mother of God as the loving mother will hear us and receive our prayers as she has done for 700 years, and bring our petitions to her Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  We will feel peace, salvation, true joy and a meaning to our Christian lives. This I pray we can feel today, we can offer to the Theotokos and truly not just in word ,but in deed be Orthodox Christians, bringing joy to ourselves,  to our families and to those around us.  Amen.