JESUS CHRIST’S POWER OVER DARKNESS

Fr Luke A Veronis

Haunted houses. Skeletons. Ghosts. Gravestones. The dead. And of course—demons.

Every day I take my dog for a walk around my neighborhood, and like in many of our neighborhoods in October, we see dark images decorating homes – 15 foot skeletons, ghosts hanging from trees, gravestones in front yards, dark and scary figures on porches. Our society loves to play with darkness this time of year. Yet, while much of this is make-believe, there is one truth that the Church never ignores: Evil is real. Demons do exist. The devil is not some make-believe image but a dark, fallen angel that corrupts and deceives the world with his lies.

The key message for today, however, is that we are children of God and carriers of light. Evil has no power over goodness. Darkness has no sway over us. And the devil has no power over Jesus Christ!

When someone is baptized into the Orthodox Church, what’s the very first thing we do? We offer prayers of excorcism against Satan. We turn away from the icon screen in the Church and publicly renounce Satan and all his works, all his worship, all his angels, and all his pride. Then we spit on him, literally and spiritually. We declare war on darkness and evil!

Then, we quickly turn toward the east—toward the light of Christ—and publicly declare unity with God. We are His followers, His heirs, His children.

At our baptism we proclaim that Christ has conquered the devil. Yes, evil is real but Jesus is greater than any evil and He has defeated all darkness. The devil whispers to us his lies, planting fear, division, anger, hatred, and despair and yet, he has no authority over anyone who belongs to Jesus Christ.

Do you remember the story of Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac. A man possessed with a legion of demons, living away from all humanity in the graveyard. He would be an image that our Halloween season would glorify! Yet, this man was pathetic and lost. He wore no clothes. He was so violent and while that he couldn’t live around society. So He lived among the tombs, all alone. People were so afraid of him that no one passed by. They had tried to chain him up, and yet he broke all the chains. He had lost his identity, his humanity, and didn’t even remember his own name. “Legion, I am called” because so many demons tormented him.

This man lived surrounded by death, darkness, and isolation, cut off from family and community—completely enslaved by the powers of darkness.

But then, Jesus steps onto the shore. Immediately, the demons cry out, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” It’s interesting how even the demons recognize Jesus. And they tremble before Him because they know they have no power over Him.

With one word, Jesus drives out the demons and sets the man free. When the townspeople later find him sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, calm, and in his right mind, they are afraid. They don’t understand and are scared of the power and authority that Jesus holds.

Jesus comes to free the imprisoned, to restore the broken, to bring peace where there was torment, to brings life where there was death.

This story isn’t just something that happened long ago. It’s a picture of the world we live in.

There are so many dark forces that try to enslave people – through addiction, hatred, anger, pride, fear. Sometimes these forces feel overwhelming, like that legion of demons. Yet, we always must remember – Jesus Christ is the Light of the World that has come into its darkness to give light. On the Cross, He destroyed the power of sin and death. In His Resurrection, He triumphed over the devil once and for all. And in the Church, through the Holy Sacraments, through prayer, through fasting, through the sign of the Cross, through our acts of divine love, that victory becomes ours personally.

So how do we respond when we see the darkness of this world? We don’t play with it. We don’t glorify it. We don’t fill our homes or minds with images of evil and darkness and horror, even in jest.

Instead, we fill our homes and lives with all that is good, pure, holy, true, and praiseworthy.  We fill our hearts with the Spirit of Jesus Christ and teach our children not to be fascinated by darkness, but to be inspired by the light of the saints.

No demon, no evil, no darkness can possess a person who is walking with Jesus, with one who prays daily, who confesses regularly, who forgives one another, who opens their heart to the Holy Spirit by partaking of the Holy Eucharist, and who keeps Jesus Christ at the center of their lives.

As St. John Chrysostom once said, “The devil fears and trembles not at fasting or at poverty, but at the presence of Christ.” When Christ lives in us, the devil and all darkness flee.

So, this Halloween season, when we see all the skeletons and demons and ghosts on display, let’s remember the truth: We never fear the darkness because the Light of Christ has overcome it. We embrace the virtues of God, celebrating faith in the power of God and courage in the face of all darkness.

Like the man who was freed from the legion of demons, let us fall at the feet of Jesus each day and say, “Lord, You are my strength, my protection, and my peace.” And let us live as witnesses to the world so that no evil will stand against the love of Jesus Christ, the One who trampled down death by death and gave light to those in the tombs.