NOTES for Luk 8:26-39

Texts about demons and the demon-possessed are always difficult for us. There are many reasons for this. One reason is that in the Old Testament mythological, pagan, and folkloric ideas are clearly visible, borrowed partly from Babylonian "complex demonology" and partly from Persian folklore, as for example in the deuterocanonical book of Tobit (Dictionary of Biblical Theology, edited by Xavier Leon-Dufour), in other words, from the beliefs of neighboring peoples. Magical actions are proposed for fighting them: if a demon or evil spirit torments someone, then with the heart and liver (of the fish, editor's note) one should make smoke before that man or woman, and he or she will no longer be tormented (Tob 6:8). And to modern people it appears that they are being called to something similar, if not to make smoke, then in any case to personify or substantiate in one way or another. Remember, "the deacons are burning incense," as V. Vysotsky said.

But the Bible is the story of the ascent of the human spirit. And here is what we read in the Epistles of the apostle Paul. "No, but what the pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot be participants in the table of the Lord and the table of demons." (1 Cor 10:20-21). Here the division is already clear: pagans serve demons. That is what pagans are, and that is what demons are; these words define both concepts. These are the very peoples from whose folklore many ideas about demons entered the Bible. And this is not surprising.

But let us listen to one of our remarkable fathers, Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov). "Now let us answer those who do not believe in the real existence of demons. We have had occasion to meet such people. They even believed in Christ. And when I asked them whether they believed in the Gospel, they also answered affirmatively, but by evil spirits they understood moral, abstract evil. In vain I pointed them to the words of the Gospel where it says that the Lord cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene (Mk 16:9; Lk 8:2), and that in the possessed man there was a 'legion' of them (Mk 5:9, Lk 8:30). In vain I told them that all the Gospels are full of miracles of casting out demons, that the Gadarene demoniac immediately came to his senses after the demons were cast out of him, and that the herd of swine rushed from them down the steep bank into the Sea of Galilee. They did not want to believe! But the very coming of Christ also depended on this power of demons. For 'the Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the Devil,' says the apostle of love (1 Jn 3:8). This is an elementary teaching of Christianity" (Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), The Lord's Prayer).

So what is difficult for us? We do not want to explain our foolish acts with the words "a demon led me astray"; we are ashamed of this, and we ourselves are guilty? No one is calling us to do that. But how should we regard the woman who killed Brother Roger, the founder of the Taize community, a holy and radiant man? To say that she herself is guilty is very, very frightening. It means wiping her from the face of Heaven, if one may rework the words "wipe from the face of the earth." Who will take such responsibility upon himself? There are cold-blooded murders for profit, for material valuables; that is understandable, that is another matter. But what are we to do with this unfortunate woman?