MAN AND HIS BOUNDARIES
a homily by
Blessed Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios
on the theme
“Leave our borders”
Delivered at the Holy Monastery Komneniou, Larissa
on July 8, 1990
5th Sunday of Matthew (8:28-9:1)
In today’s gospel passage, my beloved, the Εvangelist Matthew tells us of the incident of the meeting of the Lord with two demon-possessed men outside the city of the Gergesenes. The entire story, on the one hand with the healing and the ridding of their demons, and on the other hand with the demonic-possession and drowning of about two-thousand pigs in the lake, terrified the inhabitants of Gergasa. And the attitude of the inhabitants of this city, having this double miracle in front of them, was disapproving. We are more astinoshed at this disapproving attitude of the Gergesenes than the miracles worked by the Lord. But let us see how the evangelist Matthew relates this incident to us:
When Jesus arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gergesenes, He was met by two demoniacs who came out of the graveyard, who were so frightful that no one could pass by that way; and they began to cry out and say: “What have You to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? Did you come here to torment us before our time?” In the distance there was a large herd swine feeding. And the demons begged Him, saying: “If you are going to drive us out, allow us to go into the herd of swine.” And He said to them: “Go!” And they went out of them and into the herd of swine. And immediately, the whole herd rushed and fell into the lake and drowned in the water. Then the herdsmen fled and went into the city and related all the things that had happened, and also what had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the entire city went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their borders….
You see, this strange, but not psychologically inexplicable behavior of the city’s inhabitants, makes an impression on us. I will tell you about it in the text:
And behold, the entire city went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their borders. And after entering the boat, He crossed over and arrived at the same city (that is, Jesus got back into the boat and went to Capernaum).
Certainly some fear seized the souls of these people, and this fear was a peculiar fear. It is the fear of the sinner who does not want to be corrected, because they were thinking to themselves: “This Jesus will find other things that are wrong in our city”, because for the Jewish people, raising pigs was not permitted. The law clearly stated that they were not to eat pork, nor were they to raise pigs, nor do business selling pork. This is why they thought, “If Jesus comes into the city and sees other things, He will harm us financially.” So they feared. The other Evangelists tell us that they were “terrified” [κατετρόμαξαν / ἐφοβήθησαν] (Mk. 5:15, Lk. 8:35)), and asked the Lord to leave.
We will not delve on explaining the behavior of these people, but only their action. Seeing Him, they begged Him to leave their borders. I emphasize this “leave their borders”, because this is precisely what our main subject will be: “leave their borders”. It is the man, my beloved, who does not accept the presence of God in the circle of his existence. He does not deny Him, but exiles Him. And “to exile” means to put outside the borders. I put Him outside.
But we must know that God always places borders, only these borders have varied in the history of mankind. Man must know his borders, so that if he wants to remove something from his borders, he knows what he will remove, and if he must keep something within his borders, what will he hold on to? Where will he keep it? God places the borders. Remember how the Apostle Paul said what is mentioned by Moses in Deuteronomy, in his last Ode, that God is the One Who established the boundaries of the Nations (Deut. 32:8). The borders, that is. And God is the One who, either by His good will or by concession, acts; it is He who regulates the boundaries of the Nations. He had said to David: I will widen the borders of your homeland. And Solomon found the widest borders ever in the history of Israel. But the borders of Solomon’s territory, the homeland, began to shrink, because he began to sin.1 And God said to him clearly:
I will not take the kingdom away from you, for the sake of your father, but from your descendants. (3 Kings 11:12 (1 Kings))
And as soon as Solomon died, not only did the borders shrink, but this Israel was also split into two kingdoms, the southern kingdom and northern kingdom; the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. So God is the One who establishes borders throughout history. He also establishes them in nature. Psalm 103 says:
You set a boundary which they shall not pass; neither shall they return to cover the earth. (103:9)
Here he is talking specifically about the sea. If, however, you consider the text above (it is from the introductory Psalm at Vespers), you will find that it is not just the about the sea, on which borders were placed, which may not be passed. On a first look, it is the sea, which, whatever it does, cannot go beyond the land, stormy as it may be, but because the plural is used here [παρελεύσονται – they shall not pass], we say it refers to and concerns all the natural laws and all the natural phenomena.
No natural phenomenon goes beyond certain limits. If there is a flood, it will pass. If it is hot, it will pass. If there is an earthquake, it will pass. There are limits, and God puts limits in His Creation, because if there was an unlimited presence of a phenomenon, then this would create disorder in nature. In fact, regarding the sea, the author of the Letter to Diognetus says: He enclosed the sea within its proper bounds. (Ch. 7)
And this same God protests about man, that although nature keeps within its bounds, man does not keep within his bounds, because if nature was made with bounds, that is, with boundaries, much more should man have them.
Boundaries do not restrict freedom. Who would ever think that by putting a railing on his roof or on his balcony his freedom would be restricted? But there is a boundary, a limit, because if you go beyond it, you will fall and be killed. So no one thinks that the railings of a roof restrict freedom. (I say this because we have a freedom complex in our days, which has surpassed everything else. Man has gone beyond every boundary, truly every boundary.)
Listen, then, to what God says through the prophet Jeremiah:
Now hear these things, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes and do not see, and ears and do not hear. Will you not fear Me? says the Lord; and at My presence will you not honor Me? The sand I have made as a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which shall not be passed over; and the waves shall hurl themselves against it and shall not prevail; they shall swell and shall not pass over it. (Jer. 5:21-22) (O people, do you not see? Do you not see the sea, that it is I Who made the boundary, the eternal ordinance? So the border is an ordinance, and the sea will never go beyond it. It will be troubled within, we would say, in her belly; her waves will roar but they will never be able to go beyond where God put the sea.) But My people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned away and abandoned Me. They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God’…” (Jer. 5:23-24a) (they did not say: “Let us fear the Lord our God. If He puts bounds in nature, and we exceed our own bounds, let us fear Him.”)
They have turned away and abandoned Me (turned away [ἐκκλίνω] means “I choose another path.”). These two actions express the overstepping of bounds by this people or by man. Man overstepped his bounds. And indeed, unfortunately for mankind, man overstepped his bounds from the very first moment. God placed one primary bound for him in Paradise: You shall not taste of this fruit. (Gen 2:17) He overstepped that boundary in Paradise. Adam and Eve tasted the fruit. What was the result? By overstepping this boundary, or boundaries, he left Paradise. This is one primary result. Also, since then, he has been outside the boundaries of his life. He entered into the realm of death. He went away from his destination, which is theosis and the Kingdom of God. He saw death as his destiny.
Man went still further beyond his own nature and introduced the phenomenon of homosexuality. What is this? Is it not the overstepping a divine boundary? You have gone outside the bounds of your nature. And what happened? What you should not have become you became. You became what God did not want you to become.
Civilization also is nothing anymore. It is not being divinized, because man has overstepped an agreement and the bounds of human life. Just one small example: The destruction of the environment in which man lives. He did something, he overstepped it, and destroyed this very home of his, the Earth. And he destroys it continuously. Is this not overstepping? Thus modern man became unrecognizably unnatural, because he overstepped his bounds.
But man followed the example of the devil. Because he was the first to leave the boundaries that God established for him. We read from holy St. John Damascene who tells us:
The highest in rank in the Earthly realm, into whose hands God committed the guardianship of the Earth… was roused against God who created him.”2 (The Earthly realm is, so to speak, planetary space, the space wherein the Earth remains and exists and moves and, along with the other planets, revolves around the sun.)
He was to watch over this same Earth, in which he was highest in rank. Into whose hands God committed the guardianship of the Earth. He received the order from God to watch over the Earth. But he was proud. What does “proud” mean? It means that he overstepped his bounds and lost everything. We are told by St. Athanasios the Great, who draws from Isaiah and Ezekiel:
Thus he said: I will ascend, and I will set my throne in front of God, and I will be like the Most-high (make himself equal with God).
This also inspires the wretched man today. How? When he says, “God does not exist.” And man, of course, surpasses the devil, because even the devil believes. “Even the demons believe, and shudder”, it says in Holy Scripture (James 2:19), but man says: “God does not exist.” He surpasses the devil. He became more demonic than a demon. What then is the man saying? “I am God. God does not exist.” This is anthropocentrism.
And so Lucifer went beyond his bounds and ended up, where did he end up? What an irony! He asked to go into the herd of swine! “Lord”, he says, “permit us.” Permit us! He does not even have the right to go into the pigs. You see, from being the highest-in-rank in the Earthly realm, he ended up having to ask to go into the pigs. It is a demotion. This is why Saint Gregory the Theologian says, in his First Theological Oration, in the fifth paragraph (and pay close attention to this):
Let us philosophize (philosophize means to theologize) within our proper bounds, and not from where we are carried away to in Egypt, nor from where we are swept down to in Assyria (4 Kg. 18:11-12 (2 Kg.)), nor should we sing a hymn of the Lord in a foreign land.
What does he wish to say by this? You know that the Hebrews, because they overstepped their bounds – they were commanded not to worship idols – God also allowed them to go away from the borders of their homeland. One time they were drawn away into Egypt, another time they were drawn away by the Assyrians, and another time they were led away by the Babylonians, about which they said:
How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land (in Babylon). (Psalm 136:4)
Why couldn’t this people sing in a foreign land? Because they had gone outside their bounds. And now Saint Gregory says,
Let us also not go out so that whatever happened to them will not happen to us.
And what could this be? Can you philosophize when you do not have theology? The ancient world did not have theology. You may philosophize, but according to your abilities. Can you theologize? According to your abilities. Not very high, not very much. Because you will go outside and really find yourself in strange places. We see this in the field of philosophy, foolish things. What did Sartre say: “What is the destiny of man?” he says, “Death. From nothing to nothing.” What does a theologian who oversteps his bounds become? A heretic. Heresy is nothing more than overstepping the bounds of theology. But how does he overstep? As the man wants, so he understands. So then, let us be careful.
This is why he says: They are standing outside our bounds. We will stay within our bounds. You know, it’s a matter of the mind, the pride of the mind, for man to want to overstep his bounds. This is why holy St. John Chrysostom, interpreting the behavior and calamity of Eve, says, “She did not uphold the family bounds”, and ended up having to submit to the man. She did not stay inside her bounds, but arrived at overstepping her bounds, and ended up being subjected to the man. God, at first, did not make Eve subject to the man. Now He subjects her to the man.
But the modern woman also, for a second time, after what happened to Eve, attempts to go beyond the bounds of her household, and developed what we call “feminism”. Feminism is nothing more than what she thinks is giving her prestige, when, in reality, she is tearing herself down. Yes. I do not have time to explain much. This became perceptible. The woman began to understand that feminism was degrading her. Yes, degraded. “While it goes for wool, it comes out with a haircut,” says the old folk proverb. The woman is degraded. Already in Europe, in France in particular, the women are saying: “What are we doing?” And as Saint John Chrysostom says about Eve, but also about every woman of every age: They learned through their experience, not so much by destructive counsel (the counsel of the devil, to overstep her bounds).
The Apostle Paul wants for the woman, when she prays in church, to cover her head, to wear a veil. Do you know why? Because he considers it to be a symbol of a woman’s subjection to the man, and if we retain the symbol, we will not lose the reality. By throwing out the symbol, we lose the reality.
One time, in Paradise, my beloved, a man, leaving his personal bounds, went out from Paradise. But now, out of love, the Word of God comes to seek the man who is outside his bounds. And the man whom we saw among the Gergesenes, says, instead: “I came out of my mountains, and You came to put me back in?” (like the shepherd who lost a sheep, which had left the bounds of its fold, who takes it back to the mountains); the wretched man says, “No. I want to be outside my bounds. Please. I want to go outside my bounds.”
Now do you now understand the significance of this gospel passage? “Get out of my borders. I do not want You.” The result is that God leaves, so the man drives God out of his life and ends up going outside the bounds of his own life. By exiling God, the wretched man exiles himself; distanced from God, he is alienated.
Moreover, he also goes beyond the limits of his bodily endurance, from sports to everyday life. (If you were to only hear what athletes go through in order for them to have a gain, which is the destruction of the body… they go beyond the limits of what the human body can endure. I do not have time to give you examples.)
Moreover, he goes beyond his financial strength. And what happens? He goes bankrupt. He goes beyond his talent, and he thinks he is something. And he is ridiculed, because he goes beyond his bounds.
Beloved, man forgets that he finds himself between two thresholds which he can never go beyond: space and time. He will never be able to go beyond these two. He will, however, go beyond them, but not on his own. God Himself will remove him from inside time and space (because God established these) when he will put man in the Kingdom of God. For now, however, he is not able to go beyond space or time. Neither should I be put in cold storage and remain frozen at 192 degrees below zero, in case some years down the line Science finds some way to resurrect me. Do you see? We are constantly trying to go outside our bounds…
Moreover, the bounds of the Ecumenical and local Synods, the Canons, are nothing but rules which limit a situation; when they are overstepped altogether you have disorder. When the Church oversteps its rules, the Canons, it has disorder. One can see this quite clearly in our era, and in every era. The dogmas of the Synods, then, safeguard the boundaries of our nature! They do not allow us go beyond our nature, and the humbling of the intellect is that which, at every moment, will prevent us from overstepping our bounds. Let us say: “Stop! Up to here, no further!”
But also simplicity of life, from a practical standpoint, will never allow unlimited research in Technology and in Science, as the verse of Psalm 16 [points out those who overstep]:
“…and [in the lifetime] of Your hidden ones [the audio recording ends here. –tr]; their belly is filled”… (16:14).
THE END – TO GOD BE THE GLORY
Translated from the original Greek by Anthony Hatzidakis, July 26, 2024. The source text utilized for this homily translation was taken from a post on Aktines, July 7, 2023. The Greek text was transcribed by the honorable Mr. Athanasios K. and converted to computer text and edited by Ms. Eleni Linardaki, philologist. The original audio we consulted for this translation can be found at arnion.com. All emphases are the translator’s.
- (3 Kgs. 11:4-9) For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ash’toreth the goddess of the Sido’nians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. (RSV)
Blessed Abba Philimon: “For Solomon,” Abba Philimon said, “had received such wisdom and been so glorified by men that he was like the morning-star and illumined all with the splendor of his wisdom; yet for the sake of a little sensual pleasure he lost that glory.” (Philokalia, vol. 2)
St. Peter Damascene: “For of what use is it to possess all knowledge, or, rather, to receive it from God by grace, as did Solomon, and there will never be another man like him – and yet go into agelong punishment?” (Philokalia, vol. 3, Book 1, “A Treasury of Divine Knowledge”)
- St. John Damascene, Exact Exposition, Chapter 4. “Concerning the devil and demons.”
- O Lord, separate the few from their portion in their lifetime,
and in the lifetime of Your hidden ones;
their belly is filled, their sons are stuffed,
and they leave the leftovers to their immature children. (16:14)[our working translation]