THE MUTE AND DEAF SPIRIT AND THE NEW GENERATION

Today, my beloved, the Church has led us to the fourth Sunday of Lent. On this Sunday is placed before us the person of Saint John of the Ladder, author of the book The Ladder, to remind us that we must climb the ladder of the virtues step by step. Really, does Great Lent become a ladder of ascent? Or do we only keep the customary fast, by which, many times, we cultivate a hidden pride? …

Moreover, our Church places before us the Gospel passage about the healing of a demon-possessed youth which took place immediately after our Lord’s descent from Mt. Tabor after the Transfiguration, and the wretched father of his demon-possessed child says to the Lord: “Teacher, I have brought my son to you; he has a mute spirit, and wherever it seizes him it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes unconscious.” This is a frightful description of a person who is demon-possessed, and a young person at that. But at the same time it is the story of a parent, a despairing parent who suffers on account of his demon-possessed child. But let us take a closer look at these two tragic figures.

The child, the young man, had a demon; its behavior made him mute and deaf; he neither heard nor spoke – not that he couldn’t hear or speak, just when he was possessed. From his behavior we discern how the demon behaves, and we name the demon after its behavior. This story might seem to be a rare case, but it is not. To the contrary, this also appears in harsher forms, when it refers not simply to a condition of muteness or deafness, but to something far, far worse, as we will see later, which is happening in our day.

We see that our children today, a great many of them, are being controlled by Satan. This does not surprise us. Just as there were many who were demon-possessed in Christ’s day, so also in our day there are, unfortunately, many young people – especially young people – who are demon-possessed, and they are controlled by Satan. This happens, primarily, because they misuse their freedom. The word of God says:

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (NIV) (Be careful, however, because the freedom which Christ gave us by nature, but also the freedom which He gave us with the grace He brought into the world with His coming, must not be an opportunity to live a carnal life). (Gal. 5:13)

Unfortunately, despite the clarity the word of God gives us here, very many young people – many many people, young and old, view freedom as irresponsibility, and of course, to be precise, an opportunity to live a carnal life. They, of course, try in every way to defend themselves in favor of this “right” of theirs, their freedom, so they can do whatever they want, to live a carnal life. From this understanding of freedom, however, cruelty is born. When there is lawlessness, cruelty is born, the anarchism, the trampling of every authority there is, even the Church of God.

The freedom of the first formed was for them to say “No” to the evil – not to make a choice between the devil and God – it was not to choose – but to say an emphatic “No” to the devil. This is the essence of freedom.1 This great subject of freedom, which characterizes man, and our understanding of this freedom, is of tremendous importance.

A second reason why our young people are demonically possessed today, why they are controlled by Satan, is because they misuse logic. Logic, we all know, is the governing mind which governs a man. We say in Psalm 50, and ask: “…and with a governing spirit (the mind) establish me” (50:14). Logic has unfortunately deteriorated in many of our young people, in the younger generation; it has deteriorated into rationalism, because they have become sick, and rationalism is a sickness of the mind, wanting to accept only whatever it understands, and whatever it does not understand it does not accept. This is precisely why rationalism rejects faith.

Such a logic, however, is demonic. It is a logic which cannot understand that for which it was created – to perceive God. This logic serves inferior things, things unworthy of it, and not higher aims and, moreover, salvation. The mind does not rise upward, but is led downward. Consequently, when we have a mind such as this, such a logic, how is it possible for us not to give Satan an opportunity to take possession of us? With this impoverished mind, a man does not think about God even though he should think about God. This is why he was given logic. He does not think about God, but about earthly, worthless, shallow and trivial things.

A third reason why our young people today are controlled by the devil is because they misuse their bodies. They think their bodies belong to them. Holy Scripture, however, tells us: “They are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19). The Apostle Paul is speaking about the body here, which people give over to immorality. He says: “You are a temple of the Holy Spirit and you are not your own.” The Spirit of God makes our body His dwelling because He owns our body; it is His temple. This is how it is. Instead of being a temple of the Holy Spirit, our body is changed, by sexual immorality primarily, into a den of robbers and demons.

There are also all of those hedonistic things, gluttony, alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs which are so prevalent in our day, which literally change the body of a man, especially a young man, into a dwelling place of demons, instead of being a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. What a pity. This is how the human body becomes a wreck, useless to the one who bears it. Such a person becomes one who is no longer able to think, work, make a family, study – nothing! nothing! – he becomes a rat’s burden, a load of clay.2

After our children are controlled by Satan, my beloved, the demon enters, the mute and deaf one. There are various kinds of demons, each having a particular specialty, which they use to attack a man. It is not without purpose that Scripture records the Lord Himself as saying, “You mute and deaf spirit”, or other characterizations analogous to the kind that is attacking the human being. So the demon, the mute and deaf one, enters the body of a man such as this and stays inside it, and in his soul, and it changes the young man into a mute and deaf being.

Today, of course, with the presence of television, the number of these cases has decreased, but what I will mention now is no less demonic possession: the reduction of our young people’s vocabulary… It has become very poor… Our young people do not talk to each other any more, they do not use the wonderful God-given ability to articulate – they grunt! Mm.mm.mm. …

Moreover, they have also stopped talking about God. The deaf and dumb spirit does not permit them to talk about God. They concern themselves with anything else but God. They do not pray. They do not discuss spiritual topics. Many of our young people have reached the point of forgetting God altogether. They have forgotten God – how sad – and they have entered the land of atheism, some into organized atheism.

On the other hand, Satanism is celebrated. Why not? For the single fact that widespread Satanism exists in our day, from music, which becomes a vehicle of Satanism (and not a few young people are demonically possessed from music), to acts and ritual worship of Satan, I ask: Can we not have our youths demonically possessed today?

Our children, possessed by the deaf demon, are also not permitted to hear. In what way? They will not accept whatever good exhortation it may be, whether from parents or from teachers.They do not recognize any authority at all. They are autonomous, demonically autonomous. Whatever the devil has, he imparts. This is why the devil [Lucifer] became the devil. He sought autonomy. So he offers it to humans in order for them to depart from God, in the name one’s “freedom”. How tragic.

They do not want to listen to the Gospel. They do not want to listen to the Divine Liturgy. They are dizzied or bored, they say, when they attend Liturgy. They go in and quickly go out. They cannot stay. Why, I wonder? What is happening? Why doesn’t this happen to them at other places? And why do they suffer this especially at Liturgy? The deaf spirit will not allow them listen to the Divine Liturgy, that they might be sanctified and saved. They never want to hear any good exhortation because they consider it established, obsolete, stale, old, outdated, old-fashioned…

And what might be the results of such a demonic possession? That wretched father enumerates them to the Lord, about his demon-possessed son, and says: “Sir, when it seizes him, it throws him to the ground.” He falls to the ground. Our youths also fall down, over and over, and they go over one cliff after another, and no one can help them, because they do not want to listen in order to be helped. It is known that a person can only be helped when he accepts the help, even medical help. The doctor cannot intervene. Unless you accept the treatment, he cannot treat you. Much more so with spiritual matters. The demon does not let him accept the help.

A second characteristic of this young man is that he foams at the mouth. … We see this today when young people go to soccer stadiums. What happens there? Let’s just say it’s not a good place for anyone to go. It is a frenzied place, as Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says (in his day it was the Hippodrome; today’s equivalent is the soccer stadium). Even if someone wanted to go, they are afraid to because of the frenzy and violence in these places today. So then, they foam, literally. …

A third characteristic which that wretched father tells the Lord is that his son grinds his teeth: “Sir, my child grinds his teeth.” Do you know what this is a metaphor for? The politicization and party spirit of our youth, the anarchy, etc., which makes them gnash their teeth at others. They view others as adversaries, whether at school, in their neighborhood, on the street – everywhere – and they gnash their teeth at them.

A fourth characteristic. “My child becomes rigid”, he says, and he said something else, that he sometimes throws himself into fire and sometimes into water – a suicidal tendency, in other words. (Do you know, from one statistic (and this is not the only one), in our day, here in Greece, do you know how much suicides have increased (and certainly among our youths who are soldiers)? What does this show? Does this not show a demonic possession?) So, he becomes rigid. This phenomenon has happened many times in history; it is known. Our youths become paralyzed, in their mind, in their heart and in their conscience.

And the parent too. What can we say about this parent? When this parent, the father, was asked by the Lord, “How long has the youth been suffering this?”, he answered, “From childhood.” What does this tell us? For the past three years (because this took place, I told you, after the Lord’s Transfiguration, shortly before His Passion), hadn’t this father heard about the Lord?3 Why hadn’t he taken his child? This is why the Lord said: “O faithless generation”, because the father was, of course, showing contempt toward the Lord when he said to Him: “If you can.” (“If I can?” The question is not whether I can, but whether you believe). It is clear that this father hadn’t taken his child to the Lord for three years because he lacked faith.

When parents do not give their children a Christian upbringing, when they do not encourage them to go to church, when they do not make sure that they pray in the morning and in the evening, and then they don’t do these things, and then they get married and have children and their children also do not pray in the morning, what do you expect? They were not encouraged to confess, to receive Holy Communion, to be pious. This here is the enormous responsibility of the generation of parents and grandparents, because grandparents also, in many cases, do not set a good example and create the necessary conditions to lead the new generation to Christ.

Beloved, are you waiting for me to mention the treatment? Shall I tell you about treatment? There is only one medicine – Christ. He is the medicine. He alone said to the demon, addressing the child: “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you (Who? I do. Not someone else. I command you), come out of him and do not enter him again.”

But why do we talk about treatment and not about prevention? Why not instill a Christian formation from infancy, at that time? Does our child need to get sick, to become demonically possessed, in order for us to run here and there for help? And when of course we see that we have not succeeded in important things or in anything, why does unfaithfulness nest within us? The proof? We go knocking on other doors – the doors of the magician, the card reader, the coffee ground reader, the psychic, etc.

I wonder, those of you who heard today’s gospel passage, who among you will think seriously? Let us not say that these thoughts are for others, because you, the parent, do not know what your child will encounter tomorrow. So if something bad happens to him, do not say it was bad timing. There is no bad timing. The demon encounters your child because you did not teach him to fight against Satan.

Today, then, from this day forward, lead your child to Christ. The best and most correct leadership for you, the parent, is for you to become a proper and fervent Christian. Take your child and go to Christ. You will take your child because you have also found Christ. When doing so, have hope – not certainty (our days are evil) – have hope, not just to see children being set free from the deaf and dumb demon, but also hope to see children in the Grace of God, basking in the light of Christ.

Notes

1. “True freedom is not to be able to do good or evil, but to be able to recognize evil and naturally avoid it, and to always do what is good naturally and spontaneously.” See Jesus: Fallen? page 136, Chp. IV, About wills.
2. άχθος αρούρης – (Google translated, slightly edited) Achthos arouris is a Homeric expression (Iliad S 104) and means “a load of earth”. Achilles, in the dialogue with his mother, mentions that he feels achthos arouris (a load of earth) after a long period of inactivity and abstention from battle. Today this phrase is used to describe a worthless, useless person. For example, he constantly asks for loans to secure the necessities and becomes a burden to the rat.” (https://e-didaskalia.blogspot.com Apostolis Zimvragakis, Philologist)
3. …Who was curing people and working miracles left and right.

THE END – TO THE GLORY OF THE HOLY AND TRIUNE GOD