Prologue in Sermons: September 11

Weapons Against the Wiles of the Devil

September 11

(A Story from the "Paterikon" about Agathon: How He Cast Out Demons With Words)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev 

The word of God commands us to guard ourselves vigilantly from demonic temptations, so that the enemy does not suddenly attack us and destroy us. "Be sober, be vigilant," says the Holy Apostle Peter, "for your adversary the devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Impiety, superstition, all kinds of delusions, malice, debauchery and other sins, all this is not the work of our will alone, but also of demonic instigation. Fortunately, we are not defenseless against the wiles of the devil, we have been given reliable weapons to fight them. What kind of weapons are these?

First, fasting and prayer. Once a man came to Jesus Christ and, kneeling before Him, said: "Lord! have mercy on my son! He is possessed by a demon at the new moon and suffers greatly, for he often throws himself into the fire, and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him." And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy. Then the disciples, coming to the Savior alone, said: "Why could not we cast him out?" The Savior said to them: “Because of your unbelief,” and then added: “This kind comes out only by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:14-21).

Second, the sign of the cross. Once the Venerable Anthony the Great, arguing with demons, said: “If you can do anything to me, do it; if you cannot, then why labor in vain? The sign of the cross and faith in God are an insurmountable wall for me.” The same Holy Father once taught the brethren: “When demons are unable to confuse our thoughts, then they tempt and frighten us with dreams, but they all disappear at the first sign of the cross.” Once the Hieromartyr Cyprian asked the demon: “With what weapon are you hindered and what weakens your strength?” The demon answered: “We cannot look at the sign of the cross, but we flee from it; like fire, it scorches us and drives us far from itself.” That is why the Holy Father Cyril of Jerusalem also urges us to protect ourselves with the sign of the cross constantly. “Let us depict it,” he says, “on the forehead and on everything: on the bread that we eat, on the cups from which we drink; let us depict it at entrances, at exits; when we lie down to sleep and rise; when we are on the road and rest. It is a sign for the faithful and a fear for evil spirits” ("Catechetical Instruction" 8, 36).

The third weapon against the devil is the God-loving virtue of humility. Once the Greeks brought a demoniac to the Venerable Agathon and asked him to heal him. The Elder said to the demon: "Get out of God's creation." The demon answered: "I will, but allow me to ask you one thing: who are the righteous and who are the sinners?" The Venerable One said: "I am a sinner, but as to who is righteous, only God knows." Hearing this, the demon cried out in a loud voice: "Behold, I am coming out for your humility!" And he immediately came out ("Prologue", September 11).

The fourth weapon is diligence. “When the embers,” says the Venerable Pimen the Great, “are boiling, set on fire from below, then neither a fly nor any other insect dares to touch it; but when it cools, then both flies and all insects settle on it; so the enemy of the human race does not dare approach a man who is diligent in honest pursuits. But he deposes without any effort him who lives in negligence and laziness” (Aug. 27).

The fifth weapon against demons can be the reverent reading of the word of God, especially the Gospel and the Psalter. The great John Chrysostom was asked by his brethren: “Is it good to put aside the Psalter?” He replied: “It is better for the sun to cease from its course than to leave the Psalter. For it is very useful to study the Psalms and to read the Psalter diligently. For all books are useful to us, and they create sorrow for demons, but not like the Psalter, for this reason let us not neglect it.” Furthermore, in the tale of Augustine he taught regarding the power of the Psalms, where he stated: "The singing of psalms adorns the soul, calls upon angels for assistance, drives away demons, dispels darkness, and works sanctity... shames the devil and reveals God." One of the Holy Fathers, when he asked a demon what he feared most, received this answer: "We are most afraid when Christians recite Psalm 67: 'Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered.'"

Finally, a powerful weapon against demons is fervent prayer to the Holy Archangel Michael. As a champion of God's glory, he still wages war with the devil and never ceases to strike him. And so we must ask him to strike the internal corrupting serpent in us and cast it out.

Therefore, brethren, remembering that "our adversary the devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" ( 1 Peter 5:8 ), put on the whole armor of God, so that you may always be ready to stand against the wiles of the devil (Eph. 6:11). Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.