Our Humility Is Especially Unbearable to Demons
April 17
(A saying from the Paterikon on humility, which conquers all the power of the devil.)
April 17
(A saying from the Paterikon on humility, which conquers all the power of the devil.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
Our humility is especially unbearable to demons and hateful to them. We will prove this to you by the following two examples.
Two blood-brother monks lived together, and they lived in perfect love. The devil envied this and wanted to separate them. And so, when the younger brother lit a candle and placed it on the candlestick, the devil extinguished the lamp and knocked it down. The elder brother, thinking that his younger brother had done this, beat him, and with great anger.
The younger bowed to the ground before him and asked forgiveness. “Brother,” he said, “wait a little, and I will light the candle for you at once.”
But the invisible power of God terribly tormented the demon until morning. When he was freed from the torment, he told everything to Satan. All this was heard by a pagan priest who happened to be there. Soon after this he became a monk and became humble, saying to everyone:
“Humility destroys all the power of the enemy, for I myself heard the words of the demons.”
And if a monk humbles himself and bows to the ground, by this he destroys all the power of the enemy.
Another example:
Once pagans brought to the Venerable Agathon of Egypt a man possessed by a demon and asked him to heal him. The elder said to the demon:
“Come out of the creation of God!”
The demon answered:
“I will come out, only allow me to ask you: who are the righteous, and who are the sinners?”
The Venerable one said:
“I am a sinner, and who is righteous, God alone knows.”
Hearing this, the demon cried out with a loud voice:
“Behold, because of your humility I come out!”
And immediately he came out. (Prologue, Sept. 11)
Seeing from this how unbearable to the enemy of our salvation is the virtue of humility, hold fast to it, brethren. For the Lord Himself also conquered the devil through humility, humbling Himself unto death, even the death of the Cross.
Therefore, as it is said afterward, “God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name.”
That is, the Lord received complete victory over the enemy of our salvation.
Be humble, I repeat, and the devil will flee from you, for you yourselves have now seen that the devil cannot endure humility. By it he is always defeated, and it drives him far away from itself. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
