Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Fr. Andriy Mykytyuk on the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
November 15, 2025
Today, as we hear this Gospel about the herd of pigs and the legion of demons, let us ask ourselves: Are we ready to place God first in our lives? Are we ready, for His sake, to let go of certain privileges, values, economic advantages, or social positions? Is being with God, at His feet, the most important thing for us?
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Beloved in Christ,
On this Sunday we once again hear the Gospel, in which Christ speaks to us and calls us to make our choice. We have heard the Gospel, which people often refer to as “the one about the pigs”: about the possessed man from whom the demons are cast out, entering a herd of pigs that rush down the steep bank and drown. This story is very familiar to us from childhood because it settles easily and vividly in our minds.
We also hear this passage twice during the Sunday readings this year. One might wonder: what new can we possibly hear? Yet there is something new every time, because the Word of God is living; it acts, and it calls us to act as well. The first thing that strikes us is this: when Christ is walking through that land and the possessed man comes out to meet Him, the demons begin to cry out, “Why are you tormenting us? What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of David?”
Christ did not torment anyone; He did not punish anyone — He simply walked. But we see how the power of evil cannot endure the presence of God. When God approaches, all evil flees. This is a guarantee for us that the only way to change this world is to do good. When there is goodness, there is no place for evil. When God is present, the evil one cannot remain there. And so Christ, by His example, shows us that when we stay close to Him, evil cannot harm us.
However, distancing ourselves from Him allows evil to infiltrate our lives, leading to various consequences. We see another moment in the Gospel: the people who lived in that region had simply accepted the presence of that possessed man, who caused them much harm. Looking at our own lives, we often realise that we too grow accustomed to the circumstances around us. And even when we know that something is wrong, something that should not be the way it is, we often do nothing for the sake of temporary peace.
But Christ does not act this way. Because the human person is precious. Truth is precious. Life is precious. And so He changes the situation. He casts out the demons to heal the man. This act affects everyone around him — and it is meant to affect them for the good.
We then see two reactions to this miracle. Some people, whose ordinary life was disrupted, asked Christ to leave them because they did not want change. And the same often happens in our lives. We come to church, we pray, we deal with our own struggles, yet we do not want change for the better because it disrupts our routine. Especially when such change may cost us something — just as those people lost their pigs and thus suffered financial loss.
Often, when we stand before the choice between good and evil, we look first at our own benefit. And if benefit requires us to tolerate evil or even to commit evil, we behave like those people. We say to Christ, “Stay aside; I will come to You on Sunday, but today I will act according to what is convenient for me.”
On the other hand, we see the man whom Christ healed — a man who wanted to stay with Christ always, to bear witness to what had happened to him. But Christ says to him, “Do not stay with Me; go and tell everyone,” because this is our mission. In our lives we are to experience the presence of God and be able to share that experience with others.
So today, as we hear this Gospel about the herd of pigs and the legion of demons, let us ask ourselves: Are we ready to place God first in our lives? Are we ready, for His sake, to let go of certain privileges, values, economic advantages, or social positions? Is being with God, at His feet, the most important thing for us?
If it is, then let us strive to bear witness to this through our words, our deeds, and our way of life. For in this way, evil will flee. It will have no place in this world.
