Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Fr. Yuriy Tychenok on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
July 27, 2024
In today’s Gospel, Jesus Christ reveals to us two things that the devil cannot resist: fasting and prayer. It is these two things that drive the evil spirit out of the human body and heart. Fasting and prayer ignite this spark in our hearts, and as a result, the devil becomes powerless.
The most dangerous enemies that we face, are not only external ones, but also internal ones, as they live within us, pretending to be our friends, they enter our trust and imperceptibly cause great harm to us. In order to rid ourselves of such enemies, we must first identify them.
Various weapons are used in the fight against external enemies, the most powerful of which is the bomb. Today, there are many different varieties of bombs. They differ in size and degree of damage, depending upon their construction and componentry. However, the explosion of any bomb begins with one small flash, one spark that ignites the entire structure and destroys everything around it.
Each person is also uniquely constructed, consisting of a body, mind and soul. The condition of our body — depends on what and how we eat, exercise, care… Our intellectual level — depends on what we are interested in and with whom we associate and communicate with. But the state of our soul — depends on what we let into our heart.
The greatest danger for each of us is the evil spirit, which, through deception and all kinds of temptations, tries to penetrate the human heart, in order to destroy the body, psyche and soul.
In the fight against this invisible and cunning enemy, no firearm will help, but in today’s Gospel, Jesus Christ reveals to us two things that the devil cannot resist — fasting and prayer. It is these two things, that drive the evil spirit out of the human body and heart. Fasting and prayer ignite this spark in our heart and as a result of which, the devil becomes powerless.
The whole problem is that the evil spirit knows this, and therefore tries in every way to distance us from prayer and fasting. He gives us so many activities, distractions and entertainments, that we have very little time for prayer. He tempts us with enticing goodies, that we find hard to resist, and then whispers into our ear, that abstinence from food is not so important.
Today, the whole world fears a global nuclear war. For the sake of tranquillity and peace in their country, many countries of the world agree to remain silent and patiently endure manifestations of inhuman aggression, injustice, humiliation, deception…, they strengthen their own troops and develop new and more powerful weapons. This behaviour allows the devil to get inside, ignite the spark of evil in their hearts, and destroy them. And this is another plan of the devil, which millions of people are successfully led.
The same Jesus who cast out the evil spirit from the young man in today’s Gospel can help each of us. The only thing that the Son of God requires from people is faith in God. Let us try in our sincere prayers, to reveal to the Lord all the evil that the devil has planted in our hearts, and, by strict fasting not to give the evil spirit any opportunity to rule over us. Only when our faith begins to grow, the Lord can light a spark of goodness in our heart, which will destroy all visible and invisible enemies in our life. Amen!
