The Courtesy of Exclusiontranslated

Sermon on the Gospel passage Luke (n´ 27-39)

By Bishop Melitini Maximos

The land of the Gadarenes stretched opposite Galilee, on the other side of the lake, in a corner where pigs were raised and no Jew would stand as if in his own house. Jesus sets foot on land and is met by someone from the city, someone who had long since been written off by his fellow citizens. He wore no clothes and had no home, he lived in the tombs, a wreck of his own flesh. The Evangelist Luke records that they bound him with chains and fetters and kept him under guard, but he broke the irons and the demon drove him out into the wilderness (Lk. 8, 29). Whose hands were, the evangelist does not reveal, nor was it necessary here. Who else could but his own? Most of the time, aren't those close to us the ones who chain us? Neighbors, relatives, the leaders of the place, persons of "order" and "ethics".

One day they decided that this man had become a problem, and they got rid of him without remorse. Ancient stuff, and we know it better than we care to admit. Anyone who does not obey the way we used to live,…