In today’s Gospel reading, Christ confronts evil, encountering two possessed men. Fr. Micah today addresses the qualities of evil as well as its antidotes.
First, Fr. Micah discusses the root of evil — self-love. Each sin we commit is born of self-love and has a certain selfishness to it. This evil only increases, becoming self-preservation, preservation of the ego. We justify our own evil, making excuses for our sins. This evil then becomes destruction — destruction of the self and of others. We see this in the Gospel reading, when the demons, in their self-preservation, ask to go into the herd of swine. Immediately, the swine throw themselves into the abyss.
This evil — which begins with self-love, becomes self-preservation, and eventually, self-destruction — has antidotes, which are exemplified in the life of Christ. The antidote to self-love is the love of the other, the antidote to self-preservation is humility, and the antidote to self-destruction is self-sacrifice. Christ shows us the perfection of this love, this humility, and this self-sacrifice. May we follow his example, following him on the path that leads to life everlasting.
