Beware of Counter-Attack

About Bishop St. Theophane the Recluse

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July 11 (24)

Rom. 15:7-16; Mt. 12:38-45

Anyone who lives in sin without repentance is a home for a daemon. The daemon takes full charge over that man, like over his own house. But when, by the grace of the Lord, such a man comes to regretting his sins, repents and stops sinning, — then the daemon is forced out of him.

At first the daemon would not disturb the repentant sinner, for there is a lot of zeal in his soul which burns the evil spirits like fire and strikes them like arrows. But after a while, when his zeal begins to wane, the daemon would come back, and, standing at a distance, would throw in his wicked suggestions and recollections of past pleasures. If the man is off guard, he will quickly move from mere interest to renewed desire for sin; if he doesn’t stop at this point either, if he doesn’t sober up again, — then his fall is a matter of time.

Desire begets inclination and readiness for sin, so that internally the sin is already present, and only an opportunity is needed for the external action. As soon as it is found, the sin is in fact committed, and with that the daemon re-enters into the soul and drives the man from one sin to another with much greater speed and ferocity than before. That’s exactly what the Lord has shown in His parable about the daemon retumiing into the clean-swept house [Mt. 12:43-45].

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