February: Day 1: Holy Martyr Tryphon

February: Day 1: Holy Martyr Tryphon
 
(On the Means of Fighting the Devil)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Tryphon, whose memory is celebrated today, at a young age, by the power of God’s grace, healed illnesses and cast out demons.

The Roman Emperor Gordian, from whose daughter Saint Tryphon had cast out a demon, wished to see the exorcised demon in some sensible form. The Holy Martyr Tryphon, yielding to his command, actually summoned the demon, and everyone saw him in the form of a black dog with fiery eyes.

Saint Tryphon asked the demon: “Who sent you to the maiden?” The demon answered: “The father, the head of all evil, who sits in hell.” Sait Tryphon asked again: “Who gave you such power?” The demon answered: “We have no power over those who know God and believe in the only begotten Son of God; only by God’s permission do we inflict light temptations on them. But we have complete power over those who do not believe in God, who walk in their lusts and do what pleases us. The deeds that please us are: idolatry, blasphemy, fornication, envy, murder, love of money, pride and other vices. These people are entangled in sins as in nets; they are our friends, and the same fate awaits them with us.”

II. From this remarkable story, Christ-loving brethren and pious visitors of this holy temple, we can draw the conclusion that the devil, our first and most powerful enemy, is especially terrible in his destructive influence for those Christians who, bearing the name of Christian, do not do the deeds required by their high calling - for those who, although baptized in Christ, were not clothed in faith and love, nor in other Christian virtues.

And since we are all sinners before God, it is very useful for us to talk at this time about the means of fighting the devil.

The devil, like a roaring lion, walks around looking to devour us. To fight him, we must use all of God's weapons. What are these weapons?

a) The first means is the invocation of the name of God. "In My name shall the demons be driven out" (Mark 16:17), said the Lord. "At the name of Jesus, hell trembles, the pit shakes, the prince of darkness disappears. This name is a powerful weapon against the adversaries," says Saint John Climacus (Step 21). "Always beat the warriors in the name of Jesus, for you will not find a stronger weapon than this either in heaven or on earth." Abba Elijah relates the following story: an old man lived in an idol temple. One day demons came to him and said: "Get out of our place!" The old man did not want to come out. The demon grabbed him by the hand and dragged him out of the temple by force. When the old man approached the doors, grabbed them and cried out: "Jesus, help!" the demon immediately disappeared.

b) The second means is the life-giving cross of Christ. “You have given us Your cross, O Lord, as a weapon against the devil,” sings the Holy Church. Even the demons themselves involuntarily admit that the sign of the cross “binds them, burns them like fire, and drives them far away” (Life of Cyprian and Justina, October 8, Life of Barlaam and Joasaph, November 19). The devil once appeared to the Venerable Symeon the Stylite in a magnificent chariot, in the form of a bright angel, and said: “Listen, Symeon! God has sent me to you with a chariot and horses to take you to heaven, like Elijah; for you are worthy of this.” Symeon went to step onto this imaginary chariot with his right foot, but first he made the sign of the cross, and the devil, in the blink of an eye, disappeared with the chariot (Life of Saint Symeon the Stylite, September 1). The Venerable Theodora and other saints also drove away demons with the sign of the cross (September 11, Life of Saint Pelagius, October 8, Life of Saint Gregory, November 17). But so that this invincible, incomprehensible, divine power of the honorable and life-giving cross does not leave us sinners, for this we must use the sign of the cross not simply out of habit, not with negligence, as we often do, and therefore lose the power of the cross, but with full awareness of the power and importance of the holy cross, with fear and reverence, with heartfelt and firm faith in the merits of Christ on the cross and with the remembrance of the passion of Christ. “One must not simply depict the cross with just the fingers,” says Saint Chrysostom, “but first inscribe it in thought, with all faith ... with the remembrance of the whole power of the cross, the whole work of the cross” (Homily 44 on Matthew).

c) The third weapon against demons is prayer and fasting. Christ the Savior once said: "An unclean spirit cannot come out except through prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29). “He who prays with fasting,” teaches Saint Chrysostom, “has two wings, lighter than the wind itself; he is faster than fire and higher than the earth; that is why such a person is especially an enemy and fighter against demons, since there is no stronger man than one who sincerely prays and fasts.”

And Saint Basil the Great teaches about the power of fasting: “Fasting is a reliable protection for the soul, a weapon for those at war, it drives away temptations” (Homily 13). The devil made frequent attacks on the Holy Martyr Justina, but he could not defeat the righteous one. Once she stood at prayer and during prayer she felt in her heart an influx of unclean, lawless desires; the Saint was surprised at such a sinful movement within herself and was ashamed of such impurity; but the wise Justina soon understood that this temptation came to her from the devil: she began to fast and pray to the Lord God, and with her prayers and fasting she shamed and defeated the enemy (October 2).

d) The fourth means of our struggle and victory over the devil is humility. The devil himself once confessed to Saint Anthony that he, i.e. Saint Anthony, conquered him by humility alone (January 19). "When Saint Anthony, seeing all the devil's snares spread out," writes Saint Dorotheos, "sighed and asked God: 'Who will escape them?' then he received the answer: 'Humility escapes them'" (Instruction on Humility). Once the devil appeared to a certain hermit, in the form of a bright angel, and said to him: "I am Gabriel and was sent to you by God." The hermit objected to him: "Look, maybe you were sent to someone else; I am not worthy of seeing angels, as a sinful man." At these words the devil immediately disappeared. Humility is hateful to the devil, because it places the Christian on the very path that the author of our salvation, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, walked.

d) Finally, for a successful fight against the enemies of our salvation, a Christian must, firstly, take up the shield of faith, i.e. have a firm and unshakable conviction in the holiness, truth and immutability of everything revealed to us by God, or “a childlike confidence in God, so closely united with Him that it does not separate itself from Him and Him from itself, which is why it is omnipotent; for God Himself is the one who acts in it, Who gives it;” secondly, take up the helmet (the strongest covering of the head on all sides) of salvation, i.e. “union with the Lord Savior in the mysteries, namely, through frequent confession and communion;” and thirdly, the spiritual sword, which is the word of God (Eph. 6:11, 14-17), i.e. the divinely revealed word. “To receive such a sword means to know by heart the Divine sayings, and at the right time to bring them out of the heart, in defiance of the devil’s suggestions, to read aloud the sayings of the word of God against every passion” (Bishop Theophan the Recluse). Especially the words of Psalm 67: “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered,” as the experiences of spiritual life show, produce an amazingly rapid effect on the enemies of our salvation, who with the speed of lightning disappeared from those Christians who pronounced them with faith and reverence. Saint Basil says that when the holy men asked the devil who appeared to them what prayer the demons were especially afraid of, the devil answered them: “There is no word so terrible and drives us away as the beginning of Psalm 67 of David.” And indeed, as soon as the holy men pronounced the opening words of this Psalm: “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered” – the devil immediately disappeared from them with a cry.

III. Here is all the armor against the principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places! But resist the devil, brethren, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). May the Lord help us to be delivered from the snares of the evil one through the prayers of the Holy Martyr and Wonderworker Tryphon, who was terrible to demons even during his life and after his martyrdom for Christ is the same. Amen. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.