Metropolitan Anthony - On Healing

In today's Gospel we hear about two occasions on which Christ healed the sick. And we may ask ourselves, 'Why didn't He heal everyone who was in need of healing?'

Because - this is how I read it - because it is not only the healing of the body that was involved in the miraculous act of God; those were healed in their bodies who were ready, mature to be made whole and not only free from physical illness, who were prepared and capable for being given a wholeness that at the same time made them responsible for the gift of health. The natural life which they have had before was wane; illness was undermining all that nature has given them; the end was death, and here, they met the Living God. The Living God Who had by His word of power, but also by His act of love called them into the existence. And they were prepared, they were inwardly ready to receive a new life. The natural life had come to an end, or was coming to an end, and now, a new life was offered, a life which was a gift of God, and a gift of God that entailed a completely new relationship between them and God, between them and all the surrounding world; a new relationship with themselves, a new attitude to themselves. Those who were healed were prepared to receive new life, for the second time, as it were, to be born by the power of God.

I believe, it is everyone who longed not only for physical healing, not only for a new strength to continue to live according to nature that could be healed. The Lord asks from them two questions; the one which we hear in today's Gospel, and the other one which we hear more than once in other passages. Today we have heard this question, 'Can you believe, do you believe? Do you believe that My compassion extends to you? Do you believe that I can heal you because you have seen in Me, the "I am": the Living God become the Living man? Do you believe that you can be made whole, not only temporarily repaired, but given the wholeness of eternal life now? If you do, however little - you can. ‘I believe, Lord, help my unbelief, my lack of belief!’.. And the Lord said, ‘If you can believe however little - it is possible’...

And the other question was, 'Do you want to be healed?' It seems to us such a strange question: who doesn't?.. Yes, if it was only a matter of being restored to physical health it would be simple; everyone would say 'yes’. But it is wholeness that is at stake; and wholeness means to become a human being in perfect harmony with God, in harmony with one's neighbor, with the created world, restructured inwardly as to be whole.

And this, it is not everyone of us who wishes, because the cost, if we think of it, is great; to accept this wholeness, we must accept a life that would be in the image of the life of Christ: to be among men as He was, with no thought of Himself, ready to accept all humiliation, ready to accept all suffering, all rejection, and humiliate no one, protect oneself against no suffering and reject no one; to receive all brothers without exception as Christ receives us. And who of us can claim that he is worthy of being received, of being recognized by Christ, by God in Him, as His brother or sister?

Let us therefore ask ourselves: Can we answer these two questions? Can I say to the Lord, 'I believe, Lord - help my lack of belief, my inner hesitation born of the experience I have of a broken personality and of a distorted world. Help me believe that wholeness and harmony are possible!..’

But also, let us ask ourselves whether we are prepared to accept new life, wholeness on God's own terms: to remain in this world as Christ lived in it, possessed of sacrificial love, renouncing ourselves, caring only for the other person's salvation, and every other person's life. If we are, then we turn to God and say, I believe, Lord; I open myself to wholeness: I may not achieve it at once, but I will struggle for it, give all my life for it, and serve everyone possessed of Your Own sacrificial love. 

Amen.

One Common Message

 In Matthew Chapter 3 Verse 2, Saint John the Forerunner’s first recorded words are, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

In Matthew Chapter 4 Verse 17, we find our Lord having just defeated Satan and his temptations after 40 days fasting in the wilderness, and our Lord’s first words after this are, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! 

Thus we find two men who have met only once, whose only recorded conversation with one another is John’s expressed reticence in submitting God the Son to his baptism in Jordan, but receiving the command from Christ to do so with these words, Permit it to be for now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.  With this being the only conversation between the greatest born of woman (Mat 11:11) and God in the flesh, isn’t it astounding to find the words so precisely matched?

For those of us who follow the Orthodox Faith, it shouldn’t be surprising at all!

The preaching of the need for repentance is integral to nearly every aspect of our faith.  The teachings of the Holy Fathers are filled with references to the need for repentance.

How many sinful acts we have to grieve for.  For without grief there is no purification. St. Peter of Damascus

Cleanse your mind from anger, remembrance of evil, and shameful thoughts, and then you will find out how Christ dwells in you. St. Maximos the Confessor

If you are afraid of sinners like yourself seeing your sins, how much more should you be afraid of God who notes everything? St. Isaiah the Solitary

These are only three ‘pearls’ - there are countless more.  This is why we encourage all of us to use whatever ‘spare time’ we have to read the Holy Fathers.  You see, their message does not echo exactly what the Forerunner and our Lord said, word for word, but it is clear that the message is contained in their teachings.

And these are things that we know even without study, if the Holy Spirit has not departed from us.  St. Paul makes this eminently clear in his letter to the Romans when he teaches, for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.  (Rom 2:14-15)

 This is no different from when David the King and Psalmist wrote, For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against You, and You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight… (Ps 51:3-4)

The thing is, God, in His infinite love for us, His creation, wants nothing more from us that this simple component of living in this fallen world:

Repentance.

In every instance when those who approached the Lord came for healing, He freely (and without prompting) spoke, Your sins are forgiven you!  Not once do the Gospels nor any Scripture point to any who come to the Lord in repentance being denied His absolving them of their sins.

It was that way 2000 years ago.

It is still that way today.  Glory to God for His abundant mercy!

Christ is Born!

   Knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man, we can say also, 'God is born!".

In no Faith other than Orthodoxy does this expression make sense in the manner that it does to us.  By definition, God is He Who is eternal.  Birth carries with it the understanding of a beginning in time for a presence in the flesh.  These two together are nonsensical when human understanding is applied.  Inside the Church, we effortlessly proclaim Jesus Christ as both God and Man equally and simultaneously.  It is a core belief of Orthodoxy!

Therefore the acceptance of this non-sequitur, this un-understandable conjunction of definitions, is at the very heart of what we as Orthodox Christians profess and proclaim.  Jesus Christ is both God and Man.  Christ is born!  God is born!  The God-man takes on our flesh in His plan to effect salvation for all of mankind.  God becomes man so that man might become god.  (St. Athanasius)  The blessed saint continues, He became what we are that He might make us what He is.

St. Gregory of Nyssa teaches this: Let us utter the words of the Psalm, joining in chorus with the loud-voiced David: “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”  How does He come?  He crosses over into human life, not by boat or by chariot, but through the incorruption of a Virgin.  This is our God.  This is our Lord, Who appeared to us to ordain a Feast with thick branches, even unto the horns of the altar.

God puts on matter.  He who is immaterial and above His creation accepts to become as one whom He created, and in so doing, His matter touches the matter of His Creation.  Yes, this implies the matter of the earth.  The Holy Church expresses this in the hymnology of the upcoming Feast of Theophany, stating clearly the understanding of our Lord's changing the nature of the waters through His baptism.  But more importantly He left to us the matter of His precious Body and Blood.  Through the mysteries of the Church that is His Bride, He has touched us as well.  And He continues to do so every time we participate in the sacraments, the mysteries of His Church—each of them!

As we gather now to offer praise with the voices of the Angels, Glory to God in the Highest!, we marvel at His dispensation and His unbounded love for us.

St. Jerome says this:  They will not find Christ unless they keep watch.  This is the shepherd’s duty. Christ is not found except by the alert.  Psalm 121:4 says “Indeed the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.”  The shepherds were keeping watch in the fields nearby.  Herod was there; the high priests and the Pharisees were there; while they were sleeping, Christ is found by watchful shepherds in a lonely grotto.

Let us together assume the vocation of shepherds.  Let us be watchful so that we, like those shepherds of old, may be accounted worthy to behold God as Born!

CHRIST IS BORN!

GLORIFY HIM!

 

Christ, and the Holy Orders

 A certain elder taught the following:

Now on your account, O son of man, Christ was born, and the Son of God came that He might make you live.

He became a Child, becoming a man, being also God.

He Who was the Lawgiver became a Reader, and He took the book of the synagogue, and He read, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, and for this reason He has anointed Me, and has sent Me to preach the Gospel to the poor."

Like  a Subdeacon He made a whip of rope, and He drove forth from the Temple all those who sold oxen, and cattle, and doves, and other things.

Like a Deacon He girded a napkin about His loins, and washed the feet of His disciples, and He commanded them to wash the feet of their brethren.

Like a Priest He sat among the priests, and taught the people.

Like a Bishop He took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave to His disciples.

He was beaten for your sake, that is to say, for your sake He was crucified, and for your sake He died.  Yet you for His sake will not even endure insult!

He rose as God.  He was exalted as God.  All these things for our sake, all these things by Divine Providence, all these things properly and due order did He do that He might redeem us.

Let us then be watchful, and strenuous, and constant in prayer, and let us do everything which will please Him, and will gratify His friends, so that we may be redeemed and live.  Was not Joseph sold into Egypt, and did he not live in a foreign land?  And the three simple young men in Babylon, had they not men who opposed them?  Yet, because they were fearing God, He helped them, and made them glorious."

We thank the author of the blog site, https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/

and specifically the page, https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2016/12/christ-came-to-pass-through-all-ranks.html

for their permission to repost this piece.