The Power of Faith

A Homily for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

The centurion, answering the Lord, said: Lord, I am not worthy for You to enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed (Mt 8:8)

In the Gospel read today there was set before you, my brethren, the sacred account of the miraculous healing by Jesus Christ of the servant of a Roman centurion in the city of Capernaum. The servant was healed by a single word of the Savior, through the great faith and humble petition of the centurion, a pagan, who came in person to the divine Physician. «Lord, – the centurion says to Him, – my servant is lying at home paralyzed and suffering severely. Jesus says to him: «I will come and heal him». But the centurion said to Him: «Lord, I am not worthy for You to enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For, – he continued, – I also am a man under authority; and having soldiers under me, I say to one: Go, and he goes; and to another: Come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does it». «Having heard this, – the Gospel goes on to say, – Jesus was amazed, and said to those following Him: «Truly I say to you, even in Israel, – that is, among the Jews, – I have not found such faith», – and a little further on, the Lord says to him: «Go, and as you have believed, let it be to you. And his servant was healed that very hour[1]». Happy the servant, who had such a good, kind, believing master! And worthy of all praise is the master, who loved his servant with a father’s love and in the simplicity of faith looked upon Jesus Christ and upon His works! He both now and at the Dread Judgment, at the Lord’s second coming, will serve as a reproach to the unbelief and craftiness of many, many of today’s Christians, who do not believe in the Lord and presumptuously reject His miracles and His second coming, saying: where is the promise of His coming[2] – and the end of the age[3]? Or, which amounts to the same thing, – as though there will be no second coming at all? But let us leave these foolish and proud unbelievers, and let us instead speak together about faith – for our edification and salvation – and about how harmful unbelief is; how it pushes away from us the right hand of God that saves us. What exactly shall we now say about faith? This: that faith in the Lord, in His word – living, unquestioning faith – is the key to the inexhaustible treasury of all God’s gifts; it is a life-giving power, given by God to simple, guileless, humble souls, and drawing down upon them the riches of God’s bounty. Let us prove this with examples. The example of the Roman centurion is before our eyes: his simple, firm faith in the almighty power of Jesus Christ amazed the Lord Himself and immediately drew God’s mercy down upon the centurion and his sick servant: Go, and as you have believed, let it be to you. And his servant was healed that very hour[4].

Two blind men cry out to Jesus Christ for the healing of their eyes: Son of David, have mercy on us! The Lord commands that they be brought to Him and asks them: Do you believe that I am able to do this? And when they answered: we believe, He healed them, saying: May it be to you according to your faith; and their eyes were opened at once[5].

Once a paralytic was brought to Jesus Christ, and the Lord, seeing the faith of the men who carried him, said to the paralytic because of their faith: take heart, child! your sins are forgiven you; rise, take up your bed and go to your house; and the sick man rose, took up his bed, and went home[6].

The woman with the hemorrhage, who had suffered from her affliction for twelve years, the Lord healed because of her faith, through her touching His garment, saying: Take heart, daughter! your faith has saved you[7].

But there was once an incident with the Savior’s disciples: a certain father had a son possessed by a demon, and used to bring him to them to be healed, but they could not heal him. Why was this? Because of the unbelief of this sick man’s father—and of Christ’s disciples. «O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you. How long shall I endure you? — said the Lord to this father and to those standing by. Bring him here to Me. And Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed in that very hour». «The disciples, coming to Jesus privately, asked Him: Why could we not drive it out? Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief», and He added: truly I say to you: if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed and say to this mountain: move from here to there, then it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. This kind, however, is driven out only by prayer and fasting[8]. Still, the apostles fell at times into the temptation of unbelief only until the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them on the day of Pentecost; but after the descent of the Holy Spirit they never again fell into unbelief, but always had unshakable faith, and by it worked countless miracles: they healed every kind of illness, drove out demons with a word, and raised the dead. The holy saints of God of ancient and modern times worked many miracles by faith, as you yourselves have heard and read. How many even in our own days have received, by their faith, numerous healings, wondrous deliverance from misfortunes and calamities, from the tyranny of demons! How many were miraculously healed through Communion of the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ! How many healings there have been, and still are, from the relics of the holy saints of God, or from wonderworking holy icons, or simply from sincere prayer, with faith and in repentance, to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother, or to the holy saints of God?

A pious pastor of my acquaintance told me candidly that through the prayer of faith, in the simplicity of his heart, he had asked the Lord and the Most Pure Theotokos for a multitude of wondrous blessings of God for simple people who had sought his prayerful help, and, in proof of this, he was ready to present to me in person all of those who had been deemed worthy of God’s merciful visitation and who could witness to the truth of his words with a living voice. I, he said of himself, am an ordinary mortal, a man of many sins; I am distinguished from other people by no ascetic labors: neither by fasting, nor by standing at prayer through whole nights; I allow myself to eat and drink what is permitted—both at my own home and at others’ homes—but I have only faith in the Lord; I live in constant repentance, I thank the Lord for everything I receive from His bounty: and I am not put to shame. Every day I receive salvation from the life-giving right hand of God; every day the Lord surrounds me with the joys of deliverance. If anyone asks me to pray with him concerning himself, I do not refuse—provided only that I notice in the one asking sincere faith and a sincere desire for salvation: and faith and hope do not put me to shame.

See then, brethren, that even in our own time, so poor in faith, it is possible for believers to ask of the Lord everything needful for salvation. So believe, all of you, without doubting, in the Lord, who abides with us and will abide with us all the days until the end of the age; live piously, repent sincerely, amend your life, ask of the Lord with undoubting faith for what is good and profitable—and you will receive. Amen.