Where to Seek Help During Illness?

A Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

In today’s Gospel it was told of two miraculous acts of kindness bestowed by our Savior upon the woman with the issue of blood and upon Jairus, the ruler of the Jewish synagogue: the first the Lord healed in a single instant—through her touching of His garment; for the other He raised from the dead his only daughter, twelve years of age.

In this Gospel account, instructive for us, first of all, is the faith of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. His only daughter is at the point of death, and he turns with a request for help not to the physicians, but to Jesus Christ, believing that He can heal her with a single word. So also you, my brothers: when you fall ill, or when your wife or children fall ill, or anyone among your relatives, acquaintances, or servants falls ill, first of all turn in prayer for help to Jesus Christ, the Physician of our souls and bodies, swift to come to the aid of all who flee to Him with faith; invite to your home a spiritual father with the divine Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, and believe that, like Jairus, you will not be put to shame in your hope. How many examples there have been even in the course of my own spiritual ministrations of sick people who first turned for help to God, who fled to repentance and Communion, and who quickly recovered after partaking of the holy Mysteries! I can name for you many who were made worthy of so great a mercy of God. The faith of the Jairus mentioned in the Gospel in the divine Wonderworker did not put him to shame: do not fear; only believe — the Lord said to him, when word was brought to Jairus that his daughter had died — and she will be saved; and he, at the Lord’s word, believed without doubting that his daughter would be raised, and he did indeed see her raised. So, when your soul, my brother, has been made dead by sin, by the passions, has fallen into the depths of evils, do not despair of your salvation, but believe that the Lord, who came into the world to save sinners, can save you also and raise you up out of the depths of sin; rouse yourself from the sleep of sin; Rise up, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you[1].

Further, instructive in this Gospel story is the faith of the woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years; instructive too are the circumstances of her afflicted condition. This woman, as another Evangelist relates, before touching the Savior’s garment, said to herself that if she only touched His garment, she would be healed, and with such faith she touched the hem of His garment and was immediately healed; whereas before this, though she had been treated by physicians for nearly twelve years and had spent all her possessions on them, she had received no benefit from any of them, but had instead grown even worse. How many Christians there are even now who, in their illness, turn only to physicians, forgetting to turn to Jesus Christ, who makes physicians wise—especially those who believe in Him—and who, like the woman with the flow of blood, remain ill and under treatment for a long time and hand over to the physicians nearly all that they possess, and still receive no benefit, or only a little, when, if soon after falling ill they had turned to the Savior and invited His minister to come to them with the life-giving Mysteries and had partaken of the life-giving food, they would soon have received healing and would have glorified the Lord for His power and goodness. But for their little faith they are punished with the length of their illness and with the spending of their property on medicines and on physicians.

It is remarkable that the woman with the flow of blood was healed the moment she touched the Savior’s garment. This serves as an image of our spiritual healing. Our souls are healed instantly when we call upon the all-saving name of Jesus Christ with faith and in repentance, or when we partake of the all-pure Body and Blood of the Savior: what life, sweetness, and peace suddenly spread through the soul and body after the communion of the holy Mysteries! The flow of sinful thoughts and passions is stopped in an instant; holy, heavenly thoughts take their place; the soul becomes entirely sound and with joy glorifies the Lord, the Giver of Life. So, so touch the Lord with heartfelt faith and repentance; so partake of the Body and Blood of the Savior, and you shall be healed. But how few there are who touch the Savior sincerely, who partake of His Body and Blood sincerely, with deep faith and ardent love! During holy Great Lent, on the Saturdays at the Liturgies, the people press around and crowd the Lord in His holy Mysteries, seeking to partake of the all-pure Body and Blood of the Lord; but how many receive Him with the faith with which the woman we have spoken of touched Him? I think that even now the Lord would ask these communicants: who among you touched Me? that is, who among you touched Me with faith and received through faith the power that went out of Me—the power that cleanses, sanctifies, brings peace, enlightens, and strengthens? Are there not many who commune without living faith and, after communing, go away just as spiritually sick as they were before, and sometimes even worse? But those who commune with living faith receive the cleansing of their sins and the peace of their conscience; for in their conscience they clearly hear the voice of the Savior: take courage, O man! your faith has saved you; go in peace.

What else in the Gospel reading proposed to you is worthy of your attention? Here is one more thing to take note of: when the Lord saw the weeping and wailing relatives and friends of the dead daughter of Jairus, He said: do not weep; she has not died, she is asleep. These words are most consoling for us. The Lord, the Giver of Life, calls our death a sleep. Why? Because there will be a general resurrection of the dead, like a general awakening from sleep—and this by virtue of His death and resurrection: for Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of the dead[2], as all die because of Adam, so all will come to life because of Christ. But what came of it when Jesus Christ called the maiden’s death a sleep (she has not died, she is asleep)? They mocked Him, knowing that she had died. That is not surprising: they did not yet know the mystery of the resurrection. But it is astonishing how some today can jeer when they hear about the resurrection—today, when the resurrection of the dead has become for us as undoubted as the present day is undoubted. Still, let us not marvel: such is the behavior of those who are Christians only in name, but pagans in deed—slaves of the belly and of unrighteous wealth, worshipers of this present world, for whom there is no higher pleasure than the pleasure of the palate as it savors sweet dishes and drinks, no higher pleasure, that is, than offering worship to the golden calf. But their end will be according to their deeds. And let us look upon the majestic spectacle of our Life-Giver raising the daughter of Jairus.

After sending out of the room where the dead girl lay everyone except Peter, James and John, and the girl’s father and mother, He took her by the hand and cried aloud: Maiden! Rise. And what happened? She rose at once, and He gave orders that she be given something to eat. Here, brethren, is an image of our future resurrection: the dead will hear a voice like this of the Son of God at the second coming of the Son of God, and hearing it they will come to life — and those who have done good will go out into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of judgment[3]. Here is a lesson for you about the resurrection: take it firmly to heart; remember that you will rise again. And is that all? No—but live also in a Christian way, so as to attain a blessed resurrection: be temperate and chaste, patient, free of malice, humble, forbearing, merciful, of one mind. Urge one another on, and draw one another into the kingdom of heaven. Amen.