A Discourse for the 24th Sunday After Pentecost

Today there was read the Gospel of the Lord’s healing of the woman with the flow of blood, and the raising of Jairus’s daughter.

Let us occupy ourselves, beloved brothers, in this favorable hour, with the explanation of the Gospel, and the drawing from it of edification and benefit for our own souls. When the Lord Jesus Christ crossed back from the country of the Gadarenes into Galilee, a great multitude of people was already awaiting Him there. And behold, «there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue; and falling at Jesus’ feet, he begged Him to come into his house, because he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. And as He went, the people pressed upon Him. And a woman who had suffered a flow of blood for twelve years, and had spent all her substance on physicians and could be healed by none, came up behind and touched the hem of His garment; and at once the flow of her blood stopped. And Jesus said: who touched Me? And when all denied it, Peter and those with Him said: Master! the people surround You and press upon You—and You say: who touched Me? But Jesus said: someone touched Me, for I felt power going out from Me. The woman, seeing that she was not hidden, came trembling and, falling down before Him, declared to Him before all the people for what cause she had touched Him and how she was at once healed. He said to her: take heart, daughter! your faith has saved you; go in peace» (Lk 8:41-48). Let us pause here a little for reflection. There was a great crowd, and this woman was among them; many, no doubt, touched Jesus Christ willy-nilly, since the pressure from the crowd was strong, but not many touched Him as the woman with the flow of blood did; and the Evangelist does not say that the Lord healed anyone else at that time; so it may be that only this one woman’s touch was made with faith in the Savior’s divine power—and her faith wondrously saved her from her own long-standing ailment. Let us turn to ourselves. Many of us are possessed by various sicknesses of soul and body; many, at times, come into this house of God to pray, and, no doubt, many to be healed of their own sicknesses; but how many here touch the Savior with a deep, unwavering faith, truly present here, according to His own promise: «where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them» (Mt 18:20)? How many go away healed? Do not most go away just as they came, with the same sicknesses and infirmities? The man of little faith goes away a man of little faith still; the sinner, still a sinner; in a word, almost everyone goes away with the same infirmity, the same deep-rooted passion, the same deep-rooted sinful habits and passions, with which he entered the temple. And yet, even now, brothers, true miracles do happen to people devoted to the Lord—both in church and in every place: everywhere they touch the Lord with heartfelt faith, in unfeigned repentance, everywhere they receive healing from Him, like the woman with the flow of blood—they are healed in soul and body, and not once, but many times, in a single day; as many times as they fall into some sickness of soul, or sin, or passion, as many times as they receive the wounds of sin in soul and body, so many times are they healed by the life-originating hand of the Giver of life; and they feel this healing vividly, and rejoice and celebrate, thanking the Lord, who is just as near to them now as He was then, just as almighty. But it is not the fault of the time, or the place, or of the Orthodox faith, that not many are healed today; the fault lies in the people themselves, in their own little faith; for it is hard, today, to find a sincere faith like that of the Roman military centurions mentioned in the Gospel and in the Acts of the holy Apostles, or like the faith of the woman with the flow of blood, or the faith of the Canaanite woman. But let us continue the Gospel. When Jesus Christ was saying to the woman: «take heart, daughter! your faith has saved you; go in peace. While He was still speaking, someone comes from the house of the ruler of the synagogue and says to him: your daughter has died; do not trouble the Teacher. But Jesus, hearing this, said to him: do not fear, only believe, and she will be saved. And coming into the house, He allowed no one to enter except Peter, John, and James, and the father of the maiden, and the mother. All were weeping and lamenting her. But He said: do not weep; she has not died, but sleeps. And they laughed at Him, knowing that she had died». Jesus Christ called death by the very essence of the matter, because by His cross and by His death He destroyed death, granted resurrection to all in the future, and made death only a sleep and a rest from labors. But what does the Evangelist say next? «But He, having sent them all out and taken her by the hand, called out: maiden! arise. And her spirit returned; she arose at once, and He commanded that she be given something to eat. And her parents were amazed. But He charged them to tell no one what had happened» (Lk 8:49-56). Glory to You, O Lord, let us all cry out, our Life and our Resurrection! We believe and hope that You will likewise, one day, soon awaken the whole human race from the sleep of death: «in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet of the archangel will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible» (1Cor 15:52). But, my brothers, while the general resurrection of all people still lies ahead, in a distant or near future, the spiritual resurrection, or the resurrection of our own souls, dying every day through sins and passions, is accomplished every day, and many times in a single day, through the constant, sincere repentance and the living faith and hope of sinners. Before our bodily death, an epidemic of spiritual, sinful death rages within us every day, killing our own souls; our own death-bearing passions pursue us, and deprive us of peace, of boldness, of freedom, of spiritual light. Here, then, is a broad field for the daily saving and life-giving actions of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our own faith and unfeigned repentance, the Lord raises up our own souls every day, put to death by sin; He touches, with His own invisible, life-originating right hand, the repentant, broken soul, and wondrously brings it to life, raising it up out of the pit of the passions, imparting to it life, justification, peace, freedom, light, strength; and every day the believing and repentant soul is quickened and renewed by the Lord: by the Holy Spirit every dying soul is brought to life, and, raised up by purity, is illumined by the Trinitarian unity, sacramentally. So then, souls like my own soul, dying through sin every day, hasten every day to the Fountain of resurrection and renewal, to the Lord Jesus Christ; hasten with a living, clear-sighted faith and with deep repentance, and your own souls will come to life, will be enlightened, will be strengthened and renewed. Having raised the dead girl, the Lord commanded that she be given something to eat. But a soul, too, brought to life by grace, needs its own spiritual food: prayer, the reading and hearing of the Word of God, the exercise of good deeds; otherwise it may soon die again. So then, before our bodily death, let us rise every day with an inward resurrection, through repentance; let us always overcome the sin that has given birth to death within us—and then death will be for us not death, but a sleep, and at the general resurrection we will awaken to a new, eternally blessed life. Amen.