A Talk for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

In today’s Gospel from Matthew we hear how a Roman centurion asked Jesus Christ to heal his servant, the centurion’s own; of the centurion’s great faith in the Lord’s sovereign power and His almighty authority to do whatever He wills, to heal every sickness with a single word and command, to raise the dead, and so on and so on; further, of how the Lord marveled at the centurion’s simple faith, free of cunning reasoning, and on this occasion uttered words of the greatest weight, instructive for all of us—and finally, of how the Lord rewarded the centurion’s faith with the healing of his servant by a single word.

Here is this Gospel in the Russian tongue: «At that time Jesus entered Capernaum (a city on the sea), and a centurion came to Him, imploring Him: Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, grievously tormented. Jesus told him: I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said: Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, but 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. When Jesus heard this, He marveled, and said to those who followed: truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion: go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour» (Mt 8:5-13). Here today’s Gospel comes to its end.

How good, how gracious, how humble and simple the centurion is in his petition to the Lord for his sick servant! To his petition the Lord replies that He will come in person to his house and heal his servant; but the centurion says to Him: I am not worthy that You should enter my house; but speak only a word, Your almighty word, and my servant will be healed. My own words and commands, he says, are carried out by those under me; but You are God, beginningless, almighty, who brought the whole world from non-being into being by Your own command, and sustain and govern all things by Your own word: therefore a single creative, sovereign word of Yours is fully enough for my servant to be healed, for the sickness to flee and health to return. The Lord, it is said, marveled at such faith, and spoke the following moral lesson to the crowd that followed Him: truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel (Mt 8:10)—that is, among the Jews, the chosen people, brought up in the true faith, who had seen perfect miracles worked among them, many and countless mercies of God. And I say to you, the Lord continues, that many will come from east and west — that is, from various lands and peoples — and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the forefathers of the Jews) in the Kingdom of Heaven, but the sons of the kingdom, that is, the Jews, will be driven into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 8:11-12). We all know how the Jews dealt with Christ the Savior, when He lived and moved among men on earth; many of them did not believe in His Godhead, twisted His words and His miracles every which way—saying, for example, that He deceives the people, that He works miracles by the power of Beelzebub, and the rest—and finally slandered Him before the Roman authority and condemned Him to a shameful death; and for this, those of them who did not repent are condemned to banishment into the outer darkness, and in their place, the place of the Jews, the pagans have been called to the faith of Christ, and among them we too, the Russians, and of these newly called nations, many who pleased God have inherited the Kingdom of Heaven. How many saints have shone forth in faith and life, from the Greek people, the Roman, the Persian, the Russian, and from many other tongues! Let us, then, be thankful from our whole heart to the Lord, that He has called us into His faith and granted us, with it, countless blessings; let us avoid the unbelief and hardness of heart of the Jews, the faithlessness of the Jews, that we too may avoid their fearsome fate. For the centurion’s faith the Lord said to him: go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour (Mt 8:13). Such is the power of faith! Such it was then, and such it is now; for simplicity of faith, as always, so now too, the Lord works miracles both in believers themselves, and according to their faith, works wonders in other people too. And indeed, beloved brothers and sisters, how often, every day, by our faith alone, by a single penitent prayer of faith, the Lord brings us to life, though we are deadened by our sins, has mercy on us, and saves us. How often, and unceasingly, every day, does He heal our souls, sick with passions! How often does He heal, by our faith, bodily sicknesses too! How He shows us countless mercies for the mere calling upon, with faith, of His saving, wondrous Name! One could not count, for their multitude, all the miracles of the Lord’s mercy that the Lord has worked in us, for our faith in His goodness, wisdom, and omnipotence, when we called upon Him earnestly! The Lord accomplishes the miracles of His mercy in us especially when we also live according to our faith, in repentance and virtue, in simplicity, humility, self-restraint, in mutual love, mutual sympathy, and mutual help. For He Himself exhorts us: be merciful, therefore, as your Father also is merciful (Lk 6:36). So then, let us hold fast to our faith in Christ, the Son of God, and let us strive to live according to our faith—in every good order and in the doing of good works. Otherwise the same thing will happen to us that happened to the Jews, and we too, the new Israel, the sons of the Kingdom, will be driven into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; our Orthodox faith will not save us, if we are of little faith and unfaithful, proud and hardhearted, intemperate, unclean, foul-mouthed, quarrelsome, disobedient, faithless, given to lying, disrespectful, lazy, if we do not bear one another’s burdens and help one another in the needs of this life. Faith without good works is dead (Jac 2:20) and will not save us; for even the demons believe in the Lord and tremble before Him, and yet remain the same demons, and eternal torment, the eternal fire, is prepared for them. Let us, then, examine ourselves, whether we are in the faith, and whether we live according to the faith, whether we repent sincerely, whether we amend ourselves, are we made holy, do we occupy ourselves in blessed labors and works, every day? — Today’s Gospel also teaches us how much the intercession of others before God can mean, when it is joined with faith and love. The believing centurion obtained from the Lord the gift of health for his sick servant; and the servant, without doubt, gave glory to God for his healing, and said a heartfelt «thank you» to his master. This is a lesson to us, to have recourse earnestly to the intercession, on our behalf, of the holy servants of God, for the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (Jac 5:16), says the Apostle; and, in general, to the intercession of the Church on our behalf. And we too, every day, ask for the intercession, on our behalf, of the Mother of God, of our Holy Guardian Angel, and of all the saints, by whose prayers and intercession may the Lord God save us all. Amen.