Instruction for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

When Jesus heard this (the centurion’s answer), He marveled, and said to those who followed Him: truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel (Mt 8:10).

In today’s Gospel, brethren, the Lord praised the faith of a certain centurion, who asked the Lord to heal his gravely ailing servant. It happened thus: the Savior entered the city of Capernaum; His disciples followed Him, and a great multitude of people. Here a centurion comes to Him with a bow, and says to 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. 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 8:6-10,13). — Why, then, did the Lord marvel at the centurion’s faith, and praise it so highly as to say: I have not found such faith among the Jews, who knew from the Scriptures of the coming to earth, in the flesh, of the almighty Son of God? — Because, brethren, the centurion’s faith was of the most reasonable kind (not blind), and the most simple, exalted, and firm. His words to the Lord are simple, spoken from an upright soul; what, one might think, is so special in them? And yet there is: in these simple words of the centurion is seen his most firm assurance of the divine dominion and omnipotence of the Lord. I too, O Lord, he says to the Lord, as it were, am a man in authority; but my authority is but a worthless likeness of Your authority over the whole world; and if I, a worthless commander, command this or that man under me to do this or that, and they do it, then will not everything be done that You wish, at Your word? You are the Creator and Master of all things, and all creation obeys Your word. Only speak the word, then, and my servant will be healed. See, brethren, how bright, how simple, and how firm the centurion’s faith in the Savior’s divine omnipotence is? Such faith the Lord Jesus Christ seeks among us too. And whoever has such faith, let him hope to receive from Him whatever he asks. Do you need the cleansing of your sins? You will receive it. Healing from sickness? — You will be healed. Do you need help in your affairs? You will receive it. So, brethren, when you ask something of God, have the very firmest faith, without the least doubt; be fully assured that for God, the beginningless King of glory, from whom all things have received their being and by whom all things exist, nothing is impossible; that all things obey Him, from the Seraphim to the least blade of grass. He is the God of spirits and of all flesh, and if it pleases Him, that which does not exist will come into existence, that which was not created He will create anew. He calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Rom 4:17). You all know that even an absolute earthly king does, in his own state, whatever he wishes; he speaks his royal word to his subjects, and the whole kingdom responds with readiness to obey him and does what the king wishes; for example, the Sovereign spoke his word, that the lower agricultural class in our fatherland should be free—and millions of people are free, and bless the tsar for his good rule. But if the word of a king, who is a man like all the rest of us, accomplishes so much in his kingdom, and his word is obeyed by all, then what will the word of God not accomplish in His infinite Kingdom? If a king corrects the wrongs in his kingdom, and safeguards what he has corrected with laws, then what wrongs will the Master of all not correct—especially when these wrongs, in His own creation, arise precisely from our own wrongful, unlawful life, and as a punishment for our own wrongs, our own lawless deeds? So then, believe, all of you, simply, firmly, without doubting, that for God, in His infinite Kingdom, nothing is impossible, and that His word is obeyed by all things. Is it needful to stop the sun, to extinguish the stars, to move mountains from their place, to turn fire into dew, to turn water into wine or wine into blood, stones into people, to make the sick well, to bring the dead to life, to justify the repentant sinner, to make the lowly and the poor noble and rich, and the rich poor—all this will be, has been, and is, by His word. Believe thus, then, when you pray to God, and you will receive everything, and the Lord will say to you, as He said to that centurion: go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you (Mt 8:13). Amen.