A Word for the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost (7)

At today’s Liturgy there was read, beloved brothers and sisters, from the Gospel of Matthew, of Jesus Christ’s healing, for their faith, of two blind men, and of a mute demoniac. At every Liturgy Holy Church sets before our attention brief passages, or lessons, from the writings of the Apostles, from their Acts or their Epistles, and from the Gospel, in order to edify us daily with God-inspired instruction—to comfort, to expose, to instruct, and to strengthen us in the truths of the Christian faith and in a life conformed to that faith—and so that we should not be deprived of the happiness of hearing, little by little, all their writings, or the words and deeds of Christ, so that Christians might not be ignorant of the law and of their own life, but might know the whole substance of their faith and their law, and might be able not only to know it themselves, but also be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks about their hope (1Pet 3:15), and so that, with the weapon of the word of God, they might more readily war against the enemies of salvation and against sinful habits and passions. Let us repeat today’s Gospel in the Russian tongue. At the time when Jesus Christ was passing through the city of Capernaum, «two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying: have mercy on us, Jesus, Son of David! And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them: do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him: yes, Lord! Then He touched their eyes, saying: according to your faith let it be to you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus sternly warned them, saying: see that no one knows it. But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed. And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying: it was never seen like this in Israel! But the Pharisees said: He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people» (Mt 9:27-35). Here ends the Sunday Gospel.

What is there here for our edification, our instruction, in this Gospel? Instructive is the faith of the blind men, and their persistent, earnest petition for mercy and healing. Have mercy on us, they cried, Jesus, Son of David — that is, the Messiah promised to the world, the King, the Savior! More than that, they came to Him, when He entered a certain house, with a firm resolve not to leave Him until they received what they desired. To make manifest their great faith before the people, the Lord asks them, as though not knowing, whether they believe that He is able to do this. They answer: yes, Lord! Then the Lord, to show all that nothing is impossible for a believer, «touched their eyes, and said: according to your faith let it be to you». And their eyes were opened. O faith! Holy gift of heaven! How many wonders you work! You have heard too, my brothers, from earlier Gospel readings, what miracles the Lord worked among people, how many sicknesses He healed, how many demons He cast out, how many dead He raised, for the faith of the people, or for the glory of God! All things are possible to him who believes (Mk 9:23); a believer can even move mountains. And for us too, children of the Orthodox Church, the miracles of our Savior are no novelty, even in our own day: we ourselves are constant witnesses of the miracles of the Lord and of His Most Pure Mother in ourselves. What city, what land, what faithful Christian soul has not experienced within itself, through a prayer of faith, the miracles of God’s mercy—deliverance from the passions, healing in sicknesses, help in difficult circumstances, comfort in sorrows? So then, ask in prayer, believe that it will be given you—let me say it, not in my own words, but in the words of the Savior Himself: «ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened» (Mt 7:7-8). Like the blind men of the Gospel, we too often cry out: Lord, have mercy; for all of us suffer from a spiritual blindness, a sinful blindness, from the moment we are conceived, and born, and as we live, in iniquity. Every worldly vanity, every sinful worldly care, sorrow and grief, every worldly passion, has blinded the eyes of our hearts. We are blind when we take no care for the salvation of our soul and the amendment of our life, but care instead for the body and its pleasures and whims; we are blind when we labor for fleshly passions, serve mammon diligently, and take no care to please God. Let us too, then, brothers and sisters, cry out earnestly to the Lord for the healing of the blindness of our hearts, with an utmost desire for the sight of our soul: have mercy on us, O Lord Jesus, Son of God, true Light, who came into the world, that everyone who believes in You should not remain in darkness!

Instructive too, in this Gospel, are the Savior’s words to the blind men once their sight was restored: see that no one knows it. They teach us not to trumpet our own good deeds before people, in order to be glorified by people for them, but to be modest and humble, ascribing all glory to God, not desiring to become idols ourselves and to seize for ourselves the glory that belongs to God alone, who alone is the God of glory (Act 7:2).

In the account of the healing of the demon-possessed man, the following circumstances are remarkable: first, the amazement of the people at hearing the speech of the man who had been mute; and second, the slander and blasphemy of the Pharisees—these learned men of the Jews—who dared to ascribe the miracles of Christ to the power of the prince of demons. So too, even now, the common people, in simplicity of heart, look upon the wondrous works of God and see in them what they truly are, and glorify God; while many of our learned, or half-learned, clever men reject even the miracles of Christ and of God’s saints, and count them either as fabricated tales, invented, as it were, for the people, or as ordinary phenomena of nature. O cunning of the human heart! What will you not distort, what will you not pervert? To you even light seems darkness, and truth a fable. Repay them, O Lord, according to their cunning! While the mute spirit dwelt in the man, that man could not speak; but when the Savior cast out the mute spirit, the man began to speak. Even now there is a spirit of muteness—either in those who are truly mute, or in those people who, by their calling and office, ought to speak the truth to people, and do not, allowing injustice to oppress people; or when they ought to preach the Word of God in season and out of season, and do not preach, do not instruct, do not expose the wrongs of the people entrusted to them, sunk in ignorance of their own faith and their own duties. Such men the Prophet calls mute dogs, unable to bark. One must speak the truth boldly to every man, even though it be bitter and unpleasant to those who hear it.

The spirit of muteness is found too in drunken people, in whom the excess fumes of wine, and demons, bind both heart and tongue against every good word, and open them only to shameful and foul speech, abuse, and every kind of disorder.

Finally, remarkable in the Gospel is the Evangelist’s account that Jesus Christ went about all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every infirmity among the people. See—the King of heaven and earth humbly walks on foot from city to city, from village to village, labors, journeying, for us; should we not labor for our own eternal salvation, for deliverance from all-ruinous sins and passions; should we not serve one another, each with what he can? This is why, in the reading from the Apostle, it is said: we who are strong must bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not please ourselves, for Christ also did not please Himself (Rom 15:1-3). Jesus Christ preached the Gospel of the Kingdom—that is, of the Kingdom of God within us, and deliverance from slavery to sin and the devil—an eternal, incorruptible Kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness, peace, love, and endless blessedness. Let us, then, free ourselves from attachment to earthly things, and lift up the eyes of our hearts on high, to heaven. He healed every sickness and every infirmity among the people, as the Source of life and the Physician of soul and body; let us too always turn to Him in our sicknesses and infirmities of soul and body. He alone is swift to help, delivering quickly and surely from ailments and bitter sicknesses. Glory, O Christ our God, to Your healing power, made manifest in us even now, every day, felt by us, seen, and unceasingly glorified. Amen.