Christ walking on the water and about temptations (Matthew 14:22-34)

As Christianity has become more watered down over the ages due to the lack of persecution that has lulled Christians into a sort of sleep, we have begun to view things as the world does and not as Christ has shown us. One of the clearest examples is our view of trials or temptations in the form of suffering.

Many Christians today wonder why, when they have been faithful to God and have striven to obey God’s commandments, it is that they seem to suffer more than those that have denied God and make no effort to obey His commandments.

While it is natural to expect God’s favor after striving to follow His commandments, we seem to have lost the foundational view of this current life in this fallen world. We have become confused and have fallen for the delusion that the enemy constantly presents to us to lose sight of the realities that Christ has shown us, namely exchanging eternal life in Heaven for temporal pleasure on this fallen world.

Our Lord did not teach a health and wealth Gospel. The health and wealth that Christians receive is invisible to the fleshly eye and only seen by those who also love God and holy things. To the fleshly eye, we look pitiable and weak, but to the eye that sees clearly, Christians are seen to be strong and rich, having an inheritance in the Heavens.

Just as an athlete is only able to obtain the highest achievements through rigorous training, so likewise is a Christian able to reach perfection only through the training of temptations. For those whose faith has already reached a level of perfection, temptations help to demonstrate their perfection. And for those that are still imperfect, temptations provide a method for their becoming perfect.

Today’s Gospel reading is an example of the latter. We read about the Apostles being tempted by the wind and sea while aboard a ship.

Wanting to train His Apostles in patience and being able to bear hardship, our Lord allowed them to be tempted on the dangerous sea for a long time and even allowed them to think He was a ghost before giving the calming words of salvation, His declaration of His divinity, calling Himself, “I am”, the title of God, the creator and controller of all things, including the boisterous sea.

St. John Chrysostom explains why it was that Jesus allowed them to be tempted so hard saying, “He lets them be tempest-tossed all the night, thoroughly to awaken, as I suppose, their hardened heart. And together with the compunction, He cast them also into a greater longing for Himself, and a continual remembrance of Him. Accordingly, neither did He present Himself to them at once. For, “in the fourth watch,” so it is said, “of the night, He went unto them, walking upon the sea;” instructing them not hastily to seek for deliverance from their pressing dangers, but to bear all occurrences manfully.”

Our Lord taught his Apostles in stages. Earlier He had calmed the seas while aboard a ship with them. Now that they had learned more and developed a stronger faith, He does not stop the storm, but demonstrates His power over the temptation by walking on it and showing that He can also give the ability to walk on the water to those with faith.

This account can be symbolically interpreted to represent our situation. Jesus had just healed, taught, and fed the crowds in a miraculous way and went up the mountain and sent his disciples to cross over the stormy sea. Likewise, our Lord has brought healing, wisdom, and spiritual sustenance through His Incarnation and His Ascension into the Heavens as our Mediator, and has sent us to cross over this stormy life by which we are tempted to produce and show our faith.

Just as the Lord did not calm the sea, but gave Peter the ability to walk on it, in our life here in this fallen world, trials are not taken away from us, but we are given the ability to overcome them by our Lord if we only have faith in Him. Only when Christ returns in His second coming will He fully put an end to the terrible waves stirred up against His Church and trample them under foot.

There are also different types of temptations that we can speak of. Concerning these types of temptations that are being taught today, there are those of pleasure or pain, health or sickness, honor or dishonor, riches or poverty. And those considered more favorable to the world are actually the more harmful and dangerous.

But there are also different types of temptations in another sense. There are temptations that come from outside and those that come from within. These that we have spoken about and that God uses come from outside. The temptations that come from within come from sin and bring spiritual death, departure from God. These temptations do not come from God and we must flee these temptations. That is why we ask God to lead us not into temptation.

We have confused these types of temptations and ask God to shield us from the temptations that actually bring us eternal life and perfection and these other deadly temptations we overlook. If we cleanse ourselves from all iniquity by repenting, we will only need more moderate temptations here and will in the future return to the life free from sorrows and trials.

May we imitate our Lord who lowered Himself and was tempted in all ways like us except sin so that we too can share in His Ascension to the Heavens with those who have patiently awaited their reward for their endurance in temptation, to Whom be the glory and honor and worship, together with the Father and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Matthew 8:28-9:1 The freeing of the demoniacs

    In today’s gospel reading we learn a few things about the demons and the final judgment, but we also can learn some spiritual lessons that apply to each one of us.

    First, we see that demons have the ability to possess men, making their victims worse than dead men. For at least the dead have their souls in the hands of God, while those possessed by demons have their souls and bodies enslaved by the demons. The healing of these possessed men is actually much greater than the miracles of Christ raising the dead.

    We also learn that the demons are very strong and dangerous and desire the physical and spiritual death of all mankind. We learn from the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke that these demons caused the possessed men to cut themselves with rocks and caused them to strip themselves of clothing and dwell in the cemetery. They were able to beak the chains that were put on them by those that tried to restrain them and they forced those that lived nearby to avoid them out of fear for their lives.

    They chose to live in the cemetery to trick the people into believing that the souls of the dead became demons, causing great confusion and leading people into sorcery.

    By their action of destroying the multitude of swine, we see that they would quickly destroy all of mankind if they were given the ability to do so by God. We also see that even when they were cast out of these men, they desired to bring further misfortune to men by destroying the costly multitude of swine, with the desire that the pig herders curse God for this great financial loss.

    Next, we learn about the great judgment and the torments of Hell. The demons immediately felt the torment that awaits them when our Lord confronted them, like the bright sun to weak eyes. They knew that they had a little while to continue in their filth and were grieved when it seemed that maybe the time had come for them to be cast into hell and to be deprived of tormenting man any longer. They, like many men confronted with death, out of torment and despair, tried to appeal to our Lord’s mercy by calling on Him as the Son of God.

    We should learn from the demons who are aware of the torment to come, that this torment also awaits sinful men in no less measure. Unlike the demons, we have the choice to turn from our wicked ways and to be spared the torment prepared for the demons.

    Lastly, we can speak about the spiritual lessons that apply to each of us. By God allowing the demons to enter into the swine, we learn that the demons desire to enter into those that are swine-like in their uncleanness and glutenous behavior. Our Lord wants to teach us how quickly we go to destruction, like the herd of swine, when we do not practice patience and fasting and do not strive to lead a pure life.

    These demoniacs spiritually represent men addicted to all kinds of vices. Like the demoniacs that went about naked, these men, although clothed in garments, are deprived of the true covering, the glory of the image of God. And as they cut themselves with stones, these sinful men cut themselves with their sins. And as they haunted the tombs, these men cannot break free from frequenting places of sin which are more full of death than any cemetery.

    And as they were able to break free from all types of restraints, these sinful men also do not listen to threats or counsel that would restrain their wickedness and free them from their sin.

    And we also are very much like the city that saw the great works of our Lord and asked that He depart from us. We are given so many miracles and promises of spiritual healing in the Church and yet we still would rather enjoy the pleasures of this fallen world than take the narrow path to salvation that requires of us a stricter way of life. We would prefer the multitude of swine over being in our right mind.

    It is not possible for us to be cured of these sicknesses on our own. So let us beg our Lord to give us the strength to turn from our passions and to follow after Christ, and like the freed demoniac, share with all the great things that our Lord has done for us, to Whom be the glory together with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and ever and unto the ages of ages, Amen.

Sunday of All Saints (Matthew 10:32,33, 37, 39; 19:27-30)

    This life is a test. God, in His wisdom has willed that we be born into this world that has the plagues of sin and death. Just as we learned the reason why the blind man that was healed by our Lord was born that way; we too are born spiritually blind so that the works of God can be made manifest in us. Only by not having that which we easily threw away, will we be able to appreciate and never again forsake. Being born in death and darkness, our Lord has shown us the Light and has breathed Life into us through the Church and Her Saints. But unfortunately, we prefer the darkness and prefer death with her pleasures than Life with her commandments.

     Thanks be to God, God is patient with us and slowly we continue to be enlightened and to let go of the deception that Satan has instilled in us. Our life is a steady progress toward humility and full dependence on God and letting go of our ego and self-reliance. And we see in today’s Gospel reading the goal toward which we are aiming. At the final judgment we will either be confessed by our Lord Jesus to the Father, or we will be denied by Him. Will we have our spiritual eyes open then and confess God as our only means of Life and view all other things that contradict that view as something to be detested, whether it come from a friend or foe?

    We would never take seriously someone who insisted that we do not need oxygen to live and asked us to enter into a place void of oxygen. We know better; we know that only by breathing are we able to live. Likewise, we should never deny Christ as our God and should clearly confess Him as our source of Life.

    Saint Gregory Palamas said the following about the great superiority of God’s recompense to those who confessed Him: "Each saint, as a servant of God, boldly acknowledged Him in this fleeting life before mortal men, though actually just for a brief period of this present age and in front of only a few. By contrast, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and Lord of heaven and earth, will speak openly on their behalf in that eternal, never-ending world before God the Father, surrounded by angels, archangels and all the heavenly host, and in the presence of all mankind from Adam onwards. For all will rise and appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Then, before everyone and in the sight of all, He will proclaim, glorify and crown those who demonstrated their faith in Him to the end."

    And in case we misunderstand the call to love God more than our family as some kind of command to hate them for no reason, our Lord makes clear that we are to also put the love of God above our love for ourselves saying, “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” The message is clear that anything contrary to God is to be rejected and that only by enduring the persecution that comes with following Christ are we worthy of Him confessing us before His Father.

    As we celebrate the numerous Saints, many of which we don’t even know of because of their humble manner of lives, may we show them the greatest honor “by imitating them and purifying ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, and hastening towards holiness through abstaining from all evils.” (St. Gregory Palamas)

    Liturgically we have just gone through the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord, and His sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Now the Church shows us the many fruits that have been harvested for eternal life by the coming of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

    As St. Nikolai Velimirovich describes them, “They are alive and powerful, and close to God. And they are also close to us. They constantly observe the life of God’s Church on earth; they vigilantly accompany us from our birth to our death; they hear our pleas, know our troubles and help us with their strength and their prayers, which, like the smoke from incense, rise through the angelic heights to the throne of God.”

John 5:1-16 The Miracle at Bethesda

    When we read the account of the man healed at Bethesda, a few questions may come to mind. First, we hear of an angel that would periodically come and trouble the water of a pool and whoever was first to enter the pool would be healed of whatever infirmity they had. It may be hard to understand what God purposed by only allowing one person to be healed at a time. Let’s look at a few reasons why in God’s Providence this was allowed up until the time of Christ’s great Salvific work, which was typified in his healing of the man that was infirm for 38 years by His words alone.

    First, we can see the Law of Moses symbolized by the few that were healed, because it was only a small group of mankind that was given the salvific communion with God through the Jewish Law. Only these were given the opportunity to be healed of their diseases of idolatry and enslavement to sin. God intended to eventually offer Salvation to all mankind, but it began with a limited group. God rewarded the faithfulness of the Patriarchs by revealing Himself to them and allowing their line to be the line through which our Lord would enter the human race and bring salvation to all mankind. But at that time, the majority of mankind was not able to healed of their spiritual infirmities. St. Theophylact says, “In former times infirmity prevented many from being healed in the waters of the pool, and only one was made whole. But now, what hinders any man from being baptized? If the whole world approached at once for Baptism, its grace would not be diminished.”

    Another lesson that can be learned by only one person being healed at a time is that obviously the most infirm would never be able to be first to enter the pool and therefore they never would be healed. This helps us to see that before Christ, it was impossible to be healed of our infirmities caused by sin, and to restore our relationship with God. The few that were healed could be thought of like the rare exceptions of men that restored their relationship with God and abandoned sin even before the Incarnation, like Enoch and Elijah who were judged worthy of being taken by God alive. The majority of man however have sinned against God in such great ways that we are not worthy of God but rather have voluntarily become sons of the devil. We, being held captive by sin and the devil, needed a savior to enter into death and to free all those held captive there. Only by becoming members of the Body of Christ are we given the Holy Spirit who is able to give us the power to overcome sin and grow in righteousness. We must recognize our inability to be healed by our own power alone and beg God to have mercy on us. But for Him to heal us, we must confess our sins and repent of our former way of life.

    One more lesson we can learn from there only being one person healed at a time is the need to struggle for salvation. It was only the person who quickly responded once the water was disturbed that was able to benefit from the gift of God. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” (1 Cor. 9:24) God does not want us to be idle in our lives as Christians, depending entirely on Him to accomplish Good in us and in the world. He requires our participation and expects us to bring healing to the world by being His representatives who imitate Jesus’ perfect example. We are called to pick up our Cross and follow Him, dying to our old sinful way of life. How dangerous it is to believe the heresies of Calvin and others that taught that we are all predestined to be either the elect of God or condemned to Hell for our sins, that we contribute nothing to the result. The demons have infiltrated even those that claim to be followers of God and have confused millions of people, causing them to remain idle in the race for Salvation.

    Another question that arises from reading this passage is, ‘why does Jesus ask the man if he would like to be made whole?’ It clearly states that Jesus knew that he had been in this state of infirmity for a long time, and we also know that Jesus is fully God, and therefore knows all things. So why did he ask him a question that he knew the answer to and that quite frankly seems somewhat obvious to even us who have limited knowledge? We see that this man had great perseverance and never despaired of being healed by his continuing to come to the pool hoping that one day a man would help him to be put into the pool. The Lord in asking a question that many would respond to in frustration or anger, wanted to display the patience and meekness of the man worthy of Jesus’ healing. Just as He had asked for faith from those that had seen Him perform miracles before he would heal them, here He displays the virtues of the man that He is about to heal. The man answers gently and humbly, he does not blaspheme, he does not rebuke Christ for asking a dumb question, he does not curse the day of his birth. He responds this way without even knowing to whom he is speaking, but simply wanted help from Jesus to be put into the water. He endured this for 38 years and did not despair, but we suffering minor afflictions curse God and turn against Him.

    After the man is healed, our Lord tells the man, “Thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” From this we learn that this man’s infirmity was a result of his sins, much like most infirmities of man. When we suffer, we should seek the cause of the suffering in ourselves. “We should remember all of our sins from childhood onwards; remembering them with the fear of God and with the expectation of suffering for our sins.” (St. Nikolai Velimirovich) St. Nikolai Velimirovich says, “Blessed is the man who uses his sufferings, knowing that all suffering in this brief life is loosed on men by God in His love for mankind, for the benefit and assistance of men. In His mercy, God looses suffering on men because of their sins – by His mercy and not His justice. In place of death, God gives healing through suffering. Suffering is God’s way of healing the soul of its sinful leprosy and its death. Only the foolish think that suffering is evil. Only sin in a man is a real evil, and there is no evil outside sin.”

    May we recognize our sins and when suffering exclaim the last words of our Father amongst the Saints, St. John Chrysostom, when he was dying in exile, tormented and despised by men, “Glory to God for everything!” Amen.

On the Paralyzed man in Capernaum

 

Excerpts from St. Gregory Palamas' homily on the Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Holy Lent on the Paralyzed man in Capernaum:

"It was love of human honor that distanced the Pharisees from faith in the Lord, which is why He said to them, “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” (John 5:44). Others were prevented from drawing near by lands, weddings, or worries about the affairs of this life (Luke 14:18–20), but the paralyzed man's physical weakness put an end to such things and removed them from his thoughts. There are times when illness is better for sinners than good health, because it helps them towards salvation and blunts their inborn evil impulses. Inasmuch as it repays the debt of sins by means of suffering, it makes them able to receive healing of their souls in the first instance, then healing of their bodies. This happens most of all when the sick person, understanding that the affliction is a remedy from God, bears it courageously, falls down before God with faith and asks for forgiveness, through whatever works he can manage. This was shown by the paralyzed man who did what he could, and proved by the Lord's own words and actions. The Pharisees, however, were incapable of comprehending, and blasphemed and murmured among themselves (Mark 2:6–7). “When Jesus”, it says, “saw their faith”, the faith, that is, of the bed-ridden man who had been lowered, and of those who had let him down from the roof, “he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5).

What a blessed way to be addressed! He hears himself called “son” and is adopted as the child of the heavenly Father. He is joined to God who is without sin, having immediately become sinless himself through the forgiveness of his sins. In order that his body can subsequently be renewed, his soul first receives deliverance from sin from the Lord, who knows that in the beginning when the soul fell into the snares of sin, physical illness and death followed, in accordance with His righteous judgment.

They said that they had never seen anything like this, glorifying God by their words and showing that this miracle was greater than any previous ones. But we are unable to say the same now, for we have seen many much greater miracles performed not only by Christ but also by His disciples and their successors, just by calling upon Christ's name. Let us then, brethren, glorify Him now by our actions, regarding this miracle anagogically as a pattern for virtue. Anyone addicted to sensual pleasures is paralyzed in his soul, and is lying sick on the bed of voluptuousness with its deceptive bodily ease. Once, however, he has been won over by the exhortations in the Gospel, he confesses his sins and triumphs over them and the paralysis they have brought upon his soul. He is taken up and brought to the Lord by these four: self-condemnation, confession of former sins, promising to renounce evil ways from now on, and prayer to God. They cannot, however, bring him near to God without uncovering the roof, scattering the tiles, earth and other building material. Our roof is the reasoning part of the soul, which is set above everything else within us. But it has lying on top of it, like a large quantity of building material, its connection with the passions and earthly matters. Once this connection has been loosed and shaken off by means of the four things we have mentioned, then we can really be let down, that is, humbled, fall down before the Lord, draw near to Him and ask and receive His healing.

When did these acts of repentance take place? At the time when Jesus came to His own city, which means, after He came in the flesh to stay in the world which He created and is therefore His own. As the evangelist says of Him, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:11–12). So when we fall down before Him with such faith, our paralyzed mind immediately hears Him saying “Son”, and receives forgiveness and healing. In addition it receives strength to lift up and carry the bed on which it is lying. The bed is to be understood as the body to which the mind which pursues fleshly desires clings, and through which it applies itself to sinful actions. After being healed, our mind has our body under control and leads and carries it about."

Holy Cross Orthodox Mission founding by Archbishop Peter

 

    We are happy to announce that Archbishop Peter has founded our mission, giving us the name of Holy Cross Orthodox Mission. Our parish feast day is August 1/14 for the Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. We are grateful for the support and pray that we will continue to grow in size and in God's Love. For now, Fr. David Companik will continue to server our mission with the Holy Mysteries of the Church once a month. We will continue in our reader services on the other weekends. Under the guidance of Fr. John Whiteford we pray Small Compline on Saturday evenings at 6 pm and Third and Sixth hours and the Typika on Sunday morning at 10 am.  All are welcome to attend.  Here is a link to our address.

Sincerely,

Greg Solis
gregsolisjr@gmail.com
361-249-7908

Matthew 15:21-28 - The Canaanite Woman

 

²¹ Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
²² And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
²³ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
²⁴ But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
²⁵ Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
²⁶ But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
²⁷ And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
²⁸ Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

          How do we respond when people ignore us, oppose us, or insult us? In our pride, we begin to think negatively about the person doing it, rarely recognizing our own sinfulness and our deserving of calamity.

            We have all most likely committed deeds worthy of God's wrath, but have hopefully been forgiven such deeds through baptism and confession. We therefore are in no position to expect good things to come to us because of our worthiness.

            It is always a blessing when good things happen, but when we confront trials, we must remember that we are deserving of all kinds of suffering due to our choosing to reject God, the source of Life.

            While we as Christians have been forgiven our sins, in God's wisdom, He allows us to continue to confront trials to help us grow in virtue and to help others to see how to respond to temptation. God only allows bad things to happen if it could be of benefit in some way.

            The woman in today's Gospel reading is one of the greatest examples of the humility and faith required to enter into the Kingdom of God. She was not even from the Jewish race, shaming those that rejected our Lord, and offering hope to those outside the Church.

            Having experienced the hardships of life in this fallen world and in idolatrous beliefs, she was seeking for the True God. And by persistence in searching for such relief, God encountered her giving her the opportunity to come to True Faith and be healed.

            But our Lord Jesus Christ, wanting to show us the humility and perseverance needed by us greatly sinful beings originally made in the image of God Himself, allowed the great Saint to be tested for our instruction.

            He first ignores her entreaty and then states that He was not sent to those outside Israel. And even after her worshipping Him and begging for His help, He answers with the words, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs."

            Our Lord was not personally insulting this great Saint with these actions, but rather rebuking those outside of His chosen people that were still in idolatry and living as mere beasts in their sinful way of life.

            This holy women was able to understand our Lord's words because of her humility and felt no anger because of the truth in them; that she was not worthy of God's mercy, but asked it nonetheless as a gift.

            She not only acknowledged that she was more comparable to a dog than to a child of God, but even added that these children of God were her masters.

            Our Lord teaches us about the Eucharist in these words by speaking of the bread for the children of God. We see that it is not for those outside the Church, but those that have come to the Church in a lowly state eat the crumbs that fall from the table. We should all feel as lowly as dog's ourselves and our brothers in the Church as Children of God.

            She knew that a crumb from this bread of Life was enough to heal her daughter that was possessed by a devil. She only longed to be allowed to be a lowly member of the household of God. She sought the lowest place and was rewarded by God.

            This is a very encouraging account that displays God's great call to all mankind. He draws all those searching for Him and encounters them, but requires that they come in humility and conversion from their former sinful way of life.

            We see that while the Apostles were not able to cast out a demon out of a young boy, this woman had learned the method of casting out demons by humility and faith.

            St. John Chrysostom explains that we have to do our part if we are to successfully conquer the devil saying, "Seest thou how this woman too contributed not a little to the healing of her daughter? For to this purpose neither did Christ say, 'Let thy little daughter be made whole,' but, ' Great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt;' to teach thee that the words were not used at random, nor were they flattering words, but great was the power of her faith."

            We need to remember our humble beginning as Christians and not allow ourselves to think more of ourselves than we ought, believing that we are worthy of eating at the table of God because of our great piety. We could easily find ourselves cast out and others with humility found in our place.

            May we stay lowly of heart, conquering temptations that test our pride. Only then will we be freed from our demonic passions and hear our Lord say to us, "O great is thy faith: be it unto thee as thou wilt!" Amen.