Orthodox Sermons & Articles

Obviously, not every illness of ours is a gift from God. Most of the time, it is a result of our sinful life, which we chose to lead on our own. However, we can turn any of our illnesses or troubles into a visitation by God by acting with a proper attitude towards it. Specifically, sincere recognition that our wrong doings could cause the particular illness or problem. Yes, our spiritual well-being is closely tied up with our physical well-being and they both can influence each other. It means that when we pay too much attention to the needs of our body and do not coordinate it with our soul’s needs, the soul suffers because it becomes abandoned or neglected in the same way our body suffers when we neglect it.

 

Often, when we fail to care for our souls or bodies, this can cause our bodies to fall into either a physical or a physiological disease. This is a state where we humans, feed our depressions and unstable conditions with unhealthy and impure thoughts and activities. This is why the church always reminds her children, to start the healing of the body, by first healing the soul through the great Sacraments of Penitence and Holy Communion combined with the Holy Unction. This we usually perform in the hospitals but we can do it at our homes as well. St. James, the Apostle teaches us through his epistle that the confession of our sins and prayer are essential for our bodily healing. He writes: "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed" (James 5:14-16).

 

Most of the time, we forget about this and try only pills and drugs that may relieve the symptoms, but will not resolve the cause of the illness, which many times lie within our souls. Today’s Gospel story is different, as Jesus heals one who was ill expressly for showing the works and mercy of God. This man was special to God as he humbly carried on with his blindness. So it is with each those who were born with such disabilities. Blindness was blocking the way for light into the man’s eyes but it could not block the grace of God to enter into his soul and keep it healthy. After his healing, the blind man was arguing with the Pharisees and the Elders of the Jews about Jesus only because he had strong faith in Him as in his Savior. Sadly, the Pharisees did not want to accept it.

 

Dear brothers and sisters, we should always remember this story, particularly when we fall into any illness, as we will find consolation in it. Once we start thinking about our souls, we will learn to humble ourselves before God’s wise works within each of us, and this will initiate the beginning of our recovery.

 

Today’s Epistle reading tells us about the marvelous things that the Apostles were able to do in the name of the Lord during their preaching of the word of God to the people. It also teaches us not to put the blame for our misfortunes on God because in a moment He can turn it into our personal profit. Today’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles tells us a story of what happened to Paul and his companions in Philippi on their missionary trip around the empire. Paul had cast out demon that possessed a slave-girl. This girl was walking behind them crying out that these men were the "servants of the Most High God". This brought attention to her as to a truth-telling possessed girl. Paul rejected this kind of truth telling so that people would not look at this girl as to a prophet, as being demon-possessed she was working for her unjust masters and earning great amounts of money for them. After the demon was cast out, this co-called "gift of fortune-telling" was gone as well, and the angry masters of the girl threw Paul and his companion into the prison because they no longer had a means of acquiring money through this girl.

 

When I said that today’s Epistle reading teaches us not to put the blame for our misfortunes on God, as He can turn any of it into our profit, I was referring to exactly this place written in the Acts of the Apostles. Just ask yourself this question: "Why would Jesus Christ allow His servants and Apostles to be taken and thrown into the prison?" They were preaching His Gospel and yet He did nothing to prevent them from this imprisonment. Aren’t we asking the same kind of question, dear brothers and sisters, when we "feel" that we are being "punished" by God for nothing or maybe even for being honest and truthful?

 

Let us look how God dealt with this. When Paul and his companion were in the prison, a great earthquake suddenly commenced. The guard was ready to kill himself because the earthquake had opened all the doors of the prison, and he thought that because of this, the prisoners had all escaped. However, Paul had stopped him from this suicide as he showed him that no one had escaped. Later on, as we heard from the Epistle reading, that when the guard understood this miracle, he and his entire household was baptized by Paul in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

God had turned an apparently tragic event, the imprisonment of Paul and his companion into a glorious salvation of the guard and his family. Therefore, because we never know what we might receive later, let us not complain about what is happening to us today, but let us humbly accept any work of God within us.

 

Both of today’s readings express the same idea about our Lord Jesus Christ: He loves us very much (as He had proved on the Cross) and we have to follow His teaching no matter what happens to us especially when we don’t understand the reason for it. Dear brothers and sisters, whenever we are in a sick or an unfortunate situation, let us remember to be patient and ask God to turn our particular problem into an opportunity for our salvation. Our salvation is the chief priority of our earthly and temporal life because salvation is life everlasting with God in His Heavenly Kingdom. Let us learn from today’s Gospel and Epistle readings, the proper attitude to express towards our sufferings and to our misfortunes. Let us not hesitate to call a priest to our home or to the hospital, when we are in need of help, and let us always seek the healing power in our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.