Orthodox Sermons & Articles

The Fourth Sunday of Great Lent marks the beginning of the second half of the fasting period dedicated to our spiritual rebirth through repentance. In commemoration Jesus Christ’s forty day fast, this Lent helps us with our internal struggles against our sins and demoniac influences in order to overcome them, and victoriously submit our will to the Lord. From the example of Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness, we can learn that the spiritual fight with the power of darkness is unavoidable. If the Son of God incarnate – Who was and still is sinless – had to face the devil’s temptations, then we who sin daily have an obvious need to receive help in this spiritual battle. Great Lent is the time established by the Church to enable us to help one another to achieve victory through forgiveness, sincere repentance and humble recognition of God’s authority.

Today, the Holy Orthodox Church delivers to us another confirmation of the benefits of fasting. In his Gospel, St. Mark the Evangelist tells us about Jesus’ teaching regarding fasting. After the unsuccessful attempt to cast out a demon from the boy, Christ’s Apostles faced defeat – the boy’s father rejected them and had no faith in their abilities or special gifts. However, this was not the only negative comment the apostles’ received. When Jesus came to that place, He confronted the crowd including His Apostles regarding their faithlessness, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?"

Nevertheless, after the father’s detailed explanation of his desperate need, Jesus healed the boy who was in agony by the devil that possessed him. However, the request of the unfortunate father could be answered only upon the declaration of his faith. The Lord asked the man if he believed that Jesus could perform the miracle. Being not sure if the deepness of his faith would be enough, the humble father answered wisely, "I do believe; help my unbelief!" In other words, if my faith is not strong enough, please strengthen it now to ensure that my son will no longer be under the influence of devil! Obviously, the faith of this father was fortified by what he had seen – by the command of Jesus Christ, the deaf and dumb spirit went out of the boy.

The process of this healing, dear brothers and sisters, shows us that evil spirits have only one intention – to damage our souls and to make fun of our free will by deceitfully dragging us into their possession. Unfortunately, most of the time we easily follow their lead and fall into sin through various temptations. Eventually, we can become possessed by evil spirits in one way or another and could remain under their influence forever if we did not ask for help from Jesus Christ. The father from the story had the courage to come to the Lord and ask Him for His merciful help. We should learn to do the same, dear brothers and sisters, because without demonstrating an effort to prove our faith in Jesus, without a desire to deny evil spirits and without asking for help, God will not perform miracles. He respects our free will and therefore we have to make our move by coming to Him.

The second part of this story is about the necessity of prayer and fasting. When Jesus was asked about the reason for the Apostles’ inability to cast out the demon, He answered, "This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting." The importance of combining these two helpful spiritual tools – prayer and fasting – has been revealed in the Gospel story. As you heard, the possessed boy was freed from his infirmity by the command of the One Who Himself prayed and fasted.

The words of Jesus Christ about fasting and prayers should cause Christians who have been rejecting fasting as a helpful and important tool for salvation to rethink their position on this matter. If we put all the information given to us about fasting together, including Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness and His encouraging teaching about the matter, we will have a very clear picture. Fasting is a helpful instrument to enable a victorious battle against the sinful desires generated within us either by our fallen minds or by evil spirits. Combined with prayer, fasting teaches us to recognize our weaknesses, to stay clean from the stain of sin and to submit our will to the will of God ,Who alone knows what is really useful for our souls.

St. Paul the Apostle in today’s Epistle reading reveals to us yet other truth about God. God has promised to us a steadfast hope for our future. In seeing the reward, we are more able to the find strength to remain faithful to the last day of our lives because this hope leads us to the Holy of Holies, the place where Jesus entered after His Ascension. Intentionally showing that God has always been faithful to His words, Paul leads us to the conclusion that our Lord will be faithful to His own words this time also when He promised us a place beside Him in the Heavenly Kingdom.

Dear brothers and sisters, by using the two spiritual tools, prayer and fasting, and keeping our hope in the fulfillment of God’s promises, let us exercise spiritual activeness for our own eternal benefits. Each one of us knows our personal sins and the temptations we have to battle. Therefore, let us listen to the words of the Lord and use the remaining time of the Great Lent to improve our inner state by following His guidelines. Honest fulfillment of God’s commandments or recommendations will teach us to be humble and will show us what we lack in order to undergo the necessary improvement.

May the remaining time of Great Lent be the time of reconsideration of our priorities. May we learn to fast and pray correctly in order to achieve victory over the deceitful powers that want us to fail. Let us also forgive so that we could be forgiven. May the Merciful Lord help us to achieve everything necessary for our salvation through hope in the Christ Jesus.

Amen.