St. John Chrysostom on Paralytic II, Homily 29 on Matthew 9

In this case indeed He discloses also another sign, and that no small one, of His own Godhead, and of His equality in honor with the Father. For whereas they said, “To unbind sins pertains to God only,” He not only unbinds sins, but also before this He makes another kind of display in a thing which pertained to God only; the publishing the secrets in the heart. For neither had they uttered what they were thinking.

For “behold, certain of the scribes,” it says, “said within themselves, This man blasphemes. And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” Matthew 9:3-4

But that it belongs to God only to know men’s secrets, hear what says the prophet, “Thou most entirely alone know the hearts;” 2 Chronicles 6:30 and again, “God tries the hearts and reins;” and Jeremiah too says, “The heart is deep above all things, and it is man, and who shall know him?”and, “Man shall look on the face, but God on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 And by many things one may see, that to know what is in the mind belongs to God alone.

Implying therefore that He is God, equal to Him that begat Him; what things they were reasoning in themselves (for through fear of the multitude, they durst not utter their mind), this their opinion He unveils and makes manifest, evincing herein also His great gentleness.

“For wherefore,” says He, “think ye evil in your hearts?” Matthew 9:4

And yet if there were cause for displeasure, it was the sick man who should have been displeased, as being altogether deceived, and should have said “One thing I came to have healed, and amendest Thou another? Why, whence is it manifest that my sins are forgiven?”

But now he for his part utters no such word, but gives himself up to the power of the healer; but these being curious and envious, plot against the good deeds of others. Wherefore He rebukes them indeed, but with all gentleness. “Why, if you disbelieve,” says He, “what went before, and account my saying a boast; behold I add to it also another, the uncovering of your secrets; and after that again another.” What then is this? The giving tone to the body of the paralyzed.

And whereas, when He spoke unto the sick of the palsy, He spoke without clearly manifesting His own authority: for He said not, “I forgive you your sins,” but, “your sins be forgiven you:” upon their constraining, He discloses His authority more clearly, saying, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.”

Do you see, how far He was from unwillingness to be thought equal to the Father? For He said not at all, “The Son of Man has need of another;” or, “He has given Him authority,” but, “He has authority.” Neither does He say it for love of honor, but “to convince you,” so He speaks, “that I do not blaspheme in making myself equal with God.”

Thus everywhere His will is to offer proofs clear and indisputable; as when He says, “Go your way, show yourself to the priest;” Matthew 8:4 and when He points to Peter’s wife’s mother ministering, and permits the swine to cast themselves down headlong. And in the same manner here also; first, for a certain token of the forgiveness of his sins, He provides the giving tone to his body: and of that again, his carrying his bed; to hinder the fact from being thought a mere fancy. And He does not this, before He had asked them a question. “For whether is easier,” says He, “to say, Your sins be forgiven you? or to say, Take up your bed, and go unto your house?” Matthew 9:5-6 Now what He says is like this, “Which seems to you easier, to bind up a disorganized body, or to undothe sins of a soul? It is quite manifest; to bind up a body. For by how much a soul is better than a body, by so much is the doing away sins a greater work than this; but because the one is unseen, the other in sight, I throw in that, which although an inferior thing, is yet more open to sense; that the greater also and the unseen may thereby receive its proof;” thus by His works anticipating even now the revelation of what had been said by John, that “He takes away the sins of the world.”

Well then, having raised him up, He sends him to his house; here again signifying His unboastfulness, and that the event was not a mere imagination; for He makes the same persons witnesses of his infirmity, and also of his health. For I indeed had desired, says He, through your calamity to heal those also, that seem to be in health, but are diseased in mind; but since they will not, depart thou home, to heal them that are there.

Do you see how He indicates Him to be Creator both of souls and bodies? He heals therefore the palsy in each of the two substances, and makes the invisible evident by that which is in sight. But nevertheless they still creep upon the earth.

“For when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which” (it is said) “had given such power unto men:”for the flesh was an offense unto them. But He did not rebuke them, but proceeds by His works to arouse them, and exalt their thoughts. Since for the time it was no small thing for Him to be thought greater than all men, as having come from God. For had they well established these things in their own minds, going on orderly they would have known, that He was even the Son of God. But they did not retain these things clearly, wherefore neither were they able to approach Him. For they said again, “This man is not of God;” John 9:16 “how is this man of God?” And they were continually harping on these things, putting them forward as cloaks for their own passions.

Which thing many now also do; and thinking to avenge God, fulfill their own passions, when they ought to go about all with moderation. For even the God of all, having power to launch His thunderbolt against them that blaspheme Him, makes the sun to rise, and sends forth the showers, and affords them all other things in abundance; whom we ought to imitate, and so to entreat, advise, admonish, with meekness, not angry, not making ourselves wild beasts.

For no harm at all ensues unto God by their blasphemy, that you should be angered, but he who blasphemed has himself also received the wound. Wherefore groan, bewail, for the calamity indeed deserves tears. And the wounded man, again,—nothing can so heal him as gentleness: gentleness, I say, which is mightier than any force.

See, for example, how He Himself, the insulted one, discourses with us, both in the Old Testament, and in the New; in the one saying, “O my people, what have I done unto you?” Micah 6:3 in the other, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me.” Acts 9:4 And Paul too bids, “In meekness instruct those that oppose themselves.” 2 Timothy 2:25 And Christ again, when His disciples had come to Him, requiring fire to come down from heaven, strongly rebuked them, saying, “You know not what manner of spirit you are of.”

And here again He said not, “O accursed, and sorcerers as you are; O you envious, and enemies of men’s salvation;” but, “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?”

We must, you see, use gentleness to eradicate the disease. Since he who is become better through the fear of man, will quickly return to wickedness again. For this cause He commanded also the tares to be left, giving an appointed day of repentance. Yea, and many of them in fact repented, and became good, who before were bad; as for instance, Paul, the Publican, the Thief; for these being really tares turned into kindly wheat. Because, although in the seeds this cannot be, yet in the human will it is both manageable and easy; for our will is bound by no limits of nature, but has freedom of choice for its privilege.

Accordingly, when you see an enemy of the truth, wait on him, take care of him, lead him back into virtue, by showing forth an excellent life, by applying “speech that cannot be condemned,” Titus 2:8 by bestowing attention and tender care, by trying every means of amendment, in imitation of the best physicians. For neither do they cure in one manner only, but when they see the wound not yield to the first remedy, they add another, and after that again another; and now they use the knife, and now bind up. And do thou accordingly, having become a physician of souls, put in practice every mode of cure according to Christ’s laws; that you may receive the reward both of saving yourself and of profiting others, doing all to the glory of God, and so being glorified also yourself. “For them that glorify me,” says He, “I will glorify; and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed.”

Let us, I say, do all things unto His glory; that we may attain unto that blessed portion, unto which God grant we may all attain, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might forever and ever. Amen.

St. John Chrysostom on the Paralytic; Homily29 on Matthew 9

“And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; your sins be forgiven you.”

By His own city here he means Capernaum. For that which gave Him birth was Bethlehem; that which brought Him up, Nazareth; that which had Him continually inhabiting it, Capernaum.

This paralytic, however, was different from that one who is set forth in John. John 5:1 For he lay at the pool, but this at Capernaum; and that man had his infirmity thirty and eight years, but concerning this, no such thing is mentioned; and the other was in a state destitute of protectors, but this had some to take care of him, who also took him up, and carried him. And to this He says, “Son, your sins be forgiven you, “but to that He says, “Will you be made whole?” John 5:6 And the other He healed on a Sabbath day, but this not on a Sabbath, for else the Jews would have laid this also to His charge; and in the case of this man they were silent, but in that of the other they were instant in persecuting him.
And this I have said, not without purpose, lest any one should think there is a discrepancy from suspecting it to be one and the same paralytic.

But do thou, I pray you, mark the humility and meekness of our Lord. For He had also before this put away the multitudes from Him, and moreover when sent away by them at Gadara, He withstood not, but retired, not however to any great distance.

And again He entered into the ship and passed over, when He might have gone over afoot. For it was His will not to be always doing miracles, that He might not injure the doctrine of His humanity.
Now Matthew indeed says, that “they brought him,” but the others, that they also broke up the roof, and let him down. And they put the sick man before Christ, saying nothing, but committing the whole to Him. For though in the beginning He Himself went about, and did not require so much faith of them that came unto Him; yet in this case they both approached Him, and had faith required on their part. For, “Seeing,” it is said, “their faith;” that is, the faith of them that had let the man down. For He does not on all occasions require faith on the part of the sick only: as for instance, when they are insane, or in any other way, through their disease, are out of their own control. Or rather, in this case the sick man too had part in the faith; for he would not have suffered himself to be let down, unless he had believed.

Forasmuch then as they had evinced so great faith, He also evinces His own power, with all authority absolving his sins, and signifying in all ways that He is equal in honor with Him that begat Him. And mark; He implied it from the beginning, by His teaching, when He taught them as one having authority; by the leper, when He said, “I will, be thou clean,” Matthew 8:3 by the centurion, when upon his saying, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, He marvelled at him,” Matthew 8:8 and celebrated him above all men; by the sea, when He curbed it with a mere word; by the devils, when they acknowledged Him as their judge, and He cast them out with great authority.

Here again in another and a greater way He constrains His very enemies to confess His equality in honor, and by their own mouth He makes it manifest. For He, to signify His indifference to honor (for there stood a great company of spectators shutting up the entrance, wherefore also they let him down from above), did not straightway hasten to heal the visible body, but He takes His occasion from them; and He healed first that which is invisible, the soul, by forgiving his sins; which indeed saved the other, but brought no great glory to Himself. They themselves rather, troubled by their malice, and wishing to assail Him, caused even against their will what was done to be conspicuous. He, in fact, in His abundance of counsel, made use of their envy for the manifestation of the miracle.

Upon their murmuring, then, and saying, “This man blasphemes; who can forgive sins but God only?”let us see what He says. Did He indeed take away the suspicion? And yet if He were not equal, He should have said, “Why fix upon me a notion which is not convenient? I am far from this power.” But now has He said none of these things, but quite the contrary He has both affirmed and ratified, as well by His own voice, as by the performance of the miracle. Thus, it appearing that His saying certain things of Himself gave disgust to his hearers, He affirms what He had to say concerning Himself by the others; and what is truly marvelous, not by His friends only, but also by His enemies; for this is the excellency of His wisdom. By His friends on the one hand, when He said, “I will, be thou clean,” Matthew 8:3 and when He said, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel;” Matthew 8:10 but by His enemies, now. For because they had said, “No man can forgive sins but God only,” He subjoined,
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins upon the earth (then says He to the sick of the palsy), Arise, and take up your bed, and go unto your house.”

And not here only, but also in another case again, when they were saying, “For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest yourself God,” John 10:33 neither in that instance did He put down this opinion, but again confirmed it, saying, “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works.” John 10:37-38

Sermon 5th Sunday After Pentecost

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and the Holy Spirit,

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ in today’s Gospel we hear of our Lord Jesus Christ’s encounter with the two demon possessed men in the country side of the Gergesenes.

We do not know why these men are possessed by demons. We only know the results of the possession. We see their anger with God and their fellow man in the words of the Gospel saying “coming out from the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.” (Matthew 8:28)

Saint Nikolaj Velimirovic observes that “Men work unrighteousness against God and so they are angry with God.” All too often people will sin against God or their fellow man and blame God for the consequences of their actions.

All sin is rooted in the inappropriate use of our self will. When we sin we either place ourselves above God or above our fellow man. In doing so, we enter into a dissonant state. We are out of harmony with God and creation. In the worst cases of a sinful life the person becomes so out of harmony with God and creation no one wants to be near that person or to use the words of the Gospel they become “exceedingly fierce.”

In the most severe cases the thought comes to the person to deny the existence of God. They say to themselves “If there was truly a God this would not have happened to me!” They do not see the consequences they are experiencing are a result of their own actions. In a sense they try to silence God in their lives and the lives of others.

However this does not work. They often reach a point of despair and cry out “God Help Me!!!” This is because in trying to silence God His truth is proclaimed. It says this in the Gospel of Saint Luke when the leaders of the Jewish people are trying to silence the children as our Lord is entering Jerusalem “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40) Or as it further says in the Psalms “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1)

If the soul does not reach this point of despair, crying out for God’s help, then sprits of evil will take possession of the soul to fill the void left by the lack of God. This is what happened in the case of these two men.

The demons or fallen angels have utter contempt for man. They wish to destroy the crown of God’s creation man because man is created in created in God’s image and likeness. This is because the demons were once close to God before their fall. Their leader was one of the brightest and closest angles to God. It describes his fall in the Prophecy of Isaiah “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the ground…Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” (Isaiah 14: 12,15) The demons want to bring man down so that he may suffer in the same manner as them. The demons are out to destroy every man. Saint Paul refers to his struggle with the demons as “a thorn in the flesh.” (II Corinthians 12:7)

We can see the lack of concern for God and the men by demons in today’s Gospel when they say “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29)

In this response to Jesus we see two things. The first is the incompatibility of a life with God and that with evil. Saint Paul reminds us of this when he said to the Corinthians “what concord has Christ with Belial?” (II Corinthians 6:15)

The second is that the demons already know the results of their rebellion against God. They know the torment that awaits them. The prophet Isaiah describes this torment in the following way he, Lucifer, will be “cast out of your grave like an abominable branch,… that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.” (Isaiah 14:19). Our Lord further testified to this when He said in the Gospel of Saint Luke “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” (Luke 10:18)

This same end that awaits the demons will come to the man that is an unrepentant sinner. Our Lord tells us of this when he describes the awesome and fearful Last Judgment in the Gospel of Saint Matthew “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41)

Saint Nikolaj Velimirovic points out in his commentary on this Gospel that that the demons never mention the men when they say “If you cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.” (Matthew 8:31) because the men are dead to the demons. Saint Nikolaj goes on to say “They did not want to leave the man; they would have infinitely rather have stayed in him then go into the swine…While the demons can make men like swine, and far worse than swine, what can they make of swine?……They will through the swine, go on doing man harm; if in no other way then by drowning the swine and provoking men’s fury against God.”

Then why does our Lord allow the demons to enter the swine? Saint John Chrysostom answers this question in the following way “One, to teach them that are delivered from those wicked tyrants, how great the malice of their insidious enemies: another, that all might learn, how not even against swine are they bold, except He allow them; a third, that they would have treated those men more grievously than the swine, unless even in their calamity they had enjoyed much of God’s providential care. For that they hate us more than the brutes are surely evident to every man. So then they that spared not the swine, but in one moment of time cast them all down the precipice, much more would they have done so to the men whom they possessed, leading them towards the desert, and carrying them away, unless even in their very tyranny the guardian care of God had abounded, to curb and check the excess of their violence. Whence it is manifest that there is no one, who does not enjoy the benefit of God’s providence. And if not all alike, nor after one manner, this is itself a very great instance of providence; in that according to each man’s profit, the work also of providence is displayed.”

The result of casting out of these demons is that the town’s people see the two men in their right minds healed and their swine destroyed. They cannot see the miracle that just happened. All they can see is the destruction of the swine. They do not see how much God valued these men or any man. Our Lord reminds us of our value to Him when He says “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear you not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:30-31)

So my dear brothers in sisters in Christ know that you are under attack by the demons that wish to drag you down with then into the abyss of hell which they created for themselves; know that you can create this same hell for yourself and know that God is there to save you from the abyss of hell because you are the crown of His creation created in His image and likeness.

Amen

Delivered by Fr. Milan Medakovic at Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost 2009.

Smile from Eternity

The following was taken from website of the Holy Monastery of Pantocrator

The Funeral of Blessed Elder Joseph of Vatopedi. (follow this link for video of the funeral)

Yesterday (7/1/09) at 6:00pm the Service of the Departed was performed for the blessed Elder Joseph the Vatopedian, at the Catholicon of the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi, it concluded at 9:00pm and afterwards followed a brief dinner at the Synodic of the Monastery and at the Trapeza.

.
The funeral was attended by 4 hierarchs, 10 abbots, Holy Primus Elder Symeon Dionysiatis and the Holy Hierarchy of the Holy Mountain, tens of priests and hundreds of faithful, who having learned of the departure of the blessed Elder, came to the Monastery from many parts of Greece and Cyprus, leaving behind their work and activities pending.

Eulogies were made in succession by His Holiness Metropolitan of Lemesou, Athanasios, and the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi, Archimandrite Ephraim, as spiritual children of the Elder stressed with overwhelming emotion of the great paternal love of the Elder they lived under all these years that they associated with him. The Most Reverend Metropolitan of Kastoria, Seraphim, followed by stressing the contribution of the Elder to the lay Christians with his consoling and distinguished discussions and his writings, who also left a sample of forgiveness and of no malice to those who unjustly accused and slandered him. While at the Synodic, the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petras, Archimandrite Eliseos, remarked that the Elder was a point of reference for the Holy Mountain, who was always preoccupied with the desire to see the monks love God. Every meeting with the Elder was an experience

Those who were at the funeral were blessed to offer their last kiss to the Elder and receive for the last time his blessing. There however, they found themselves face to face not with the cold relics but gazing at a cheerful and joyful face, as if he were offering a smile from eternity. As far as I am concerned, for the first time in my life, I was seeing such a living expression in a dead person (you can observe the face of the Elder in the photos).

The Elder was not buried in the cemetery of the Monastery but outside the Catholicon, at its North-eastern part, where his grave will be prepared in a few years.

All those present had the assurance of the repose of the Elder at the right side of God. The emotions were mixed, sadness and at the same time joy of resurrection. May we have his blessing.