Homily on the fourth Sunday of Holy Pascha
Acts 9: 32-42; John 5: 1-15
All seems doom and gloom in what has been a difficult month for many people. There is war, prices are up, and interest rates don’t seem to be going down. Despite these difficult circumstances we are called to be people of faith who trust and rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:4).
I often reflect, when things seem challenging, on what blessings the All-Holy Trinity has bestowed on me. Life can be tough, but we have a God who loves His people and no matter their struggles He will help them.
Many of the Saints took up their crosses and followed their Lord and Saviour to their martyrdom whether in the flesh or through the trials put on them by the evil one. One thing that shines through is their faith that the All-Holy Trinity would lead them through the land of troubles.
Psalm 23 puts it wonderfully for it says:
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
This psalm is essentially a prayer of trust in the Lord. For in it we see Saint David reflecting that even though he may have walked in the shadow of death – in some ways a metaphor for all the challenges he faced – God was there with him leading him forward.
We often forget this when times get tough because part of our human condition is to worry and think of the worst. Yet the worst often does not come to pass. This is why Christ tells us not to worry about the things like food and where we will lay our heads because the Lord will provide (Matthew 6: 26-27).
Oftentimes, what seemed at the time, an insurmountable challenge, is a temporary situation which can help us grow spiritually. God is there for us, all we have to do is to call out His name and have the faith to reach out to Him as did Saint Veronica. Her faith is what led to her healing by the Lord, for the Lord saw that she trusted Him, and by grabbing onto the hem of His clothes she was healed by His power (Luke 8:43-48).
Proverbs 3:5 puts it like this:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes.”
Also, Saint Isaiah, in the Book of Isaiah 26:4 makes it clear to us that we have a rock in the Lord for he says:
“Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:4).
The Lord will help those who cry to Him and ask Him respectfully for what they need. The Lord loves each and every one of us. One prayer I recommend to pray everyday is the ‘Our Father’, pray this prayer when things seem challenging. The Our Father is a prayer which expresses our abandonment to the All-Holy Trinity knowing that He will provide for us if we trust in Him.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage puts it wonderfully in his treatise on the Lord’s Prayer for he writes:
“He who, among His other salutary admonitions and divine precepts by which He counsels His people unto salvation, Himself also gave the form of praying, Himself advised and instructed us what to pray for. He who made us to live taught us also to pray, with the same benignity, namely by which He has deigned to give and bestow the other things, so that, while we speak to the Father with that prayer and supplication which the Son taught, we may more easily be heard. Already He had foretold that the hour was coming when ‘the true adorers would adore the Father in spirit and in truth’; and He fulfilled what He promised before, so that we, who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching adore truly and spiritually. For what prayer can be more spiritual than that which was given us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit was sent to us, what prayer to the Father can be more-true than that which was sent forth from the Son, who is truth, out of His mouth? So, to pray otherwise than He taught is not ignorance alone but even a sin, since He Himself has established and said: ‘You reject the command of God, that you may establish your own tradition. (Chapter 2).”
Note, that when Saint Cyprian of Carthage say to pray another way is a sin means that if our prayer does not conform to the commands of Christ and is not done in a way that reflects His teachings than we are willfully disobeying Him - which is sinful.
Furthermore, we have many examples in the scriptures of How Jesus prayed and as the Holy Apostles were taught by Him, they passed these ways of prayer onto the nascent Church. Therefore, these teachings have passed into the traditions of the Church and are reflected in the many Divine Liturgies which have been born in the Church - each one incorporates the Our Father in them as a sign of our faith in the Lord.
Moreover, in Chapter 3 of the same treatise he goes on to say:
“So let us pray, most beloved brethren, as God the Teacher has taught. It is a friendly and intimate prayer to beseech God with his own words, for the prayer of Christ to ascend to His ears. Let the Father acknowledge the words of His Son, when we make prayer. Let Him who dwells within our breast Himself be also in our voice, and since we have Him as the advocate for our sins before the Father, let us put forward the words of our Advocate. For since He says: ‘Whatsoever we shall ask the Father in His name, He will give us,’ how much more effectively do we obtain what we seek in the name of Christ, if we ask with His own prayer?”
Also, the Saint makes it clear that we are to ask for our needs respectfully for he writes:
“But let those who pray have words and petitions governed by restraint and possessing a quiet modesty. Let us bear in mind that we stand in the sight of God. We must be pleasing in the sight of God both with the habit of body and the measure of voice. For as it is characteristic of the impudent to be noisy with clamors, so on the other hand does it benefit the modest to pray with moderate petitions. Finally, in His teaching the Lord bade us to pray in secret, in hidden and remote places, in our very bed-chambers, because it is more befitting our faith to realize that God is everywhere present, that He hears and sees all, and by the plenitude of His majesty penetrates also hidden and secret places, as it is written: ‘I am a God at hand and not a God afar off. If a man hide himself in hidden places, shall I not see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ And again, ‘In every place the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the evil.’ And when we are gathered together with the brethren in one place and celebrate divine sacrifices with a priest of God, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline, and not toss our prayers about at random with uncouth voices and not cast forth with turbulent loquaciousness our petition, which should be commended to God in modesty, because the hearer is not of the voice but of the heart, and is not to be admonished by shouts, who sees our thoughts, as the Lord proves when He says: ‘Why do you think vainly in your hearts?’ And in another place: ‘And all the churches shall know that I am a searcher of the desires and the heart (Chapter 4).’
However, whilst the Lord commands us to pray our private prayer in secret, we as the Body of Christ, when we gather as a congregation to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, act with one accord to bring the greatest prayer of all unto the Lord the Holy Anaphora through the leadership of the priest - the Eucharistic Prayer. This is to say, that the priest as an icon of Christ leads his congregation in the Holy Anaphora and by the virtue of his ordination the Holy presence is made present for the congregation to receive in faith.
This great prayer culminating in the calling of the All-Holy Spirit to come on the gifts of bread and wine to become the Holy Body and Holy Blood of our Lord and Saviour - uniting us to Christ in the most perfect way possible through Holy Communion. This is why every Orthodox Congregation is mystically united to each other no matter where they are for through Holy Communion we are grafted onto Christ the vine, the source of our life.
Plus, the Lord does help those who try to help themselves. For by actively trying to change one is showing God that one wants to be better, and He will bless this effort. This is why many of the great Saints lived lives of monastic asceticism. They sought to be moulded by our Lord and Saviour in the spiritual desert. It is in this spiritual desert that they met their crucified Saviour who showed them the path that should follow carrying their crosses.
Whilst not everyone, is called to a monastic life, we are called to offer our sufferings unto God so that we become like the blameless one in every way. We are called to be icons of Christ in this world bringing His love to all His people. Some will reject this love; that is their choice. We are simply meant to show them this love and extend the invitation out to them to get to know Him.
Do not let the trials of this life cause you not to trust in Him. That is what the evil one wants you to do – despair and give up hope. We are called to be people of hope in a world plagued with hate and anger. This is the Christian way, this is why the great Saints always found ways to relish the good things God gave them, even when times were difficult.
The Jews of the First Century thought that the Holy Apostles mad because they preached a Crucified Lord. Yet the Lord provided them with everything that they needed to preach His Gospel of love.
Saint Paul put it wonderfully when he says:
“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11: 24-28).
Saint Paul does not list off these sufferings for our admiration, he lists them off to show that to be a Christian can expose us to trials. More importantly he tells us that we must always rejoice in the lord (Philippians 4:4).
What this all implies is that there will be times of trials but through these trials we must rejoice in the Lord and trust Him.
Do not forget just as parents mould and instruct a child so too does our Lord and Saviour. He allows us to grow and if we trust Him, we will eventually come out on top that much is for sure.
Finally, ask our Lord and Saviour for the grace to trust Him more and more for as noted above, it is through trusting in Him, that we will be brought to victory over the challenges we face in this life. Never stop trusting in the Lord for He has so much He desires to give you, through the Mysteries of His Holy Church, and He is the source of our help and protection.
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