WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:06.139 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:15.279 of the Holy Spirit. Someone in your house has 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:21.120 a dreadful accident. Life -threatening. You call 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.260 an ambulance. Ambulance is on the way. It stops. 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:32.899 For a long time. to care for someone else. Your 00:00:32.899 --> 00:00:38.460 beloved has died. If I had to transpose the story 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:42.380 today from the gospel into some modern situation, 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.259 perhaps that's the way I would think about it. 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:49.179 Except we're dealing with Jesus, not an ambulance. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.259 We've all been, brothers and sisters, especially 00:00:57.259 --> 00:01:05.239 our seniors, in situations of uncertainty. When 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:11.379 a beloved one is sick, maybe if those of you 00:01:11.379 --> 00:01:14.359 that are younger, you haven't experienced this, 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:21.519 you will. A beloved one is dying. You're afraid, 00:01:21.659 --> 00:01:25.739 you're anxious, you're in incredible pain and 00:01:25.739 --> 00:01:28.359 suffering. You're praying, you're praying constantly. 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:34.140 You're waiting for God to act. Where are you, 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:38.260 Lord, you say? Where are you? Why don't you act? 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:42.280 The story today has every drama you could think 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:48.319 of, but in brief words with no literary dramatic 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:52.319 technique, St. Luke, the physician, tells this 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:56.159 story about this father, and you have to imagine 00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:00.030 his wife. In terror for their daughter who is 00:02:00.030 --> 00:02:04.650 dying. The young girl herself probably in some 00:02:04.650 --> 00:02:10.550 pain. And then there's this woman. Tradition 00:02:10.550 --> 00:02:14.990 knows her as Veronica. In fact, tradition tells 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:19.830 us that she made a statue of Jesus. Which stood 00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:23.189 for a long time but was destroyed sometime in 00:02:23.189 --> 00:02:27.240 the third century. And here she is. Twelve years 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:30.080 she's suffering from this flow of menstrual blood, 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:34.560 which isolates her because she's unclean, not 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:38.900 sinful, just can't be touched in that society, 00:02:39.099 --> 00:02:45.000 in that religious situation. Can't eat with her 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.139 family, never touched or embraced by her husband 00:02:49.139 --> 00:02:52.139 or her children. Can't go to the synagogue or 00:02:52.139 --> 00:02:56.719 to the temple. The crushing loneliness and despair. 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:03.199 Perhaps some of you have known that feeling in 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:06.900 yourself or for someone you love and you pray. 00:03:09.219 --> 00:03:15.300 The gospel tells life like it is. There's nothing 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:20.310 sugar -coated in this gospel. Because Jesus has 00:03:20.310 --> 00:03:22.810 come to save us from all that destruction and 00:03:22.810 --> 00:03:26.610 corruption and pain. I don't say that on my own 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:30.330 authority or as some sort of wishful thinking 00:03:30.330 --> 00:03:38.270 about the future. The apostles were called together. 00:03:38.370 --> 00:03:41.610 Jesus gave them power over unclean spirits to 00:03:41.610 --> 00:03:44.289 cast them out and to heal every manner of disease. 00:03:46.849 --> 00:03:52.009 Today, we're celebrating That beginning of the 00:03:52.009 --> 00:03:55.530 rescue, the change, the transformation, the healing 00:03:55.530 --> 00:03:59.550 of people in the church. I want to say something 00:03:59.550 --> 00:04:02.310 about illness too. But let me say something about 00:04:02.310 --> 00:04:05.289 the unmercenaries. Because today is the feast 00:04:05.289 --> 00:04:08.250 day of the gathering, the assembly, the synaxis 00:04:08.250 --> 00:04:12.050 in Greek of the unmercenary healers. Those who 00:04:12.050 --> 00:04:15.229 were doctors, physicians, and caregivers who 00:04:15.229 --> 00:04:18.990 healed without taking. In Greek, without taking 00:04:18.990 --> 00:04:25.509 silver. They weren't paid. What a precarious 00:04:25.509 --> 00:04:30.069 thing physical health is. Sickness, which by 00:04:30.069 --> 00:04:35.550 nature is not good. And suffering is not good. 00:04:36.790 --> 00:04:43.250 It is not part of God's divine plan. But he uses 00:04:43.250 --> 00:04:46.970 it. It's not part of his will, let's say. but 00:04:46.970 --> 00:04:50.250 he has used it in his plan so that it becomes 00:04:50.250 --> 00:04:56.550 a path of the cross and the resurrection. A cross 00:04:56.550 --> 00:04:58.990 is not something, as one famous writer said, 00:04:59.189 --> 00:05:03.250 to figure out and to get over it. A cross is 00:05:03.250 --> 00:05:08.110 something we carry and changes us. Sickness, 00:05:08.110 --> 00:05:12.790 then, in the light of God's help, when we're 00:05:12.790 --> 00:05:16.250 praying, when we're troubled, when we're unsure. 00:05:16.370 --> 00:05:20.610 Sickness illustrates the weakness of our human 00:05:20.610 --> 00:05:25.009 nature. It tells us we don't understand the mystery 00:05:25.009 --> 00:05:28.750 of life, our existence. It shows us how fragile 00:05:28.750 --> 00:05:32.949 we are. It shows our fallen nature, that we are 00:05:32.949 --> 00:05:35.689 not self -sufficient, although we pretend it 00:05:35.689 --> 00:05:40.810 and we live that way. And our pride is broken. 00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:46.180 St. Seraphim. our venerable father said, a person 00:05:46.180 --> 00:05:52.199 who is very sick comes back to himself. If one 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:55.220 has faith in Jesus Christ. Now faith in Jesus 00:05:55.220 --> 00:05:58.500 Christ is not something that comes because of 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.560 a miracle. And in this story today, Jesus sent 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:05.439 everyone out of the room. And he said, after 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:07.699 he healed and raised this girl from the dead, 00:06:07.819 --> 00:06:15.160 don't speak about this. Just another magician 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:20.839 trick. That's not what Jesus is about. Only believe, 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:26.060 the Lord said to Jairus. Only believe. And to 00:06:26.060 --> 00:06:28.639 the woman, tradition knows her again as Veronica. 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:36.079 He said, your faith has made you well. This healing 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.839 that goes on in the church, something from God. 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:43.079 We have these unmercenaries to get back to that. 00:06:43.389 --> 00:06:48.990 Cyrus and John, Panteleimon, Irmelaos, Diomedes, 00:06:49.069 --> 00:06:53.769 Samtison, Mochius, Photius, Aniketus, Artemius, 00:06:53.870 --> 00:06:58.310 Thalallius, Triphon, all martyrs, and St. Luke 00:06:58.310 --> 00:07:01.649 the surgeon, who died only in the 60s, and of 00:07:01.649 --> 00:07:05.430 course St. Luke the apostle. Perhaps the earliest 00:07:05.430 --> 00:07:10.860 healers of these are three women. who became 00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:13.920 the first in the long series of mercenary healers 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:19.680 stretched even to today. These women were sisters, 00:07:20.019 --> 00:07:25.399 Zenaida and Filonella. We have Carla Filonella 00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:31.420 in our parish, who is an immunologist, epidemiologist. 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:37.949 Is that right, Carla? With her Ph .D. These women 00:07:37.949 --> 00:07:40.290 were born in the early first century. They were 00:07:40.290 --> 00:07:43.149 believed to be, by the church, cousins of St. 00:07:43.310 --> 00:07:46.449 Paul the Apostle and highly educated women at 00:07:46.449 --> 00:07:49.069 that, which is unusual for the time. Both sisters 00:07:49.069 --> 00:07:53.170 studying philosophy. Now, philosophy in the ancient 00:07:53.170 --> 00:07:56.810 world is not what we think of it today. Philosophy 00:07:56.810 --> 00:08:00.810 was the study of all of nature, including medicine. 00:08:05.579 --> 00:08:09.779 Once they became Christian, Orthodox, they gave 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:13.519 themselves to the healing of others. So we have 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:16.000 them in the icon here and St. Panteleimon in 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.860 the middle as the leader of the unmercenary healers. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:29.079 They had faith. And listen to what the gospel 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:31.879 tells us. Faith in what? That they'd get well? 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:35.879 No. Or that they could heal? No. They had faith 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:39.279 that Jesus could heal, yes, but they had faith 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:42.320 in Jesus Christ as the bringer of the kingdom 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:46.460 of God. Not the kingdom of this world, but the 00:08:46.460 --> 00:08:51.259 kingdom of God. Their presence for someone in 00:08:51.259 --> 00:08:55.340 pain is the presence of God. And we have that 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:58.679 reading from marvelous, incredible reading of 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:02.059 St. Paul in 12th and 13th 1 Corinthians about 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:06.779 love. You are members of one another. You have 00:09:06.779 --> 00:09:10.519 all these gifts. But the highest gift, the one 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:13.559 that the unmercenaries demonstrated over and 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:20.240 over again, is the gift of agape, selfless, egoless 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:27.620 love, using the gift that God gave them. We can 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:34.039 cast in our faith all our hope. All our thoughts, 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:38.720 plans, fears, anxieties, whatever, on the mercy 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:44.700 of the Savior. Like the desperate Jairus and 00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:48.639 the desperate Veronica. Because faith leads to 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:55.139 holiness. We can trust Christ so much we can 00:09:55.139 --> 00:09:58.120 be like Joseph of Arimathea who served the Lord 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:01.440 even though he thought the dream was over. And 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:05.419 the Messiah, had failed. This is about love of 00:10:05.419 --> 00:10:10.159 God so deep that we trust in his providence. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:15.720 Or we can be like the young ruler with his wealth 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:21.960 who couldn't get over himself. I'll finish this 00:10:21.960 --> 00:10:27.000 brief meditation with these words from St. Barsanufius. 00:10:27.629 --> 00:10:30.029 one of the early writers on the spiritual life. 00:10:30.190 --> 00:10:34.590 He said, let us not give in. We have a merciful 00:10:34.590 --> 00:10:39.409 God who knows our weaknesses better than we do. 00:10:40.330 --> 00:10:44.429 And if, in order to test us, he sends illness, 00:10:44.549 --> 00:10:49.090 at least we have the apostle who provides us 00:10:49.090 --> 00:10:52.019 consolation when he says, God is faithful. and 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:54.580 he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:57.039 but with temptation will also provide the way 00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:00.120 of escape that you may be able to endure it. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:07.620 And if God's help is slow in coming, we should 00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:10.740 know that in any case the trial will not last 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:13.899 indefinitely, and that God never leaves a person 00:11:13.899 --> 00:11:17.649 without means of help. Be attentive to the limits 00:11:17.649 --> 00:11:21.309 of endurance. Do not despair. Do not be discouraged. 00:11:21.610 --> 00:11:24.429 For God is near he who said, I will never fail 00:11:24.429 --> 00:11:28.850 you nor forsake you. The story we heard today 00:11:28.850 --> 00:11:31.250 from the gospel, the reality of that, is the 00:11:31.250 --> 00:11:34.029 sign of the coming of the kingdom of God and 00:11:34.029 --> 00:11:37.970 the healing in the resurrection. Let us rejoice 00:11:37.970 --> 00:11:39.929 in that. What did the psalmist say? The reader 00:11:39.929 --> 00:11:43.450 said it. The choir repeated it over and over. 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:46.980 Sing praises to our God. Sing praises. Sing praises 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:50.440 to our King. Sing praises. Make a shout of joy. 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:52.039 Amen.