Son and of the Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ.
There are times in life when we need help. Some
circumstance arises that is just too much for
us alone. In those times of trouble, to whom
do we go? If I have a toothache, I go to the
dentist. Because I trust in the training and
the abilities of that dentist working with teeth.
If my yard is a wreck, I seek a landscaper. If
my house has been damaged in some storm, a carpenter.
If there is something wrong with my soul, perhaps
I should go to a priest. in any human aid, where
do we go then? In today's gospel reading, we
see clearly the choice of two blind men. Matthew
tells us two blind men followed him, meaning
Jesus, saying, Son of David, have mercy on us.
And when he had come into the house, the blind
men came to him, and Jesus said to them, Do you
believe that I am able to do this? They said
to him, Yes, Lord. And Jesus healed them, saying,
According to your faith, let it be to you. And
Jesus also healed a demon -possessed mute and
made it so he could once again speak. And Jesus
healed other sicknesses and diseases. And when
we find ourselves, overwhelmed with something
that we just can't deal with on our own, where
should we go? When there's no human help possible,
we should follow the example and go to the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Lord and God and Savior. We
can also go to all the myriads of angels and
all the saints, the Holy Mother of God, they
will intercede to the Lord for us as well. This
Sunday, we commemorate two wonder -working icons
where God answered the prayers of his people.
The first is the icon of the Mother of God, the
joy of all who sorrow. In 1888 in St. Petersburg,
there was a great... thunderstorm and lightning
flashed out of the sky and struck a chapel there
and it caught fire and it burned and everything
was singed or burnt except for this icon of the
mother of God. It was so hot in that chapel that
coins were actually pressed into the icon itself
from the heat and yet it was undamaged. How could
something like that be if it were not miraculous?
God seeks to give us his love. He seeks to help
us in times of tough, difficult times. He wants
to be there with us through those times. Won't
we go to him? Shouldn't we pray? Shouldn't we
ask the saints to pray for us as well? The second
icon of the mother of God is, the icon of Pochayev.
I want to read to you, this is on the OCA website.
If you were to look it up for today, you would
find this portion about this icon. In the summer
of 1675 during the Zaboransk War with the Turks,
in the reign of the Polish king Jan Sobieski,
Regiments composed of taters under the command
of Khan Nur ad -Din via Vishnavets fell upon
the Bochayev Monastery. They surrounded it on
three sides. The weak monastery walls and its
stone buildings did not offer much protection
against a siege. Eagleman Joseph Dobromirsky
urged the brethren and the lay people to pray
to their heavenly intercessors, the Most Holy
Theotokos and Saint Job of Pachaya. The monks
and the people prayed fervently, prostrating
themselves before the wonder -working icon of
the Mother of God and the reliquary containing
the relics of Saint Job. At sunrise on the morning
of July 23rd, as the taters prepared to attack
the monastery, the egomon ordered the akathist
to the Theotokos to be sun, and at the opening
words, O Queen of the Heavenly Hosts, the Mother
of God suddenly appeared over the church in an
unfurled, radiant white omephorion. With angels
holding unsheathed swords, St. Job stood beside
the Mother of God, bowing to her and beseeching
her to defend the monastery. The taters believed
that the heavenly army was a vision, and in their
confusion, they started shooting arrows at the
Most Holy Theotokos and St. Job. But the arrows
turned backwards and wounded those who shot them.
The enemy gripped by terror fled in panic, trampling
upon and killing each other. The defenders of
the monastery pursued them and took many prisoners.
Later, some of those prisoners converted to the
Orthodox faith and remained at the monastery
thereafter. What a miracle. How could they ever
have survived this attack? If they gave in to
despair, they would not have prayed and they
would have been destroyed. But they had hope.
They had faith. They had trust in God. And even
in seemingly impossible, the situation was beyond
what they could handle. They prayed and God answered.
There are times in life when we need help. Let
us go in prayer to the Lord. Sometimes we forget
about the unseen part of God's creation, living
in the limited vision of the visible world around
us. But the two blind men came to Christ with
faith and he opened their eyes. And if we are
spiritually blind, we too must come to our Lord
and God and Savior Jesus Christ and ask for healing.
to be given spiritual eyes, eyes of faith which
trust in God. When we are faced with a great
challenge, we must take it to God in prayer.
Perhaps today there is some great challenge that
confronts you. It could be an illness. It could
be some sin that has overwhelmed you. It could
be a betrayal by someone close to you. It could
be emotional, mental, spiritual, or some kind
of challenge, but you know it's just too much.
You feel under siege, like that monastery in
Pachayat. The answer is to go to the Lord Jesus
Christ, to pray to him, to ask the Holy Mother
of God to pray, to ask saints to intercede for
you, to trust in God, not in yourself, not in
other people, but in God. Trust not in the sons
of men in whom there is no salvation, but in
the Lord God, the creator of all things. Let
us follow the example of King David, who writes
in Psalm 54, Save me, O God, by your name, and
vindicate me by your strength. Hear my prayer,
O God, give ear to the words of my mouth. There
are times in life when we need help. let us always
turn to God in prayer, trusting in his love for
us. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God.