Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Christ. In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen. I thank God with my heart
that he has gathered us together, my dear brothers
and sisters and children, to celebrate the divine
liturgy, to be lifted up to the kingdom, to be
fed with the food from heaven, to hear the word
of God. Now, let's look at this gospel a little
bit. It says here, in the gospel we heard, at
that time a certain man came to Jesus and kneeled
before him. Well, what time was that, that this
man came? Do you remember last week we heard
about the man possessed by demons and Jesus?
came to that man, and Jesus says, what's your
name? And the man says, Legion, because he had
in him a host, thousands of demonic powers that
had been afflicting him, his soul. And Jesus
healed him. He cast them out. But not before
the demon said, why are you come to torment us
before the end, O son of God? What have you to
do with us? The demons recognize the power of
God that is in Jesus, that he is God's son. And
they ask to be released into the herd of swine.
Why swine? Well, swine is the animal used by
the Roman pagans in their animal sacrifices.
And of course, the local people raising these
swine for the Romans are going to be upset, and
they ask Jesus to go. Leave us. No thanks. You've
just wrecked our economy. Jesus will do that
to you. Be prepared for something unexpected
in your life and respond not like them. And the
week before, we heard, well, sometime before,
exactly before in the Gospel of Luke, The disciples
and Jesus are in a boat, and a storm begins,
and Jesus falls asleep, and the waves are rising,
and they're coming over the side of the boat,
and the boat is taking on water, and the apostles
are frightened of dying because the sea is the
place of chaos, especially in the Old Testament.
It's the place of chaos, uncertainty. It's the
place of death. They're afraid. Of course they're
afraid. The storm is raging. And Jesus, wake
up, wake up, wake up. And he says to them, oh,
ye of little faith. We should remember this in
the times of storms in our life, in times of
difficulties. That Jesus may be silent, but he
is present. We ask God to come into our chaos
continually. Continually. We need to enter into
his peace. That's what's going on there. Besides
the fact that the scriptures are telling us that
Jesus has power over nature because he says peace
and the storm completely ends. You know, when
a storm ends, what happens? It takes a while
for the water to stop lapping and the waves to
go away. With Jesus, when he blesses, it's absolute
quiet and peace. And that's what happens. And
they're surprised. And they say, who is this
that has this power? They're only learning about
Jesus. And then he comes to the demons and he
has power over the darkness too. And he heals
that man. And now he comes to a place that is
waiting for him. He's coming from a place that
wanted him to leave, and now he comes to a place
they are anxiously waiting for him. And the crowds
are great. And this man named Jairus, the scriptures
tell us, has a daughter, as you heard, and she's
dying. She's 12 years old. And in the midst of
all this turmoil, as Jesus is coming to this
man's house, and he begs Jesus, come to my house,
please heal her. And Jesus senses, he says, someone's
touched me. And, of course, Peter, impetuous
Peter, says, Master, there's like thousands of
people here and you're saying someone touched
me? You know, kind of sarcastic, like, what are
you thinking? It's not that kind of touch. It's
the touch of desire to be with Christ. The touch
of... Faithfulness, the touch of a heart that
has suffered 12 years with this malady of bleeding,
menstrual bleeding, doesn't stop, which puts
her in a category in that culture, alienated,
alone, ritually, not morally, but ritually unclean.
No one touches her. She can't eat with her family.
She has spent all her money. and all her savings,
and everything she has to look for a cure. The
tradition tells us that this woman's name is
Saint Veronica. And tradition also tells us that
at some point in her life, she had a statue of
Jesus carved. And this comes from the fourth
century, a report that says it was destroyed.
The touch she has is the touch of faithfulness.
Born out of incredible patience. Born out of
sorrow, sighing, weeping, hope, hope. And Jesus
knows that grace has gone forth. And he says
this, someone touched me, not because he's wondering
who the heck touched me. We're speaking about
the Lord of the universe, the one who made heaven
and earth, and of all things therein. He knows
all things. He knows the secrets of our heart.
He knows our destiny. He knows where we have
come from. He knows us from before we were conceived
in the mother's womb. He didn't ask that because
he didn't know. He asked that to show the crowd
the incredible faith of this woman. Because she
could be ashamed of all of this. But he lifts
her up. And in the meantime, what happens? The
girl dies. The 12 -year -old girl dies. It's
interesting. This woman has been suffering from
this bleeding for 12 years. The moment that child
was born, this woman had been suffering. And
Jesus goes to the house, lets no one else in.
says the girl sleeping, and the poor Lord, again
and again, how he is dismissed. She's sleeping.
Don't despair. Don't weep. They laugh at him.
The Lord has just stilled the waves. He has cast
out a legion of demons from a man. He's healed
a woman who came to him. And he lifted her up
and said, your faith has made you whole. He ascribes
it to her, not himself. And this is public. And
he goes to this room and they laugh at him. We
dismiss the Lord. We forget about the Lord's
power. The gospel here, my dear friends, is not
just about the healings. The healings are for
the sake of those people in that story. And yes.
In this marvelous book, The Theology of Healing
of Illness, the author points out for us that
Christ never hesitated to heal those with bodily
illnesses and infirmities who requested it of
him. He did not... hesitate not once to present
himself as the physician of souls and bodies
because he is the lover of mankind. He says,
those who are well have no need of a physician,
but he has come, he has come to heal. In fact,
in the early church, pagan observers described
Christianity as a religion, quote, For sick people.
For the sick. Because paganism would boast that
thanks to the gods, we are strong, we are well,
we are powerful. There was no sense of charity
and love for the poor. That comes from Christianity.
There was no care for the woman or the slave.
No, that comes from Christianity. It's Christ
who raises us all up. But today's gospel is not
just about Christ the physician in this life.
Those people, Jairus, this woman, the throng
of people, the people that came into the room
and laughed at Jesus when he said, she's only
sleeping, she will rise. They had a very ill
-formed, a very weak understanding of what the
life of the age to come was all about. Is there
even life after one dies? They did not know.
They had no developed teaching. Some believed
in the resurrection. So this story for us isn't
about Jesus coming to each and every person to
heal them of every malady they have. My brothers
and sisters, In the gospel, he didn't heal everybody.
And we ourselves know whether you're dealing
with an illness or a dear friend or relative
is suffering from an illness, a life -threatening
illness, or you or a friend or relative have
been alienated and lonely and waiting and just
reaching out to touch Christ. This is about trust
in the living God, about whom we just sang, O
Christ, thou didst descend into Hades and destroyed
the power of death and the sting of death. And
we are lifted up. We have to hear those words,
that he is the savior of the soul, too. We focus
on our bodies. Of course we do. We want to be
well. That's a blessing. But when someone's ill,
when someone's going through that tragic and
difficult trial, like that woman, Veronica, in
the gospel, or that father grieving for his child,
for us, it's not God testing us because he doesn't
know. It's God allowing us to become firm and
mature. And blossom in the kingdom of heaven.
To become true Christians. And we must be always
searching to trust and touch Jesus. So that we
can feel his grace and power in our soul and
heart. Whether we are sick. Whether we are ill.
Whether we are sad. Whether we are joyful. It
doesn't matter. The power of the cross of Christ.
We live after that. We live after the resurrection.
And the life of the kingdom of God is going through
our veins. We are not like those two in the gospel.
We are not like the disciples before the resurrection
and Pentecost. We are like them after the resurrection
and after Pentecost. we can look at a man like
St. Nectarius today, born 1846, died 1920, terribly
slandered as a young bishop, terribly slandered,
had to leave his Episcopal see, worked as a janitor
in a boys' school until he was appointed a headmaster.
Even after he founded the monastery on the island
of Aegina and was an old man suffering from illnesses,
74 years old, I guess. Is that right, my math?
1920, 1846? In a hospital, having been slandered
even to the day of his death. But God is not
mocked. And the faith... of the righteous one
becomes manifest and known because that's when
he died the blanket in the hospital room the
blanket was taken off of him and it was put on
a man who had been absolutely paralyzed had been
fallen off a high ladder and that man got up
and walked and the nurses and the doctors exclaimed,
glory to God, we don't know how this was. And
from that day on, miracles after miracles have
been occurring by the prayers of St. Nectarius
and his holiness. So brothers and sisters, our
takeaway today is that faithfulness of St. Nectarius,
that God is faithful to us. We know, we believe,
we live. in the light of the resurrection, whether
we are sick, whether we are ill, and failing
badly, whether we are joyful or sad, let us be
faithful to the cross of Christ and to our Lord,
who has shown us over and over his faithfulness
to us, and let us reach out to touch him so that
we are close. It's no good for us to live our
Christian life casually. We have to feel the
power of the cross. And sometimes that means,
as St. Paul says, if anyone is a follower of
Christ, you can count on it. You will feel the
suffering of the cross. And in that suffering,
you are united to the joy of the kingdom. To
our Lord be glory, now and ever, to ages of ages.
Amen.