By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas
Saint Veronica is the bleeding woman whom Christ healed, or rather was healed when she touched the garment of Christ. This miracle is described by the Evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke. Christ was walking with His Disciples - along with the synagogue leader Jairus, who begged Him to go to his house to heal his sick daughter - and many people followed. Then a bleeding woman, who could not be healed by the doctors, approached Christ and touched the hem of His garment and was immediately healed, because she believed and said that “if I only touch His garment I will be healed.” Christ asked who touched Him and His Disciples told Him that "the people have surrounded You and are crushing You and You are asking who touched You!" Christ again said “someone touched Me, for I felt that power has gone out from Me.” Then the healed woman confessed the reason for which she touched Him and that she was immediately healed. Christ comforted her, told her to be courageous, and assured her that her faith had saved her.
In the “Synaxaristes” of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, we read that this bleeding woman, later known as Saint Veronica, in order to thank Christ for her healing, created His statue in front of her house for all to venerate. And it is written that at the base of the statue grew an herb that cured various diseases.
The Saint reposed in peace. Her life and her behavior give us reason to emphasize the following:
First, the God-Man Christ is “the physician of our souls and bodies,” as we confess in every Divine Liturgy, and to Him we must resort with faith, in every illness whose cure is humanly impossible. This means that we do not underestimate medical science, but that we ask God to do what doctors cannot do. That is, we go to doctors and take medicines, since we know from Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Holy Fathers that God works both through doctors and medicines. When, however, medical science is unable to heal us, then we resort to God, since we know that “what is impossible with men is possible with God,” and that “no word will be impossible with God.” And God, as our loving Father, understands our pain and will grant our request, if, of course, this is in the best interest of our soul. Because the healing of the soul is of greater importance than the healing of the body, since this has a direct relationship with our salvation, with our eternal future. For this reason, we must pray according to the model that Christ gave us in Gethsemane, and submit to the will of God. That is, we must ask for healing, but at the end we must add: Lord, “not as I will, but as You will, may Your will be done.” Physical health is a gift from God, however, many times illness proves to be a greater gift, since it leads the well-intentioned person to repentance, the knowledge of God, and his salvation. Saint Paisios the Athonite said that the sick who endure their illness without complaint, but with gratitude and praise to God, have a booklet in the "Bank" of heaven and deposit it there.
Second, the power of Christ is transmitted to people also through material objects, which have a relationship with Himself, His Mother the Most Holy Theotokos, and His friends the Saints. And this power of Christ, when it encamps in the people who love Him, transforms them internally, according to the measure of each one's capacity, and heals them, consoles them, pacifies them, strengthens them and arms them with courage and fortitude. Such material objects can be their icons, as well as the holy relics of the saints, pieces of their clothes, their vestments, their personal belongings or the oil of their lamp. However, these do not act "magically," but according to the faith of each person and their way of life and state. After all, faith is what gives birth to the miracle and not the miracle to faith. Of course, there are also cases of people who, seeing the miracle, were led to faith, but this is the exception and happens mainly to non-believers, who seek with desire the living God, this “great" One, who is the One who "alone does wonders.”
Faith in its authentic form is not something abstract, a simple feeling, an ideology, but is a way of life and a path to salvation. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, given to those who seek with desire and humility God, their Creator, and ardently desire to know Him. After all, faith is directly linked to humility, while unbelief is a product of pride.
The proud boast about the acquisition of material goods, about the conquest of human glory and power, about their various “achievements” - real and imaginary - while the humble do not boast, or rather boast about their illnesses and weaknesses. A typical model of a humble person is the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, who, despite receiving from God excessive revelations, did not boast about them, but boasted about His weaknesses. He writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians that, in order not to be overly proud of the many revelations he received, God allowed him to be given an illness that afflicted him, for which he begged Christ three times to heal him, and He said to him: “Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” For this reason, this great Apostle humbly confesses: “Most gladly, therefore, will I rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.”
Let us love the life that the Church of Christ offers us, through asceticism, prayer, study, holy services and the Divine Liturgy. And let us boast only of our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in us, which comforts, heals, regenerates, and saves.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
