Homily for the Tenth Sunday of Matthew
(10th Sunday of Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
(10th Sunday of Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
Today the Gospel was read about the healing of a possessed lunatic by Jesus Christ, and at the very end of the Gospel – the Lord’s prediction of His suffering and death in Jerusalem. The Gospel shows how strong a person can be in faith in the Lord, namely, so strong that he can move mountains, and how weak, powerless and pitiful an unbeliever is, for he is a pitiful plaything of demons and his own and others’ passions; it also shows the great power of prayer and fasting, when they go hand in hand, mutually reinforcing each other.
Let us repeat this Gospel, so that it may be more firmly established in your memory. When Jesus Christ with His disciples, after the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, came "to the people, then came a man to Him, and kneeling before Him, said: 'Lord, have mercy on my son. He is a lunatic, and is grievously afflicted, for he often throws himself into the fire, and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him.' And Jesus answered and said, 'O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him here to Me.' And Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out of him; and the child was healed that hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, 'Why could we not cast him out?' And Jesus said to them, 'Because of your unbelief: For verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Move from here to there, and it shall move, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. But this kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting.' While they were in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, 'The Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day shall rise again'" (Matthew 17:14–23). Here is the end of the present Gospel.
You see with your mental eyes in this Gospel an unfortunate father, tormented by the sufferings of his unfortunate possessed son, whom an evil spirit has terribly tormented since childhood during the new moon and often cast into fire or water. The father asks the Lord for mercy, that He might heal his son, adding that the Lord's disciples, whom he asked for this, could not heal him. The Lord, having exposed and reproached people with his righteous word for their unbelief and corruption, commands that the possessed man be brought to Himself and now heals him with one command. What kind of possessed lunatic is this? This is a man subject to the action of an evil spirit, who tormented him during the new moon, with the insidious intent that this evil would be attributed not to him, the evil spirit, but to God's innocent creation, the Moon, and thus blaspheme the Creator of the Moon. This is how Saint John Chrysostom interprets it.
Evil spirits, causing diverse evil to people, want to hide their harmful actions from people, so that people do not hate them and do not turn away from them and their harmful deeds completely, and to turn their intrigues on the beautiful and most useful creation of God - the Moon, the night light. But the evil spirit cannot hide with its destructive intrigues! A God-enlightened person will immediately recognize his dirty tricks and by the grace of God will destroy them. Unbelievers are careless; they are still caught in his nets and suffer from him, like the aforementioned lunatic. And how many of these possessed ones are there in our age, the age of unbelief and depravity? I call possessed all those who are subject to drunkenness, to unfortunate and mad carnal love, or rather carnal passion, all the so-called nihilists, who, having lost the most precious human treasure - faith, do not believe in the future life and the immortality of our soul, do not expect the resurrection of the dead and the General Judgment, who do not believe in the existence of God Himself, and in His eternal truth, and in His terrible, incorruptible justice, and, to their greatest misfortune, do not believe in evil spirits. These unfortunate, lost people, entangled in the enemy's nets, often, like the possessed man mentioned in the Gospel, also resort to fire, then to water, i.e. to firearms in order to shoot themselves, or to drown, or to strangle themselves. And notice what an evil epidemic this violent, terrible death is now! Every day people either shoot themselves, or drown themselves, or hang themselves, or kill others. Many do not value human life at all. What is the terrible reason here? What terrible lever drives these unfortunates to violent death? Firstly, it is unbelief and a depraved or perverse life; secondly, it is evil demons, the original murderers of the human race. I myself have heard from many unfortunates, subject to binge drinking or despondency due to some grave circumstances, that an evil demon persistently whispers to them: "hang yourself, hang yourself!" or: "drown yourself, drown yourself!" or: "shoot yourself, shoot yourself!" or: "kill" and so on. Oh, accursed adversaries! How many human souls, Christians, have you ruined in the ill-fated nineteenth century by violent death through your all-pernicious charm? They are guilty of being seduced by your wiles, but you are a thousand times more guilty and for all your destruction you will receive retribution from the righteous Judge on the day of retribution.
What then is the remedy against enemies – seducers, tormentors, and destroyers? Faith in Christ, who overcame the power of the devil with the Cross, along with fasting and prayer. Prayer and fasting cleanse, illumine, and strengthen the soul; on the contrary, without prayer and fasting, our soul becomes an easy prey for the devil, as it is unguarded and unprotected from him. Fasting and prayer are spiritual weapons against the devil, which is why the Lord states in today's Gospel that this kind of demon goes out only through prayer and fasting. The Holy Church, recognizing the power of this spiritual weapon, calls us to fast twice a week – on Wednesday and Friday - among other reasons, in remembrance of the suffering and death of our Savior, and throughout the year, many times during various multi-day fasts, while Great Lent is accompanied by special heartfelt penitential prayers. Fasting and prayer also have the spiritual benefit of strengthening our souls, bolstering within us faith, hope, and love, and uniting us with God.
In the Gospel read today, the Lord's rebuke of His disciples for their unbelief is remarkable. Did the apostles also waver in faith at first? Yes, and they were sometimes weak, before the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them - and sometimes they believed, and sometimes they fell into unbelief and lack of faith; at least, this should be said about nine, excluding the three so-called pillars of faith: Peter, James and John. By faith they healed all kinds of diseases, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, cast out demons, and when grace left one of them for lack of faith and unbelief, then they could not even cast out demons, as is mentioned in today's Gospel. Therefore, the Lord through them and us all teaches us to have undoubting faith and says: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Move from here to there, and it shall move, and nothing shall be impossible unto you." Indeed, all true believers, all the saints accomplished many miracles through faith, making the impossible possible by faith. Read the accounts of their lives, and you will see for yourselves how strong faith is! Meanwhile, the people of our century parade about, boasting of their unbelief! Is this the enlightened age? How so! We owe all the achievements of enlightenment in all domains to our faith, which has shed abundant light upon human minds, and yet we reject faith?! Our offspring—our Mother, who bore and raised them? It is foolish and ungrateful!
Brothers and sisters, treasure your faith! Guard your faith. Without faith there is no salvation; without faith man will perish forever. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
