247. Слово в неделю двадцать девятую по пятдесятнице

(Printed in the Works of St. Ot. 1850 and in the collection 1861) One of them, having seen that he was healed, returned, glorifying God with a great voice (Luke 17:15). These words belong to the Gospel narrative about one of the humane acts of Christ the Savior - the healing of ten lepers. We often hear this story at prayer services: now it is also presented to our reverent attention, and therefore for edifying reflection. Christ the Savior gave health to ten people with leprosy. Leprosy was a serious disease, often contagious, and unclean. According to the Law of Moses, anyone who touched a person with leprosy was considered unclean and was subject to purification rites. Perhaps this law was established as a remedy against infection: or perhaps it also pointed to the origin of leprosy from moral impurity. Indeed, we see in the sacred narratives that Miriam for rebellion against Moses, Gehazi for selfish deception in the name of the Prophet, Uzziah for sacrilegious intrusion into the priestly office, were instantly stricken with leprosy. Lepers were people rejected from society and the presence of other people: Why did the ten lepers of the Gospel meet the Lord not in a house, not in a village, but before His entry into the village, “Jesus entered into a certain place”, and not daring to approach, “stacha from afar” (Luke 17:12). These are the people He did not refuse to do good! Look at this, Christian, and learn from your Divine Mentor, not to turn away from someone who is poor or in need because his poverty or misfortune is sometimes very undignified, and not to oppress a heart that opens to compassion with the thought that the person in need may be the cause of his own misfortune. The image of the healing given to the ten lepers also requires reflection. When they cried out: “Master Jesus, have mercy on us,” they obviously asked for healing: He did not refuse them this, but did not promise it, but only said: “As you go, show yourself to be a priest” (Luke 17:13–14). What did this mean? - This was a note to the Mosaic Law, which commanded the leper to appear to the priest to determine the validity of the disease and the actual recovery, and to offer a cleansing and thanksgiving sacrifice for the person recovered from leprosy. So Christ the Savior, sending the lepers to the priests and to the church, through this wanted, firstly, to evade human glory, because healing in this case should have followed not with a crowd of people in front of the whole village, but in solitude on the way, secondly, to encourage them to fulfill church and liturgical duties, thirdly, to raise their minds and hearts to God, so that in Him they would see the source every good and good deed, and they gave glory to Him for everything. Heed this, Christian, and learn from your Divine Mentor, to love secrecy in doing good, and not publicity, to seek not your own, but God’s glory. When the act of your philanthropy and generosity softens the heart of the one who has been blessed before you: take this opportunity to do him an even greater benefit - to arouse or strengthen in him the feelings of faith and piety, to elevate him to gratitude, love and glorification of the supreme benefactor God. Among the ten lepers, the “Samaritan” was awarded a miraculous healing. This name meant people who fell away from the Orthodoxy of the Old Testament Church, who performed divine services not in the blessed Jerusalem temple, but in another unblessed temple, who rejected most of the prophetic writings, who boasted, as if of sacred antiquity, of the well from which Patriarch Jacob and “his cattle” drank. The Lord convicts them of ignorance of the true faith: “you worship him who you do not know” (John 4:12, 22). But the Head of the Church did not alienate those who were alien to the Church from bodily good deeds: and the consequences show that the good deed is not lost. The Samaritan, of course, did not remain a Samaritan when, after being healed, he “returned to the Accuser of the Samaritans, glorifying God with a great voice, and fell on his face at His feet, giving Him praise” (Luke 17:15-16). Know from this, Christian, that the area of ​​philanthropic charity extends not only to the borders of the Church, but also beyond. Learn from the Apostle to do good “to all, especially to those who are of the faith” (Gal.6:10): learn from Christ to attract those who are not of the faith to it by doing good. The most attractive expression of right faith is virtue. A benevolent heart preaches the truth more convincingly to the erring than an inquisitive mind. Of the ten lepers who received healing, nine were ungrateful. The omniscient healer saw ingratitude before he performed the healing; however, he did not refrain from performing the act of charity, and after doing so did not repent. He meekly expressed surprise, not that they did not thank the visible benefactor, but that they did not give glory to God. “Why is it that the one who has returned cannot give glory to God?” (Luke 17:18) Ingratitude is an insensibility of the soul that is not natural. In nature, not only of humans, but also of the dumb, a disposition towards gratitude is implanted. Leo, whom the Monk Gerasim saved from painful suffering by removing a thorn from his paw, felt such affection for his benefactor that he served him for the rest of his life, and after his death, out of sadness for him, he died at his grave. - But what? If another does not act according to nature: is it really that you, the son of grace, decide to act not according to grace? Will you really withhold your hand from doing good because you have experienced or foreseen ingratitude? Remember your Savior, Who, although He saw before Him nine ungrateful people, against one grateful one, did not refrain from doing good to everyone. Do not degrade the dignity of charity by desiring gratitude as payment; Do not diminish the joy of doing good by thinking about ingratitude, which does not harm doing good. “If we do good, let us not be discouraged; in our season we will reap, not failing” (Gal. 6:9). Amen. You might be interested in: