Беседа 52

“And Jesus departed from there and departed into the countries of Tire and Sidon. And so, a Canaanite woman, coming out of those places, shouted to Him: have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is cruelly raging.” (Matthew 15:21–22) Exposition 15:21–31. Christ opens the door to the pagans. – The power of faith and humility of the Canaanite woman. - Why did Christ delay fulfilling her request? – Alms are valued not by the quantity given, but by the strength of the disposition. - The superiority of alms over all other arts. – The inclination towards mercy is inherent in nature itself. – Mercy is the hallmark of a person. – A predator cannot receive the fruit of alms. 1. Evangelist Mark says that Christ, “having entered the house, ... could not hide himself” (Mark 7:24). But why did Christ go to these particular countries? He, having abolished the law of pickiness in food for the Jews, now, extending further, opens the door to the pagans. So Peter first received the command to deviate from the law (about food), and then was sent to Cornelius. If someone asks how Christ, telling his disciples: “Do not go into the way of the pagans” (Matthew 10:5), himself enters this path? - then we will say to this: firstly, He was not obliged to fulfill what He commanded His disciples; secondly, He did not go to these countries to preach: Mark also points to this, saying that the Lord hid himself, but could not hide himself. Just as Christ should not have gone to the pagans first, so on the contrary, it was not consistent with His love for mankind to remove them from Himself when they themselves came. If He should not have left those who ran away from Him, much less should He have left those who themselves were looking for Him. Look, for example, how completely worthy the wife was of good deeds! She did not dare to come to Jerusalem because she was afraid and considered herself unworthy; if it were not so, then she would have come there, as can be seen from her great zeal and from the fact that she went beyond the borders of her land. Some, interpreting these words allegorically, say that after Christ’s departure from Judea, the Church, which also went beyond its borders, dared to approach Him, because Scripture says: “Forget your people and your father’s house” (Ps. 44:11). Christ left the borders of His country, and the wife from the borders of hers, and thus they can meet. “And behold, a Canaanite woman,” says the evangelist, “came out of those places.” This is what he calls his wife in order to indicate the miracle here and glorify her even more. In fact, hearing the name of the Canaanite woman, imagine that lawless people who perverted the very foundations of the laws of nature; and having imagined this, understand the power of the coming of Christ. Those who were expelled so that they would not corrupt the Jews are now more zealous than the Jews. They leave the borders of their country and go to Christ themselves, but the Jews drive Christ away from them as well as Christ who came to them. So, having come to Jesus, the wife only says: “Have mercy on me,” and with her cry attracts the people to her. It was a truly touching sight to see a wife crying out with such compassion, to see a mother pleading for her daughter, for a daughter suffering so cruelly. She did not dare to bring the mad woman to the Teacher, but, leaving her at home on her bed, she herself begged Him and declared only illness, adding nothing more. And he does not call the Doctor into his house, like that prince who said: “Come, lay Your hand on her” (Matthew 9:18), or that king’s husband who said: “Come, before my son dies” (John 4:49); but, having told about his grief and the serious illness of his daughter, he turns to the mercy of the Lord and cries out in a loud voice, asking for mercy not for his daughter, but for himself: “Have mercy on me!” As if she were saying this: my daughter does not feel her illness, but I endure thousands of different torments; I am sick, I feel sick, I am furious, and I am aware of it. “But He answered her not a word” (Matthew 15:23). What does this new and extraordinary act of Jesus mean? He brings in the Jews and the ungrateful, and calls on those who slander, and does not leave those who tempt, but the one who comes to Him herself, asks Him and prays, who knew neither the law nor the prophets, and yet shows such piety, He does not even deign to answer. Who would not be offended by Jesus, seeing an action so inconsistent with the rumors about him? It was heard that He himself went around the villages in order to heal the sick; but He also rejects the one who came to Him on her own. Who would not be bowed down by such suffering and such humility with which the wife begged for her ill-suffering daughter? She did not consider herself worthy of a good deed, and did not come to demand what was due; but she asked for mercy and expressed only her misfortune - and for all this she was not worthy of an answer. Perhaps many of those who heard this were offended; but she was not tempted. And what am I saying - from those who have heard? I think that the disciples themselves were touched by their wife’s misfortune, confused and saddened. However, even being embarrassed, they did not dare to say to Him: show her mercy; “His disciples came and asked Him: let her go, because she is screaming after us.” Likewise, when we want to persuade someone else to do something, we often say something that is not what we would like. Christ answers: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). 2. What did the wife do? Did she fall silent when she heard this? Has she moved away? Have you lost your vigor? No! She intensified her prayers even more. That's not how we act. If we do not receive what we ask for, then we stop asking, when we should have asked even more diligently. Who would not be perplexed by the words of the Savior? Silence alone was enough to drive the Canaanite woman into despair; all the more could Christ’s answer plunge him into it. Seeing her intercessors with her in bewilderment and hearing that her request could not be fulfilled, one could lose all hope. And yet, the wife did not lose her, but, seeing the powerlessness of her intercessors, she armed herself with commendable courage. Before, she did not dare to appear before the face of the Lord - it is said: “she screams after us”; and now, when due to hopelessness it would be necessary to withdraw altogether, she comes closer and bows, saying: “Lord! help me” (Matthew 15:25). Oh wife! Do you really have more boldness, more courage than the apostles? No,” she says, “I have neither boldness nor courage; on the contrary, I am ashamed, but I use insolence instead of prayer. Perhaps He will honor my boldness. But what is it? Or have you not heard what He said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”? I heard her say; but He is Lord. That’s why she didn’t say: ask and pray, but “help me.” What about Christ? He was not satisfied with that either, but he further increased her bewilderment by saying: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). Having deigned to answer, the Lord struck her even more with his words than with his silence. He no longer refers to another in His justification, and does not say: “I have been sent,” but the more she strengthens her request, the more decisively He refuses. He no longer calls the Jews sheep, but children, and her dog. What does the wife do? She finds protection for herself in His very words. If I’m a dog, she says, that means I’m not a stranger. Christ rightly said: “I have come into judgment” (John 9:39). The wife is wise, shows great patience and faith, despite her humiliation; and the Jews, receiving healings and honors, repay those who oppose them. “I know,” she says, “that children need to be given food; but it’s not completely forbidden to me either, despite the fact that I’m like a dog. If I can’t use food at all, then I can’t participate in the crumbs either. If I can have even a small part in it, then it is not completely forbidden to me, despite the fact that I am like a dog; or better, because I especially have a part in it, because I am like a dog. Christ knew she would say this. That’s why I hesitated (to help her); That’s why he refused to give her what she asked, in order to show her wisdom. If He had not wanted to help her at all, he would not have provided it after that, and would not have stopped her mouth again. But what did He do with the centurion, saying: “I will come and heal him” (Matthew 8:7), so that we would learn about the piety of this man and hear from him the words: “You are not worthy to come under my roof” (Matthew 8:8); how He dealt with the bleeding woman, saying: “I felt the power that came out of Me” (Luke 8:46), in order to thereby make her faith known; as he did with the Samaritan woman to show that she did not depart from Him even after the reproof - so he does now. He did not want to hide such a great virtue of his wife, and what he said to her, he said not in order to reproach her, but in order to call her to Himself and reveal the hidden treasure. But you, along with faith, also know her humility. The Lord called the Jews children; but she was not content with this, but called them masters. So far was she from envying the glory of others! “And the dogs,” she says, “eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:27). Do you see the wife's prudence? She did not contradict, did not envy the praises of others and was not offended by her own insult. What fortitude! Christ says: “It’s not good,” she answers: “Yes, Lord!” He calls the Jews children, and she calls them masters. He calls her a dog, and she attributes to herself the action characteristic of a dog. Do you see her humility? Now look at the arrogance of the Jews. “We are Abraham’s seed,” they say, “and we have never been slaves to anyone”; we are born of God (John 8:33, 41). That's not what a wife does. She calls herself a dog, and their masters; and for this reason she became a child. What about Christ? “Oh, woman! - He exclaims, “great is your faith” (Matthew 15:28)! That is why He delayed until now to provide help, in order to say these words and crown his wife. “Let it be done to you as you wish,” i.e. That is, your faith can do more than this, but “be it done to you as you wish”! This exclamation is like a command: let there be heaven - and be. “And her daughter was healed at that hour.” Do you see how much she contributed to her daughter's healing? That is why Christ did not say: let your daughter be healed, but: “Great is your faith; let it be done to you as you wish,” so that you know that what she said were not empty or flattering words, but expressed the great power of faith. The best proof and testimony of the latter lies in the event itself - it was her daughter who was immediately healed. 3. Notice that she did what the apostles were defeated and could not do. Such is the power of persistent prayer! God wants us to ask Him for our needs more than others to intercede for us. Although the apostles had more boldness, the wife showed great patience. Having fulfilled the request of his wife, Christ justified Himself in slowness before the disciples and showed that He rightly did not agree to their request. “Jesus went on from there and came to the Sea of ​​Galilee, and went up to a mountain and sat down there. And a great multitude came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and He healed them; so that the people marveled, seeing the dumb speaking, the maimed healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:29–31). The Lord sometimes himself looks for the sick, and sometimes he waits for them to come to Him, and leads the lame to the mountain. Now they no longer touch His clothes, but begin to reason more correctly: they throw themselves at His feet and reveal deep faith; despite their lameness, they ascend the mountain and demand nothing more than to throw themselves at His feet. It was very surprising and strange to see that those who were previously carried now walk on their own; the blind have no need for leaders. But the sheer number of those being healed and the ease of healing surprised the people. Do you know why He healed the wife after such a delay, but these immediately? Not because they were more worthy than her, but because she had more faith than them. This is why He postpones and delays healing her, in order to show her firmness, and with this he immediately gives a gift in order to stop the mouths of the unfaithful Jews and deprive them of all justification. Truly, he who receives more benefits is also subject to greater punishment when he is ungrateful, when even honor itself does not make him better. And the rich are punished more than the poor for their cruelty because they were not even compassionate in abundance. Don't tell me they gave alms. If they gave less than they could give, then even then they will not escape punishment. Alms are valued not by the quantity given, but by the abundance of disposition. If those who give little will be punished, then even more so those who have acquired a lot of goods, who build houses with three and four roofs, but despise the hungry, who care about covetousness and neglect alms. But if we are already talking about alms, then let us now continue the conversation that three days before, while discussing philanthropy, I left unfinished. You remember that then, speaking about the excessive and vain concern for shoes and the effeminacy of young men, I moved on to denouncing these vices from thinking about alms. What then was the reason for this? We said that almsgiving is an art, the school of which is in heaven, and the teacher is not a man, but God. Then, exploring what can be called art and what cannot, they moved on to vain pursuits and harmful arts, among which they also mentioned the art of making shoes. Do you remember? So, let us now take up what we were talking about then, and show why almsgiving is an art, and, moreover, the best of all arts. If the purpose of art is to provide some benefit, and there is nothing more useful than almsgiving, then it is obvious that it is an art - and, moreover, the best of all arts. She does not make us shoes, she does not provide us with clothes, she does not create mortal houses, but she prepares eternal life, snatches it from the hands of death, glorifies us in both lives, and creates for us a home and eternal palaces in heaven. She does not allow our lamps to go out, nor for us to appear at marriage in unclean clothes, but washes them and makes them purer than snow: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow” (Isa. 1:18); she does not allow us to fall where the (gospel) rich man is and hear terrible verbs, but leads us to the bosom of Abraham. Each of the arts of life provides one benefit - thus agriculture nourishes, the art of weaving clothes; or rather, not one of them on its own, without the help of the other, can provide us with such benefit. 4. If you want, then consider, firstly, agriculture. The farmer could not possibly practice his art if the blacksmith did not provide him with a spade, ploughshare, sickle, ax and many other tools needed for farming; if the carpenter had not made a plow for him, had not prepared a yoke and a threshing cart, the tanner - belts, and again the carpenter had not built a stall for the plowing oxen and dwellings for the plowmen themselves; if the woodcutter did not chop wood and, finally, if there were no people who knew how to bake bread. Likewise, those who practice the art of weaving, when sending out their work, call on many arts for help, and if they do not receive it, they cannot produce their work. And in general, each art has a need for another. Charity alone requires nothing more than disposition. If you say: she demands property, houses, shoes, then read the words of Christ spoken by Him about the widow, and put aside this kind of concern. Even if you were very poor, poorer even than those who ask you, still, if you contribute two mites, then you have accomplished everything; even if you gave a piece of bread, having nothing but it, you have fulfilled everything. So, let us devote ourselves to this science and art, and let us practice it. Knowing him is better than being a king and being adorned with a diadem. Its advantage lies not only in the fact that it does not need any outside help, but also in the fact that it performs many and very different things. It creates eternal dwellings in heaven, teaches its admirers to avoid eternal death; it gives you inexhaustible treasures that cannot suffer harm either from thieves, or from worms, or from decay, or from time. If someone taught you how to save only bread, what would you not give to learn how to preserve it without harm for several years? But charity teaches you to harmlessly save not only bread, but everything: property, soul, and body. But why list in detail all the benefits brought by this art? It teaches you how you can become like God, and this is the first of all blessings. Now do you see that mercy accomplishes not only one action, but many? Without requiring help from other arts, it builds houses, prepares clothes, delivers unexpendable treasures, makes people conquerors of death, overcomes the devil, and makes them like God. So, what could be more useful than this art? In addition, other arts end with real life, do not work during the artist’s illness and have transient effects, require labor and a lot of time and countless other accessories. And after the end of the world, alms reveal themselves even more clearly; after the death of a person, they shine most brightly and reveal their actions, and do not require time, labor, or anything else difficult. It acts both during your illness and in old age, accompanies you into your future life and never leaves you. It makes you stronger than sages and orators; people famous for their wisdom and oratory have many envious people, and for those who have glorified themselves with mercy, countless people offer prayers. They stand before human judgment, defending the offended, and often those who offend; and alms stands before the court of Christ, and not only protects, but also inclines the Judge himself to defend the defendant and pronounce a merciful sentence on him. Even if he was guilty of countless sins, she crowns him and proclaims him a winner; “It is better to give alms... - it is said, - then everything will be clean for you” (Luke 11:41). And what am I saying about the hereafter? And in the present, ask any of the people, what do they desire more: to have among them many wise men and orators, or merciful and philanthropic people? And you will hear that they will choose the latter. And quite fair. Life will not suffer any harm from the destruction of eloquence; it existed for a long time before him. But if mercy is destroyed, then everything will perish and be destroyed. Just as one cannot sail further than the shores at sea, so earthly life cannot exist without mercy, condescension and philanthropy. 5. That is why God not only left reason to motivate us to mercy, but in many cases gave our very nature the power to incline us to the latter. So fathers and mothers show mercy to children, and children to parents; and this happens not only among people, but also among all dumb people. Thus brother shows mercy to brother, relative to relative, neighbor to neighbor, man to man. We by our very nature have some inclination towards mercy. That is why we grieve for the offended, we get sick when we look at those who are being killed, we cry when we look at those who cry. God greatly desires that we perform works of mercy, and therefore He commanded nature to more strongly encourage us to them, showing that mercy is very kind to Him. So, thinking about this, let us go ourselves and lead our children and our neighbors to the school of mercy. A person must learn mercy most of all, because this is what makes him human. “Great is a man, and precious is a merciful man” (Prov. 20:6). He who does not have mercy ceases to be a man. It makes you wise. And why are you surprised that mercy is the hallmark of humanity? It is a sign of deity. “Be merciful,” it says, “just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). So, for all these reasons, let us learn to be merciful, and especially because we ourselves have a great need for mercy. And we will not even honor with life the time spent without mercy. I am talking about mercy, alien to all covetousness. If a person who is content with his own condition and does not give anything to others is not merciful, then can he who steals someone else’s property be called merciful, even if he makes countless alms? If it is inhumane for one to enjoy one’s own benefits, then it is even more inhumane to take them away from others. If people who have not caused any offense to others are punished only for not sharing their property with them, then those who stole someone else's property will be punished even more. Do not justify yourself by saying that by harming one, you are showing mercy to another. It's unfair to do this. You must show mercy to those whom you have offended; and you, inflicting wounds on some, heal those to whom you did not inflict any wounds, whereas you should have healed them, or better yet, you should not have inflicted any wounds at all. He who loves humanity is not the one who strikes and heals those struck by him, but the one who heals the wounds inflicted by others. So, heal those wounds that you yourself have suffered, and not those that are inflicted by others; or better, do not defeat or depose another - that would mean mocking others - but raise up those who are defeated. It is impossible to heal with alms to the appropriate extent the evil caused by covetousness. If you have taken away an obol from someone, then an obol is not enough for you to heal the wound caused by covetousness through alms, but you need talent. That is why a thief who is caught returns four times what he stole. But a predator is worse than a thief. If a thief must return four times what he stole, then a predator must return ten times more, or even more; it is good if even under this condition he can receive remission of his unrighteousness: even then he will not receive the fruit of alms. That is why Zacchaeus said: “If I have offended anyone, I will repay him fourfold,” and: “I will give half of my property to the poor” (Luke 19:8). If during the time of the law the reward was to be fourfold, then how much more in the kingdom of grace. If a thief is obliged to do this, then even more so is he a predator; this latter, in addition to loss, also causes offense, so that even if you gave a hundred times more, you will not be able to repay everything. Do you see that it was not in vain that I said that if you steal an obol and give away the talent, even then you will barely be rewarded? If, even by doing this, you can hardly compensate for the harm of another, then when you do the opposite, that is, having stolen all the property from your neighbor, you distribute only a small part of it, and, moreover, not to those from whom you stole, but to others - what excuse will you have then? What kind of forgiveness? What hope of salvation? Do you want to know how great evil he does who shows such mercy? Listen to what the Scripture says: “As he who sacrifices a son before his father, so he who sacrifices from the property of the poor” (Sir. 35:20). So, before we leave this church, let us inscribe this threat in our minds; Let's write it on the walls, on our hands, in our conscience and everywhere, so that at least fear, intensifying in our minds, will keep our hands from daily murders. Stealing is worse than murder because it kills the poor slowly. In order for us to free ourselves from this illness, let us reflect on more, both with ourselves and with others. In this way, we will be more inclined to mercy, and we will receive the glorious rewards bestowed for it, and we will be rewarded with eternal blessings by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: