Болезнь (1)

If, just seeing our atrocities, God was grieved by illness in His heart, then tell me, what kind of illness does He feel in Himself now, when He not only looks at our atrocities, but also took them upon Himself - all the sins, all the iniquities, all the crimes of the whole world He took upon Himself: “He takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)? Not only inside, but also outside, an unbearable and intolerable disease endures and suffers. He complains to the psalmist: “My life is exhausted in illness” (Ps. 30:11). He is sick in all the members of His Body, because we have turned all our members to sin. He has a headache because “our iniquities have gone beyond our heads” (Ps. 37:5). Sick of the eyes, because “we have fixed our eyes to the ground” (Ps. 16:11). Sick with the lips and tongue, because “our lips multiplied slander, and our tongue weaved deceits” (Ps. 49:19). It hurts our hands because our hands dared to pick the forbidden fruit. It hurts the heart because “evil thoughts come from our hearts” (Matthew 15:19). Sick in the womb because “the curse... entered like water into the womb” (Ps. 109:18). It hurts our legs, because our legs have gone astray from the right path. Everyone is sick, for each of us is obsessed with countless passions and reclines on the bed of evil. The bed of our evils laid Him on the painful bed of the cross (Damascene). It was we who turned His entire bed into His sickness, it was we who “conceived malice and gave birth to iniquity” (Ps. 7:15). Our festering sinful wounds created painful wounds for Christ our Savior (2). Who can count our illnesses, physical and mental? Who can heal them? “Mortal diseases have seized us, and the streams of iniquity have troubled us” (Ps. 17:5). Even such wise doctors as Asclepius, Hippocrates and Galen could not cure these diseases; from whom shall we seek healing? Of course, you will say, from God. But “the imams have no boldness towards Him because of our many sins” 5 . And if so, then let us seek healing from His Most Blessed Mother, because the Mother’s prayer can do a lot, and good things, for She is the Healer of the whole world. There is a natural habit among people: when someone has a wound on their body or when their head or stomach hurts, they immediately put their hand there and as if they receive some kind of relief from the illness. That’s why they say: where it hurts, there is a hand. But it is well known that our Doctor is called “Handle”: “Rejoice, Golden Hand!” It is to her that Damascus calls out: “We are tormented by fierce misfortunes, we are cold from our enemies, cursed one, I invite you with tears: stretch out your hand from above, O Most Rich One,” 6 . When we are surrounded by severe illnesses and painful passions, let us apply this Hand, I say, to the Most Holy Virgin, and we will even venerate ourselves to Her, entrusting our soul and body into Her almighty hands. The ancient Egyptians said to Joseph: “Our health is in your hand, only let our lord look upon us” (Gen. 47:25) (2). Oh, merciful Healer! Truly our health is in Your hand! You are the healing of our bodies, You are the salvation of our souls (3). Every doctor who wants to cure a physical illness looks for its cause: whether it came from food, from drink, or from what event it came from. But church teachers say that sin is to blame for every illness... Do we want to get rid of bodily illnesses? First of all, let us cure their cause, sin, by repentance. For Christ the Lord, the good Physician, wanting to heal the paralytic with his body, first heals the relaxation of his soul, that is, his sins, saying: “child! your sins are forgiven you." And then: “Get up, take up your bed, and go to your house” (Matthew 9:2, 6) (3). See how the Provident organizes everything for the benefit of everyone: he repeatedly brings upon us various illnesses, so that we will become more chaste, so that we will renounce sins, so that we will come to God with repentance... So, when it happens to us to be sick in the body, from this we recognize the goodness of God, for thereby it leads us to repentance. And not despairing, but hoping for the mercy of His benevolence, let us correct our lives, having the Most Holy Virgin as an accomplice in this (3). Octoechos, tone 1, on Saturday at Compline, 1st hymn of the canon. You might be interested in: