224. Слово пред благодарственным молебствием за прекращение губительной болезни

(Said in the Chudov Monastery on February 8th; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1848 and in the collection of 1861) Jesus will find him in the Church, and he will say to him: Behold, you are healthy, let no one sin, lest it be worse. (John 5:14). We are now found in the church, and we are found in order to confess with thanksgiving before God that we are healthy - some from a former illness, and all from the fear of an illness that is quite short-lived, not easy for everyone, and for some it is not very easy, when the duty of their rank, or love of humanity, called them to the feat of healing the sick, or caring for the sick. Will the Lord Jesus find us in the Church too? Will the Savior speak the word of salvation to us too? – Without a doubt, He finds us not only with the all-penetrating gaze of His omniscience, but also with the all-reviving gaze of His mercy. And the word that was once spoken in circumstances somewhat similar to ours, He now speaks to us through the Gospel: “Behold, you are healthy, let no one sin, lest it be worse.” This was said to a certain man in Jerusalem, in the vestibule near the Sheep Pool, who had been in relaxation for thirty-eight years, waiting in vain for healing with water, which once a year, for one sick person, was made healing by the touch of Angelic power, until finally the Lord of times, elements and Angels appeared, and without requiring any time, or water, or an Angel, he healed the weakened man with the word: “Arise, take up your bed and walk” (Mark 2:9). The healer did not finish everything: because, fleeing glory, he hastened to hide among the people. A few days later, probably on a holiday, the healed man came to the church, probably like we do today, to thank God for his health. Then the Healer found him again, and, as before in the word he gave him healing medicine, so now in the word he gives him preventative medicine: “Behold, you are healthy, do not sin, lest it be worse.” If we heard a skilled doctor say to a patient he had cured, for example: “Don’t eat this or that kind of food in the future,” what would we think? Of course we would think: apparently the healed one had previously consumed this food; she, apparently, was also the cause of the disease; Apparently, the doctor foresees that it will again cause illness if the cured person does not stop using it. Similar to this, what should we think when we hear the word of the Lord to the healed: “Behold, you are healthy, let no one sin, lest it be worse for you”? - Apparently, the healed one had sinned before; Apparently, sins were the cause of his illness; it is clear that the Divine Physician foresees that renewed sins will renew evil, in one form or another, but in even greater force. Here we can ask whether the fate of one person is presented in the Gospel narrative about the weakened, or at the same time the general law of judgment of sin is revealed, partly impressed in nature, partly brought into action by Providence, although not always obvious, not always quickly, not always equally, according to the types, degrees and circumstances of sin, light, heavy, flagrant, involuntary, voluntary, through ignorance, by passion, by passion, struggling, prevailing, prevailing, hated, loved, condemned, unrepentant, corrected by a temporary court, left to an eternal court? Who can measure the depth, explore the ways of God's destinies? Who will dare to recognize every sick person as a condemned person, and every illness as a sign of guilt? The righteous Job also suffered from illness, and a very serious one at that. But it is also impossible to admit that the severity of the judgment was exclusively directed at one Jerusalem sinner, for the sins of his youth, which imprisoned him for thirty-eight years in the bonds of illness, and, for the possible sins of old age, prepared for him an even more difficult lot. The trace of a similar judgment is also visible in the fate of another weakened man, whom, while healing, the Lord said: “Your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). It is obvious that, like a deeply wise doctor, He heals from illness by acting on the cause of the illness. What we see in these examples is not expressed as a law in the word of the Apostle: “sin came into the world, and death through sin” (Rom. 5:12); – “the price of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23)? For what is illness if not a branch of the tree of death, or a reduced, incomplete intake of the potion of death? Consequently, along with death, illness came into the world along the road paved by sin; and therefore it is very natural if she still comes along the same road. So, convinced to recognize the existence of a general law connecting illness and death with sin, without rejecting, however, in the application of it gradualities, modifications and exceptions, not without reason we can, in the same language as the Gospel to a healed weakened one, say to a city that has recovered from a deadly illness: you were not in an ordinary way sick; Apparently, you have sinned more than usual: now you are healthy, be careful not to multiply your sins, so that it does not get worse. With consolation we can remember some of the revelations of the disposition with which the Orthodox children of the Moscow Church accepted God’s sorrowful visitation. Not only, at the behest of the Mother of the Church, they took part in general propitiatory prayers, but, feeling their own need to propitiate God, and to strengthen themselves with the benefits of faith, with the free exertion of pious zeal, they moved the reverently revered shrine from ancient times to receive, through its mediation, the grace-filled protective and healing power, and sought an increase in special propitiatory prayers. More than a hundred such prayers with processions of the cross took place in the vicinity of various churches and in open places, among reverent crowds who were not afraid of the harshness of the November and December air at a painful time. To the spiritual joy of the hierarchy, it had no need to excite anyone to these special feats of piety: it was enough to just agree to the pious desires expressed. And why not think that in these multiple, numerous councils of those praying, we found, although in a small number, although perhaps only ten, according to the word of God, sufficient for the preservation of the whole city, righteous souls known to God alone, whom prayer reached to the heavenly altar, and acquired for us that which the hand of God 682 did not weigh heavily upon us? - Glory to God’s mercy for this, not defeated by our sins! But shall we hide the fact that disappointing memories also come to mind? At the sight of a disease that especially, like a scourge, affects intemperance, has intemperance decreased between us? In sad times, when some of our neighbors suffered from illness, others had compassion for the sick, some were dying, others mourned the dying, when, as a result, compassionate love for neighbors and humility under the strong hand of God should have been made hateful and amusements and amusements stopped, did they at least decrease? - At this you will involuntarily think, and you will also want to say to your beloved God-saved city: “Behold, you are healthy, let no one sin, lest it be worse.” Amen. In Creation St. Rev.: “formidable Angel.” You might be interested in: