Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent #
-Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
We have already passed through four weeks of Great Lent—this is the greater part of it. Perhaps someone is beginning to feel weary, in body or in soul, and therefore the Holy Church now reminds us that the path of Great Lent is a difficult ascent unto God and into the Kingdom of Heaven. And like any ascent, the path of the fast is a labor, a rising from one step to another. It is impossible to leap straightway to the top of a mountain—one must climb along its slope, step by step, from stone to stone. Likewise, it is not possible to rid ourselves of our sins all at once. We must, constantly overcoming ourselves, conquer the passions one by one, and then, with God’s help, we may reach the summit of virtue.
Today’s Gospel for Sunday, from Mark, tells us how the Lord healed a young boy possessed by an unclean spirit. Once, a man came to the Lord and shared his great sorrow. He said to Jesus, “Master! I brought unto Thee my son, who is possessed with a dumb spirit. He often falleth to the ground, foaming at the mouth and gnashing his teeth. I asked Thy disciples for help, but they could not cast him out.” As soon as Jesus heard that the demon was tormenting the child, He was troubled in spirit—that is, He was deeply grieved—for it was sorrowful to Him that the child, because of the unbelief of those around him, had been delivered over to the torment of demons. Jesus said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto Me.
And when they brought the child, the unclean spirit tore him, and he fell on the ground, wallowing and foaming. Jesus asked the father how long this had been happening to him. The father answered, “Since he was a child. The evil spirit hath oft cast him into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him. But if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.”
The Lord clearly did not ask the question about the length of the illness by chance, but rather in order to lead the father toward faith and toward prayer—for this man had been far from faith, having not prayed to the Lord for his son’s deliverance in all these years. The merciful Lord saw the man’s lack of faith also in his words, “If Thou canst do anything,” which expressed doubt in the divine power of Christ. The Lord found it needful first to heal the father of his unbelief before healing the son. He said to him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. To this the father, weeping, cried out, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!—that is, “Give me strength to believe, help me to believe more deeply and more firmly!”
In response to this tearful plea, the Lord commanded: Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the evil spirit, crying with a terrible voice, departed, and the boy fell as if dead. The people gathered there began to say that he was dead. Then Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and restored him, healed, to his father.
Saint Gregory Palamas, in his sermon on today’s Gospel, writes:
“Being the Lord and Guardian of souls, the Lord was concerned with healing through faith. The father of the child, as soon as he heard that his son’s healing would follow after his faith, said with tears: Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. Do you see the beautiful progress of this man? He not only believed in the possibility of the child’s healing, but also in the fact that, if the Lord so willed, He could overcome even his unbelief.”
Wonderful words—better said, a prayer: Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief—spoken with tears by the father of the child, who believed in the Saviour. His tears are proof that the prayer he lifted up to God came from the depths of his heart. When he uttered the words “I believe,” he seemed suddenly frightened by his own words—“What kind of faith do I have, if my child is in such a condition?” But immediately he repented of his little faith, saying: Lord, help Thou mine unbelief. In that single phrase is contained both repentance and a turning toward the Lord in faith.
Let us take note of the behavior of the father, who at first did not go to the Saviour Himself, but to His disciples. Evidently, in his humility, he considered himself unworthy to come directly to the Teacher, to trouble Him—and only when the apostles could not help did he dare to approach Christ Himself.
The Lord asked the father, “How long hath this come upon the child?” Children often suffer because of the sins of their parents, and parents, beholding their children in misfortune or sickness, are tormented by their sorrows. It is evident that what happened to the boy occurred on account of his parents. In what way had they sinned? The Gospel does not reveal it, but the Lord made it clear: the father did not suffer in vain. It was needful for him, that by sharing in the sufferings of his son, he might acquire a precious virtue of the soul—humility—and through humility, faith. The father sincerely desired to believe, but his faith was, it seems, not enough to bring about the healing of the child, and so he turned with hope to the Lord, asking Him to strengthen him. And the Lord, in response to his humble prayer, gave him faith, and immediately, by that faith, the child was healed.
What the Saviour had providentially intended was fulfilled: for his sins, for his unbelief, the father was chastened by the sickness of his son. This trial he endured without murmuring, with humility. Therefore, the chastisement proved to be for his good—he gained both his son’s health and faith. The word “chastisement” also carries the sense of “instruction”; that is, the son’s illness taught the father humility. We see that the father attained faith, and so the providential chastisement by means of sickness was no longer needed, for the father had learned all that was necessary.
At times, when we seek to help our suffering loved ones, we do not know what to do or where to turn. But we must turn to prayer, to cry out unto God, that He may strengthen our faith—faith which, according to the word of the Gospel, can move mountains. We must strive to pray with patience and attentiveness, with the deepest humility, in order that our prayer may be heard. For if our prayer is not fulfilled, it is not because the Lord is unwilling to fulfill it. Our prayer may be barren due to our unbelief or lack of humility; but when we have faith and humility in the measure that the Lord expects from us, then our prayer shall be fulfilled. This is what today’s Gospel teaches us.
And not only this. When the disciples, after the healing of the boy, asked the Lord, “Why could not we cast him out?” the Lord said: This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. The Lord teaches us that every demonic temptation is cast out by prayer and fasting—that is, by self-restraint. But how can one who is under the influence of an evil spirit, who is possessed, pray in a way that is profitable for himself? That terrible evil spirit mentioned in the Gospel takes up his dwelling especially in the young—it is the spirit of wantonness, who casts them into the fire, which is the wild and frenzied passion of fornication, and plunges them into the water, meaning gluttony and drunkenness. In such people dwelleth this deaf and dumb spirit, because they do not wish to speak or to hear of divine things—of repentance and humility.
When someone, tormented by the suggestions of the devil, cannot heal himself, a healthy and believing person must help him, doing on his behalf what the sick man would do if he had a sound mind. For this, it is necessary first to cast out from one’s own soul the demons of lust, anger, hatred, and pride—that is, to overcome one’s own passions, to be inwardly purified by prayer and fasting, to become inactive toward evil, and to acquire a free and sober mind, remembering the saying: Physician, heal thyself (Luke 4:23), and to ask the Lord’s help in healing. Then we shall possess a faith that can boldly ask the Lord to heal those near us who are afflicted by the power of evil spirits.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world in order to destroy the works of the devil, to deliver us from the bondage of the enemy—that is, from his power. After the victorious Cross of Jesus Christ, evil spirits no longer invade our lives with such boldness. We know that the devil was defeated by Christ, but not annihilated—not cast out of the world—and therefore we cannot consider ourselves fully shielded from his influence. The enemy of mankind, through our own negligence, sometimes slips in secretly and acts upon our mind and soul through hidden suggestions. Along with carnal passions and lusts, he enters into our hearts and takes root therein.
Each of us is tempted by demons: we are tempted by demons of doubt, despondency, despair, gluttony, drunkenness, lust, anger, greed… The demons seek to destroy our soul, just as they sought to destroy that young boy, casting him into the fire and the water. And we often, instead of resisting these demons, yield to them, while the evil thoughts and inclinations they suggest to us we consider to be our own. For this reason, each of us needs deliverance from these hostile powers. And how are they to be driven out? Only through prayer and fasting, repentance and abstention from sin. A man cannot overcome sin by his own strength alone. Only with the help of the Lord shall we be able to rid ourselves of the demons—when we apply our whole will and all our strength to cease from sinning and turn to God, crying out to Him from the depths of our heart with tears: “O Lord! Help me, deliver me from this sin!”
Let us take, for example, the sin of irritability. Each of us, to one degree or another, is possessed by this demon. How, then, can one attain healing? We must continually ask God to help us endure, to humble ourselves, to help us see something good in the person who irritates us, and that those traits of character which displease us may become less noticeable to us. We must ask the Lord to send us patience when we resist irritation, and not to yield to the devil’s cunning and provocation—for in anger the demon seeks to take possession of our soul. And if we constantly, with prayer and humility, resist irritation and malice, then this demon shall surely depart from us.
Another example: if a person seldom prays and rarely attends church, he is under the power of the demon of sloth and unbelief. How can this demon be overcome? Only by one means: when Sunday comes, one must direct all the strength of the soul toward going to church. And if the demons hinder this by setting up obstacles, we must continually compel ourselves, we must absolutely resist the demons and cry out with tears: “Lord, help my unbelief, help me to overcome this”—only then will the demons leave us. But if there is no struggle and no resistance to the demons, then a man will die in such demonic possession, and the demons will drag him down into the abyss.
In order for the fast to be for us a means of salvation and to drive out from our hearts the spirit of despondency, negligence, love of money, and idle talk, the Lord commands that our soul be lifted up to God in prayer. “Prayer,” writes Saint John of the Ladder, “is the communion and union of man with God. Its operation is the preservation of the world, reconciliation with God, atonement for sins, a bridge over temptations, a wall of protection from sorrows, the crushing of wars, the work of angels, the food of the soul, the enlightenment of the mind.” The Lord commands us to pray unceasingly with all our soul, not mechanically—only with the lips and mouth—for of such prayer the Lord said: This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me (Matt. 15:8–9).
How can the Lord hear our prayer when, even as we pray, we do not think of Him, but speak to Him as though turning away? Let our prayer be of the heart and of the mind, strengthening our faith, fervent and unceasing. Whether we walk, eat, work, or rest—let us do all with prayer, in the fear of God, for His glory, calling upon His holy name. With a pure mind and a humble heart, let us pray to the Almighty and Lover of mankind, that He may deliver us from all demonic possession, from the fire of lustful passions, from drunkenness, and from all things that defile the heart and soul. This especially concerns today’s youth, who are often subject to demonic temptations.
And if our faith begins to weaken, let us not despair, but turning to God, let us cry out: Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief! In the work of our salvation, the Lord has so ordained all things as to always help us in the struggle against the sin that overcomes us. The temptation permitted by God is never stronger than the will and strength of man—it is always precisely what we are able to overcome. We must strive not to follow after our passions, which are stirred up by demons, but learn to overcome them with patience and humility. Yet it often happens that during temptation a person seems to say, “Lord, help me, I can fight no longer,” while at the same time reaching out toward the very sin—that is hypocrisy, which the Lord condemns, and we must overcome it.
Today we commemorate Saint John of the Ladder, who teaches us to ascend step by step from sin to virtue. In the history of the Church, we see many examples of saints who were not learned in books, but who spent their lives in solitude, saving their souls through fasting, prayer, and God-pleasing deeds. By these labors they cleansed their hearts from the defilement of sin and became capable of receiving the light of truth: Blessed are the pure in heart, saith the Saviour, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). Without this inner simplicity and purity, all learning in the dogmas of faith remains useless and barren. The Lord beholdeth the purity of the heart—for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7)—and if our heart is filled with impure and deceitful thoughts, God turneth away from it. The Lord loveth the pure in heart and the poor in spirit, and to such He promiseth the reward of the Kingdom of Heaven. Saint Gregory Palamas writes: “The poor, the Lord calleth those who live in want and poverty—but not all such people. He blesseth rather those who are poor in spirit—that is, those who, through inward and heartfelt humility and good intention, have so ordered their external life as to dwell in poverty.”
At the end of today’s Gospel we heard how the Lord taught His disciples, saying unto them that the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day. But the disciples understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask Him. Why do these words appear in the account of the healing of the boy? It seems that the Evangelist Mark thereby reminds us how dangerous and difficult the spiritual path is—a path full of suffering and struggle, a path on which it is necessary to overcome oneself in order to do not what we desire, but what God commands. It is a path that requires courage and steadfastness of spirit. Therefore, the Lord so wisely ends this Gospel with the words about His passion on the Cross.
Let us ask the Lord, that on our own cross-bearing path of purification and salvation, there may dwell in our hearts peace, prayer, and contrition for our sins. And perhaps, brothers and sisters, our merciful Heavenly Father will grant us humility, faith, and love, which shall increase in our patience and bring us unto salvation. For the Lord hath said: He that endureth to the end shall be saved (Matt. 10:22).