Yesterday, 1 August, the 10th Sunday after the Pentecost, the fragment of the Gospel according to Saint Evangelist Matthew, chapter 17, lines 14 – 23, on the healing of the epileptic boy, was read in all the Orthodox Churches.

In the sermon delivered, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, spoke about the healing of the epileptic boy by Jesus Christ, our Lord, at the request of his grieved father, a wonder we read about in the Gospel according to Matthew. “Jesus Christ, our Lord, shows, through this healing, His merciful love for humans and His receptivity or sensitivity to human suffering”, said His Beatitude, as “Lumina” newspaper informs us.

Jesus Christ, our Lord, wishes that, besides healing the epileptic boy, those who were near the sick one be healed too, be prayerful, not passive, but receptive and full of hope that only God can heal the sick one.

The reproving that Jesus Christ, our Lord, addresses the unfaithful crowds is for improvement, for making the people responsible and sensitive, because very often they expected spectacular wonders, almost magic external ones, without getting involved, without coming close to Jesus Christ, our Lord, full of compassion, piety and prayer. We see, on one hand, that Jesus Christ, our Lord, reproves unfaithfulness, and on the other hand, He heals those who suffer. Although He reproves the unfaithful ones, He is merciful to those who suffer, raises the helpless ones, and gives man freedom again, as well as the dignity and hope to live in communion with God and with his fellow beings”, showed the Patriarch of Romania.

Healing involves intense practice of prayer and fasting

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel further emphasised the importance of the strong faith and fasting in the life of the faithful: “Through strong faith, prayer and fasting, the demons can be defeated, the sick man can be healed, and a difficult situation can be changed into a good one. In today’s pericope we see that all the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord, is a work of healing and at the same time a means of strengthening in faith. He heals this sick young man with His merciful love, and improves the crowds and makes them sensitive, through His justice and pedagogy, urging them to increase their faith. At the same time, He spiritually forms His disciples, showing them that the healing power implies an intense participation of the man in prayer and fasting.”

One of the spiritual meanings that the Gospel shows us is that whenever we pass through troubles, sufferance or trials, we need the help of God even more, and after we have passed through all these “we shall better understand how big the power of faith is and our vivid relationship with God. Jesus Christ, our Lord, wants us to have a vivid faith, as a living relationship with God, not only a formal intellectual conviction. A vivid relationship is shown through prayer and fasting”, emphasised the Primate of our Church.

The Mother of God full of obedience and humbleness

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel has also urged the faithful to increase their prayers during this fasting period and restrain from the worldly things: “It is necessary that during this fasting period we should restrain both the greed of our stomach and give up the evil thoughts, inadvertent words, and sinful deeds, in order to deify our life. Let us follow the example of the Mother of God in humbleness and obedience to God and increase, at the same time, our prayer to God and to the Mother of God. This period of fasting for the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God is a period in which we ask for the help of the Mother of God so that we should become more sensitive and helpful towards our fellow beings “, said His Beatitude in the end.