How to strengthen faith: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief”
Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Sermon by Archpriest Andrei Ovchinnikov after the Divine Liturgy
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.”
These words, like the groan of a human heart struck by sorrow, stand at the center of the gospel event, which we read about today at Sunday’s Divine Liturgy.
These words were spoken by a father who had a possessed son. This event occurred simultaneously with the Transfiguration of the Lord. Only the Lord shone and was transformed on the mountain, but this event took place on earth, at the foot of Tabor.
The Lord left nine disciples on earth, and He was with three above. And these nine apostles could not cast out the demon from the unfortunate sick youth. And these are the words that the father said - they are very close to each of us, because our faith also needs to be strengthened, because it is very weak, it constantly fluctuates, and is overwhelmed by all sorts of temptations.
The saddest thing is that our faith is divorced from our life; it is almost dead and fruitless. Therefore, today in the sermon it is appropriate for us to talk about how we can strengthen our faith.
This is the most important problem of our Christian life, which we must worry and think about. Because without faith it is impossible to please God - these are the words of the Apostle Paul from the Epistle to the Hebrews.
So: the first means of strengthening faith is shown to us in the Gospel in the words of the unfortunate father: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” These words are the shortest prayer addressed to Christ. The first means of strengthening faith is prayer .
We must believe that the source of all good is God. Faith is a fruit of grace, a spiritual gift of God, which is given to a person who strives for this gift.
But prayer is the way and means to acquire this gift of grace . Therefore, we must constantly, perhaps as the first request in every prayer, turn to God with the words: “Lord, increase my faith, make it alive, make it consist of specific deeds, because faith without deeds is dead .
They may object to us: “How can I pray when I don’t have this very faith? When my heart lost touch with God. I don’t feel His presence in him.” And here we need to understand the meaning of Christian feat.
Whether you believe or not, whether the grace of God has touched your heart or not, you must work in prayer. For a new Christian there is no other way.
At first, work is necessary, sometimes seeming fruitless, monotonous, performed daily without any particular results. But that's not true. The Lord awaits our faithfulness. The Lord wants us to be patient, the Lord wants us to show that we truly love Him.
And if a person is faithful in his small deeds, the Lord will definitely come to his aid. He always stands next to us, the Lord does not want a person to have any suffering, senseless sorrows, misfortunes - nothing like that.
He wants to give a person only one joy, one happiness and even bliss. But a little effort is needed on our part, Christian labor is needed. And this is the first step that we must take on the path of gaining faith.
The second means of strengthening faith is visible example. If a real Christian lived next to us, we would become like that too. As they say, whoever you get along with, that's how you get on. One of the most difficult trials that befell us is the lack of an example.
The prophet David also exclaimed that the monk had become impoverished . And so the Lord allowed us to live in a time when around us we see almost no example of Christian life - there are no holy fools, no elders, no ascetics, no saints. Perhaps, of course, they exist, but, according to the sayings of the holy fathers of ancient times, they, these people, are saved exclusively by humility.
Maybe they are among us, but we don’t see them, because a holy person is, first of all, humble and he performs all his deeds secretly - for God.
What can we do? We need to refer to the book. There has never been a time in the history of the Church when there was so much wonderful soul-saving literature on the shelves of churches. And there has never been a time when people showed such indifference and indifference to the study of their Orthodoxy.
We must constantly read about Christianity from a variety of sources, starting with the Holy Scriptures and ending with wonderful Orthodox magazines addressed to Orthodox women, youth, and children.
This is all blessed food that strengthens our faith . And without difficulty we will never strengthen this faith. If we need to strive for a good example, try to see and remember it, then it is also very important to beware of temptation, to beware of the negative influence on our heart, on our will .
And the same prophet David says that with a saint you will be reverend, but with an evil man you will be corrupted. And often we forget about this warning.
Faith, no matter how weak, needs careful guarding. And this treasure is stolen with the help of people who have turned away from this faith, who build their lives not according to the will of God, but according to the will of the devil.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of such people around us, and often we do not notice this danger, but one empty conversation, when sacred things are ridiculed or spoken about with skepticism, can sow terrible seeds of doubt in our hearts.
We must look very carefully at who we communicate with, who our friends are. We must take care.
And, probably, for a Christian the most salutary state is loneliness, but not just with oneself, but with God .
The word monk is from the Greek word "monos" meaning "alone", but not with oneself, but with the Lord. And for us, living in such a time, it is useful to communicate less with people, and turn to God more - He is our best friend, He is our most faithful helper, Who will never betray us, will not turn away and will always come to the rescue.
And, finally, the third means that can strengthen our faith is the one that is talked about in many books... But today I would like to give an example not from the Patericon, but from the wonderful novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov”.
There is a chapter in this novel called "The Unbelieving Lady." We are talking about Elder Zosima - this beautiful image is taken from real life - they say that Dostoevsky wrote his Elder Zosima from the contemplation of St. Ambrose of Optina.
So many people came to this old man, and one day a rich landowner came and began to say that she was losing faith in her immortal soul, in eternity and in God Himself. And she asked the elder to give her advice on how she could gain faith.
And now Dostoevsky speaks through the mouth of Elder Zosima a wonderful edification that each of us needs to learn. He says that faith is acquired through the acquisition of active love experience, that is, when a person himself practices active love. He constantly tries to fulfill this most important commandment of the Gospel.
This lady said that she wanted - in a fit of spiritual inspiration - to become a nurse, to work in the infirmary, to care for the wounded, to feed them from her own hands, but at the same time she said - on one condition - when there would be gratitude for the feat.
But we must perform our Christian feat without expecting rewards on earth. Because the Lord wants our treasure to be preserved in heaven.
So: the experience of active love - from every deed we can gain a grain of Christian experience. Experience is a priceless thing. No temptations, no slander and conversations can distract a person from what he himself has personally experienced.
That is why we say that Christianity is a constant practice, a constant accumulation of experience - religious, repentant, prayerful, grateful. And when a person feels this experience, his faith will really strengthen.
No one can convince him that there is a God, that this God is love itself, that we can pray to this God, and He hears our prayers. The fact that there is eternity, that the soul is immortal - these are things that a Christian must experience in this life.
And then his faith will strengthen . Therefore, today the Church is teaching us a most beautiful lesson, which can be seen in the example of the father of a demon-possessed youth. Yes, he was weak in faith, but he did not despair, he did not give up, he turned to God with a prayer: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief!” And with this kind of prayer we must also constantly turn to God. And then the Lord will hear us, come into our hearts with His grace, and our faith will strengthen - it will become alive and will be expressed in our deeds. Amen.
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Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhov
When the Lord tested the faith of the forefather Abraham, He offered to sacrifice His only, beloved son, and Abraham, trusting in the Omniscient God, without asking Him about anything, was ready to fulfill this. For such perfect trust, the Lord gave the once childless Abraham the glory of becoming the father of a great people, chosen by the Creator so that the Incarnate God Himself would be born in this people!
Everything is possible for a person who with all his heart, with all his being, with all his soul believes in the God-man Lord Jesus Christ, who trusts his life to Him alone, and asks Him alone for help and protection. The Lord now does not demand the impossible from us: there is no need to sacrifice our only son, it is enough to have just a small beginning of faith, that is, trust in Him, but for this alone He promises a great reward! But which of us has even that little faith?
Just recently, in the desert, the Lord miraculously fed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and fish, and now he looks with sadness at the same people who saw this miracle. The merciful and loving Teacher suddenly pronounces terrible words with sorrow: “Oh, unfaithful generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? (Gospel of Mark 9:19). These words, which we hear today at the Divine Liturgy, are addressed not only to the father of the possessed boy, not only to the Apostles, who were unable to cast out the unclean spirit, although the Lord gave them the power in His name to heal people and cast out demons from them, and not only to the scribes who surrounded the Lord, relentlessly tempting Him and in their pride demanding signs from Him. This one is full of bitterness
Imagine the most powerful king in the universe, the wisest, richest, strongest, having any power in the whole world. Imagine that this king, out of love for his subjects, left a luxurious palace, dressed in simple clothes and went to the poor, uneducated, ignorant people of his kingdom to share with them everything that he himself has: wisdom, wealth, and even unlimited power . But these people did not accept the fatherly love of their king: they laughed at his words, rejected his wealth and completely beat him. Even the most patient ruler would not have been able to stand such treatment; he would have exclaimed: “How long will I tolerate you?” and would punish his offenders.
The infinitely loving Lord, the King of the Universe and the Lord of the Angels, in His mercy took pity on people dying in sins, and, like this king, descended to them and Himself became a man to show people the path leading to His beautiful palace - the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord endured humiliation, poverty, and lack of faith even among his closest friends. They did not understand Him, they called Him a deceiver and a flatterer, and even a servant of Beelzebub, that is, the devil (Gospel of Matthew 12:24), They hated Him and made repeated attempts on His life! But no matter how difficult it was for the Lord, no matter how sorrowful His heart was, He did not punish anyone and, moreover, bitterly reproaching the people for unbelief, still did not turn away from them, but immediately offered help to the suffering boy: “Bring him to Me” (Gospel Mark 9:19).
When the desperate father of the possessed boy turned to the Lord, he expressed doubt about His power: “if you can do anything... help us” (Gospel of Mark 9:22). But the story about this man two thousand years later gives us great hope, because the boy’s father, almost immediately realizing the imperfection of his faith, without guile or lies, sincerely confessed this imperfection before the Lord, completely trusting in His love: “I believe, Lord! help my unbelief” (Gospel of Mark 9:24). And the Savior, seeing faith the size of a mustard seed and accepting repentance for the smallness of this faith, miraculously healed the boy, possessed from birth.
I believe, Lord! help my unbelief. When it seems to us that everything is falling out of hand, that we are confused in our life's difficulties, when we are discouraged and losing hope, these words should become our motto and consolation. Lord, our faith is imperfect, we are a generation unfaithful to You, but all we hope for is only You. You, who are capable of growing from the smallest grain of our faith a beautiful tree, whose branches will bear You the sweetest fruits of love for your neighbor, fulfillment of Your commandments and undying hope for salvation.
Missionary center of the Epiphany Cathedral
Interpretation of the Gospel for every day of the year. 4th Sunday of Great Lent of St. John Climacus
Mk, 40 credits, 9, 17-31
One of the people said to Jesus: Teacher! I brought to You my son, possessed by a dumb spirit: wherever he seizes him, he throws him to the ground, and he emits foam, and grinds his teeth, and becomes numb. I told Your disciples to drive him out, but they could not. Answering him, Jesus said: O faithless generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I tolerate you? Bring him to Me. And they brought him to Him. As soon as the demoniac saw Him, the spirit shook him; he fell to the ground and lay there, emitting foam. And Jesus asked his father, “How long ago did this happen to him?” He said: since childhood; and many times the spirit threw him into both fire and water to destroy him; but, if you can, take pity on us and help us. Jesus said to him: if you can believe as much as possible, all things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the boy’s father exclaimed with tears: I believe, Lord! help my unbelief. Jesus, seeing that the people were running, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him: the spirit is dumb and deaf! I command you, come out of it and do not enter it again. And, screaming and shaking him violently, he went out; and he became as if dead, so that many said that he was dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up; and he stood up. And when Jesus entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately: Why could we not drive him out? And he said to them: This generation cannot come out except through prayer and fasting. Coming out from there, they passed through Galilee; and He didn't want anyone to find out. For He taught His disciples and told them that the Son of Man would be delivered into the hands of men and they would kill Him, and after He was killed He would rise again on the third day.
After the Week of the Cross is the Sunday of St. John Climacus. The post reaches its peak. Next Wednesday evening - St. Mary's Station, we will hear the entire penitential canon of St. Andrew of Crete, with which during the first four evenings we began our entry into Lent. Will the words of repentance that we hear in the Church become our own words?
The ladder of spiritual ascent is the steps from earth to heaven, beginning in faith and reaching completion in love, the eternal Kingdom of Christ. The Monk John Climacus has thirty of them, according to the number of years of the Lord, when He received baptism and went out to serve people in order to save everyone through the Cross. We must climb these steps, making every effort to ascend to such a height where we will become capable of accepting the gift of the Cross of Christ and the Resurrection. And this means that the ascent is at the same time a descent down, step by step, to the bottom of hell; the ability to “call out from the depths” with all your sorrow, life and death, and to know that Christ accepted the Cross and descended into hell in order to bring out from there all who freely and consciously turn to Him with their whole being.
The meaning of spiritual life is to bring evil into the light of God, where it perishes. Evil is hidden also because darkness provides it with unhindered growth, and the strategy and tactics of evil is to act in the darkness, delivering unforeseen blows. However, due to the blindness of people, evil is becoming more and more impudent, increasingly revealing itself in such an undisguised form, in which the story about the possessed youth in today's Gospel clearly shows it. We do not have the opportunity to perform the exploits of the ancient fathers, but the Lord, in order to save us, gives us another desert, where evil is clearly closing its ring around us. The ladder is the Cross of Christ. How to measure the depths of love without measuring the abyss of evil? Why couldn’t God reach me without Himself crossing the streams of dirt and blood that separate me from Him? This evil, scattered everywhere, intangible and dominating everything, here it is visible, tangible. Everywhere present in all time and space, it is all gathered at this hour on Calvary - by the One who created time and space and is now pierced by the spear of a Roman soldier. Will this copy not wake us up from sleep, from years of lasting lethargy, which increasingly considers as habitual, almost normal, what is unbearable for God? God is crucified by evil - how can I pretend that this evil does not concern me? God's compassion makes me penetrate into the suffering of the world, which was worth His suffering.
You say you are looking for bliss, grace. But is it possible for someone who must ascend the steps of the Beatitudes to remain invulnerable in the face of evil? You talk about works of mercy, but mercy is the truth, the most demanding, the most inexorable. What is mercy if not participation in the suffering of Christ in the face of evil? It presupposes a hatred of evil infinitely stronger than that which all our truths can inspire. It reveals that the most precious effect of the suffering we share with the Lord is the healing of those mortally affected by evil and our immersion in mercy, our own healing.
And therefore the Lord rejects any defense that is not the defense of the Lamb. He offers the agony of death on the Cross to His faithful as the full armor of truth and gives the world the blessed acceptance of the most defenseless creatures - children: “Do not prevent children from coming to me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” And when we hear in today’s Gospel the voice of a sorrowful parent that his son is going berserk, throwing himself first into fire and then into water - and this has been happening to him since childhood - we think about our children. Not about adults, but first of all about those to whom the Kingdom of Heaven should belong. Possession, which led everyone into numbness during the earthly life of Christ, has now become a common occurrence. And no one seems to be horrified anymore, everything has become so familiar.
Why do you look at the warped seats of trains and dirty elevators and entrances? Look better at the childish faces of children disfigured by television, school, home and street, and by everyone who has finally found complete freedom to corrupt our children! Children of spiritual Chernobyl: how brightly the star Wormwood sparkles! Children-murderers, children-drug addicts, children-prostitutes, children-psychics, children-speculators. And among them are millions of street children abandoned by their parents or who have run away from home. “Nobody’s children,” as the newspapers say. Children of our time, children of Russia, our children. Children who have just learned to speak, on whose lips there is foul language instead of prayer and any other speech. And how many of the unborn children, unless they are killed before birth, are already infected with the virus of madness of our earth!
We stand in mournful silence: what more can be said? But when the Lamb hears this, a cry is heard, tearing the curtain of heaven: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” And our answering cry rushes to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us!” When evil triumphs, when there is too much evil, what else is left to shout? When everything overwhelms us, His name alone holds us up. “O faithless and corrupt generation! - says the Lord today, - how long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? These are the signs of recent times - indifference and cruelty. Don’t you know that every day the Lord walks among our city, forgotten and unrecognized by anyone in the crowd of passers-by, and someone looks around and says: “What are you talking about? All this is ancient history, now it’s a completely different time.” And don’t you see Him every day, tormented and beaten, slashed with a whip and spat on, and a huge, invisible Cross with His name embossed on top rises above us more and more clearly, because the end is approaching. Where violence reigns, how to hold back these tears, which, like the name “Lord Jesus Christ,” flow from someone’s heart without ceasing!
Oh, if only the whole Church had such mercy for the world! But how often do we find ourselves like the disciples of Christ to whom his father brought the possessed boy - completely unable to help. And this failure of ours, which stems not only from the unbelief of those who come to Christ, gives the opportunity to the enemies of the Church to humiliate the Church and the Lord Himself. Too often we find ourselves in this position, especially in these times when national distress is increasing. Russia turned out to be a house, cleanly swept and tidied, and unoccupied by anyone, and the expelled unclean spirit, the spirit of communism, brought with it seven evil others. It’s as if we got the opportunity to preach, and we say to people who don’t know God: “Look at the Church! This is the Body of Christ, His Bride, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,” and other lofty, true words. But only by our actions, by our ability to respond to the demands of life, do people judge the Church and judge Christ.
The sick youth is possessed by a dumb spirit. His father is desperate. He was faced with the powerlessness of his students. And he is not entirely confident in the strength of their Teacher. “If you can, have compassion and help us,” he says to Christ, half believing and half doubting. But by admitting his weakness and calling for help, he already acts as a disciple of Christ. And the disciples closest to the Lord were defeated because they relied only on their own strength. But they received power over unclean spirits! Obviously, the demon of muteness is stronger than others. The boasting of a chatty demon can be countered by the power of words. But if the devil is silent, only the silence of our heartfelt prayer, when we are truly with God, can be an effective weapon. The demon is dumb and at the same time the demon is deaf. Satan is never so cunning and dangerous as in this shelter of impenetrable deafness, when it seems that he is not here.
All this is happening now - not only in the sense of what is happening in the world. This is about the weakness of our faith. The Lord also calls us slow and sluggish in heart. We, too, sometimes suffer, like this youth, from deafness, because we are struck by the disease of sin and painfully seek deliverance from it. And often we don’t hear because we don’t want to listen. And the Lord says that the weakness of our faith is connected with the weakening of our prayer. “All things are possible to him who believes”—by the almighty power of God. In our relationship with Christ, much depends on our faith, and much is promised to faith. “Do you believe this?” “If you can believe as much as possible,” your hardened heart will soften, and your spiritual illnesses will be healed. And no matter how weak you are, you can stand to the end. “I believe,” says the unhappy father. “Let the weakness of my faith not become an obstacle to the healing of my boy.” And he adds a prayer for help in order to trust more firmly in the salvation of Christ: “Help my unbelief.” Anyone who complains about unbelief must turn to Christ so that He can help him. And His grace will be sufficient. “Help me overcome my unbelief, give me by Your grace what my faith lacks—strength made perfect in weakness.”
The Lord calls you to faith. In His Divine Person evil is defeated. The healing of the boy occurs when his torment reaches its limit. “Crying out and shaking him violently, the demon came out.” “And the boy became as if dead, so that many said that he was dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up; and he stood up." This “rose” - “rose up” - in the language of the Gospel means resurrection. The Risen Christ will raise the dead, and now He is demonstrating His Divine power. He is the Conqueror of evil and death, and we are called to place all our trust in Him with faith.
“This kind cannot come out except through prayer and fasting.” Why? Because faith is a living connection with God. She is the silence of listening, the silence of attention. My whole life is directed towards Him. Faith is simple, it should not contain any impurities, it is pure. On the contrary, the dumb and deaf spirit that the Gospel proclaims is unclean. He doesn't speak, he just makes noise. He is always unclean, this noise he makes in our heart. And only through prayer everything becomes pure. Prayer is not simply standing before the face of God, as if we were external to Him. In prayer, which is pure faith, I am in Him and He is in me. I don't need to look for Him outside. It's very simple: when I accept Him, He finds me, and I find Him.
As St. John Climacus says: “Give prayer to the one who prays.” If we ask the Holy Spirit from the Father according to the commandment of Christ, then everything will be given to us, including the gift of prayer. This opportunity to believe is offered to us and we must accept it. To be born of the Father and turn to Him: “Our Father,” surrendering oneself to Him. This is the simplicity and purity of faith. The Holy Spirit will teach us to pray unceasingly, because we live unceasingly - to the extent that we pray in Him.
When we pray, when we repent and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, the Lord gives us strength, allows us to taste and see how good the Lord is. But we cannot keep this gift; we will lose it if we accept it only for ourselves, only to console our hearts with heavenly sweetness, forgetting about the suffering of others. Only by fasting and prayer can we preserve Divine power within ourselves and resist all evil. By fasting - abstinence in the midst of the corruption that prevails in the world through lust and prayer - the constant unity of our spirit with God.
“The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of sinners, and they will kill Him, and on the third day he will rise again” - the Lord reminds us of the essence of everything that is happening. Satan summons his servants for the final battle. Church time is a time of fasting and prayer. The time of the Cross and Resurrection is approaching.
Gospel to the Reverend: Matthew, 10. (4, 25 – 5, 12)
TEMPLE OF VLADIMIR THE HOLY MARTYR
Week 4 of Lent.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel of Mark, an excerpt from which we read today at the liturgy, ends with words that, if attributed to modern Christians, can plunge each of us into despair: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; and whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will take snakes; and if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16.16-18). We all, gathered today in the temple, believed in our God and therefore were baptized. But at the same time, none of us, being of sound mind and strong memory, would risk drinking something deadly or, say, picking up a poisonous snake without a shudder. Firstly, because we know that even a person endowed with extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit should not do what the Son of Man forbade Himself: “Do not tempt the Lord your God” (Matthew 4.7), He said to the devil in response to a proposal to throw oneself into the abyss. And secondly, like the father of the demon-possessed youth, each of us knows the approximate value of our faith. However, unlike this grief-stricken man, we ask God for anything: health, strength, peace, prosperity - just not an increase in faith, for we guess that increased faith will require from us an increase in deeds, and not an increase in applause for the brilliant manifestation of our new talents.
It is not for nothing that the story about the healing of a raving teenager ends with a prediction about Golgotha: “For He taught His disciples and told them that the Son of Man would be delivered into the hands of men and they would kill Him, and after He had been killed, He would rise again on the third day” (Mark 9.31). That is, “they will lay hands on the sick” so that they “will be healthy,” not in order to be known among people as outstanding doctors, but in order to strengthen themselves in faith, in order not to flinch at the decisive hour when “ You will also be betrayed by your parents, and brothers, and relatives, and friends, and some of you will be put to death; and you will be hated by everyone because of My name” (Luke 21:16,17).
We somehow always forget that the miracles performed by the Savior are not valuable in themselves, but only as a sign and promise of the “future age.” Just as the resurrection from the dead of the daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of Nain is not just a private, albeit miraculous, event, but an icon, an image of that universal Resurrection that will follow when “the Lord Himself, with a proclamation, with the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise" (Thess. 4:16). If you do not take this into account in your daily life, if, in search of miraculous events, you forget about why God abolishes the laws of nature in each specific case, then you can easily become the prey of the Antichrist, about whom it is known that he “does great signs, so that fire brings down from heaven to earth in front of people. And with miracles... he deceives those who live on the earth” (Rev. 13.13,14).
Bodily health is again important not in itself, but only as a condition for successful spiritual and physical work, as just a circumstance of achievement, and not an end in itself. In a prayer to the holy great martyr and healer Panteleimon, to whose intercession the Orthodox resort during severe physical and mental illnesses, the sick person directly says: “...heal me; May I, healthy in soul and body, spend the rest of my days, by the grace of God, in repentance and pleasing God!
The meeting with the father of the demon-possessed youth occurred just at the time when the Lord, accompanied by Peter, James and John, was descending from Tabor, where these three chosen apostles witnessed the wondrous Transfiguration of the Savior. It is not for nothing that in the kontakion of the holiday the Holy Church sings: “... having seen Thy glory, O Christ God: that when they see Thee crucified, they will understand free suffering.” The Lord, by the miracle of the Transfiguration, increases the faith of the apostles so that they too can “drink the cup” and “be baptized with the baptism” of the Son of Man (Mark 10.38), so that they, like He soon, can bear their cross, so that they, like us, Because we are Christians, we were able to withstand what we just read about in the Gospel of Matthew: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unjustly because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven: even so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11,12).
Increase our faith, Lord! Increase our faith, but not in order to amaze those around us with it, but so that during temptation we can stand in the truth and not succumb to temptations. Increase our faith, Lord, help our unbelief, heal our confused mind and raging soul, which is trying to plunge us into the fire of passion and the water of despair in salvation! Help, Lord, our unbelief, may we bravely and joyfully walk through the field of fasting, may we remain faithful to You even in the terrible moments of Golgotha, so that, “having understood free suffering,” we preach the Light of the Resurrection not only in word, but also in life itself. Amen.
April 14, 2002
