Our Holy Father Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria (444)
Apostles’ Fast
Read
Romans 3:28-4:3; Matthew 7:24-8:4
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today’s gospel acts as a bridge between Jesus teaching and his healing. On one hand, we have the concluding words of the sermon on the mount – Jesus’ words are a strong foundation, but without obedience to his teaching we will be lost. On the other hand, we have Jesus’ first miracle (at least on the gospel of Matthew), the cleansing of a leper. But what do this teaching and this event have to do with each other?
One answer to this question is that everything that Jesus does and says is about healing. Since the fall, humanity has been struck with the illness of sin, and has been unable to get relief from anywhere; in fact, no matter what we do, we only get sicker and sicker. In alienating us from God, our neighbour, and ourselves, sickness is like a virus that, left unchecked, will invade and destroy us, body and soul.
In response to this sickness of sin, Jesus comes as our healer, our doctor, the “divine physician.” And if his miracles of healing show his power over sin in real-time, his teaching shows how we must live if we are to stay healthy. Sin (the war against God, our neighbour, and ourselves) leaves us without a foundation, alienated like the leper in today’s gospel. Only Jesus, through his words and his healing death and resurrection, can give the prescription for everlasting life.