The Holy Apostle Aquila.
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
1 Corinthians 7:35-8:7; Matthew 15:29-31.
Read Matthew 15:29-31
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Notice that Jesus after passing through where people live their daily lives climbs up towards the hills—to a higher place. There he waits on-high calling all to follow him. Those who respond and seek after him are the ones who are filled with faith and motivated to encounter Jesus. It’s the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb who struggle to climb the hill. St. John Chrysostom is amazed that these people, “are no longer merely touching the edge of his garment. They have advanced a higher step. They are being brought to his feet! Therein they are showing their faith doubly, first by struggling up the mountain even though lame, then by wanting nothing else but only to be cast at his feet.” (The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 52.4).
Physical maladies gave these people a sense of incompleteness and a deep conviction that they need God to become whole. Like those in the Gospel today, our motivation to encounter Jesus might also be physical illness, or a sense of finite existence, but this isn’t enough. We need to have a deeper sense and conviction that Jesus is my only source of healing and wholeness. Even if I am physically healthy I am far from being the human being of love that I am called to be: I am a sinner and in need of healing and grace. This mindset creates a sense of conviction that Jesus is my only hope and the source of life itself. Without Jesus I cannot be a whole human being and I am merely struggling like a cripple in this life. Like the cripples in the Gospel climbing the mountain we aught to leave the attachments we have to this world in order to more easily climb the spiritual mountain—struggle and effort is required— and sit at the feet of the Lord. This is the path towards true wholeness and healing our Lord provides.