Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Anthony the Great (356)
Hebrews 13: 17-21; Luke 6: 17-23
Polyeleos Feast
Read Luke 6: 17-23
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
In this pericope, we find Luke’s account of the Beatitudes, which is similar to the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew (Mt 5-7), though shorter. Today’s Gospel begins with Luke describing how people sought Jesus out both in order to learn from him and to be healed of their diseases. Here we find a topical message for Christians. We must take our cue from this great crowd of disciples, and likewise seek out Christ both for his pedagogy and healing. Cyril of Alexandria explains that Jesus performed these works so that all might know that he is God. He goes on to say that “Christ did not borrow strength from some other person, but being himself God by nature, even though he had become flesh, he healed them all, by the demonstration of power over the sick” (Cyril, Commentary on Luke, Homily 25). While Christians today might pay lip service to the proposition that Christ is truly divine and has the power to heal, some of our actions belie this understanding.
To whom do we turn first to shed light on our life experiences? Is Christ our first teacher, or do we regard worldly authorities as preeminent? Similarly, to whom do we go when we suffer illness? Upon whom do we rely for healing?
Doubtless, Christ gave us intelligence, which we are to use for good. By using our God-given reason, we can certainly cooperate with the Lord in the healing of body and soul. As the putative Ignatian maxim goes, we ought to pray as though everything depends upon God and work as if all depends on us. In other words, work and prayer go hand in hand. However, order matters. In times of crisis, let us turn first to Christ the teacher, that we may come to apprehend his will. He is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). When we encounter physical illness, then too we must place our hope in Christ first. This does not mean that we abandon our reason in favour of prayer, as if they are mutually exclusive. But it does mean that we reject all fear and undue reliance upon our own strength, which of course only exists to the extent that God permits. Let us be firm in our prayer, like the multitude of people in today’s Gospel, and seek out Christ with absolute confidence in his ability to heal us of all our illnesses.