Twenty-Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 2; The Venerable-Martyr Stephen the New (c. 764); The Holy Martyr Irenarchus (284-305)
Ephesians 6:10-17; Luke 13:10-17
Nativity Fast.
Read Luke 13:10-17
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
The leader of the synagogue complained that Jesus performed His miracle on a Sabbath. Commentaries sometimes mention envy as the vice that the religious leaders manifested on such occasions. He was envious of Jesus.
Just like pride, envy is a sin that can rarely be seen by the perpetrator. How often do we confess the sin of envy or jealousy? How often are we aware of our feelings of envy? Most of our envy is usually focused on a few individuals in our life. Can we identify who they are? That is the kind of examination of conscience we sometimes need to make. The Bible gives us two very dramatic examples of envy: Cain envying his brother Abel and the sons of Jacob envying their brother Joseph. In both cases a sibling tries to get rid of his brother.
We need to recognize our sins of envious thoughts and then chase them out before they do some serious damage in our lives.