My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
Jesus Christ is the Physician of our souls and bodies.
No one can deny seeing man’s emotional, physical, psychological, and most important spiritual condition is in need of healing. Man needs to be cured of this fatal illness. He needs to be admitted to the hospital but not just any hospital. For the Christian, the hospital is the Church and it is there where he will find the great Physician Who will administer to him the Divine Medicine for his cure. It is there where those ailing will find the true therapy. It is there where he will find purification and cleansing of all infirmity and grime.
The practicing Orthodox Christian understands that one very significant purpose why he or she attends the Divine Liturgy and the other divine services in the Church is to personally see the Physician, our Lord Jesus Christ Who is present at all times. Our appointment is with Him. The Divine Medicine He offers to us is His Holy Body and Precious Blood of which there is no greater medicine. It is given for the remission of sins and life eternal. This Divine Medicine is not only therapeutic but through the grace of God, the believer becomes one with Him and with all other faithful who also receive it. This act of our Lord Christ is first and foremost a therapeutic one. It is He Who restores all those who approach Him with faith and humility and Who restores us and cures us.
Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ knowing how often we fall and sin established His Church to be used as a place of healing. We who attend the divine services know that we need healing otherwise, we shall die. No Orthodox Christian attends the Divine Liturgy to observe a theatrical performance and to be critical of the performers, the priest, the choir, the chanters, etc. The Church is not there to entertain us or to make us fill good and happy. We are there to be touched by God the Holy Spirit and seek His healing energy, His Divine grace. However, no one is compelled to either see the Physician or to be admitted to His Hospital, the Church. Our Lord simply exhorts us to seek to be cured. Every believer is cured by the energy of God Whose Source is uncreated and revealed "in the person of Jesus Christ. Another important point to be aware of is that this Divine Energy of Christ from which comes a person’s cure is granted freely and out of His Love.
What a person confronts today and what is up against is enormous and complicated. The problems are spiritual, moral, psychological, emotional, social, and intellectual. However, Our Lord reminds us that "The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God" (Luke 18:27). Jesus also says to us, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23) because of God’s power released through faith. Therefore, personal faith is necessary and is expected by God for healing to take place. Christ honors the faith of the person and will increase faith when we sincerely desire of Him. Most of our illnesses are caused by our sinfulness which attacks our body and soul very much like cancer does. Those who have suffered from cancer and survived know how devasting and painful it is to go through it. Also, how difficult it is to recover from it. We must also understand that since our Lord Jesus Christ is the Physician that we are the patients. As patients, we trust Him implicitly and completely, our life is in His Divine hands.
Our healing depends also on our cooperation with the Physician and our listening and obedience to His guidance and advice on how well we implement it in our lives. Living within the Spiritual Hospital, the Church, by grace, a believer must first cleanse his/her heart of the PASSIONS (Πάθη), in order to attain Divine illumination and be deified and attain union with our Creator Who will bestow upon us salvation. We must come to our senses and admit before God and man that we are ill. Denial is not an option for any of us. We must not allow pride or ego to resist and ignore the reality of how critical our condition is. Repentance is absolutely necessary for our complete spiritual healing. It was said by one, that it is not the sin that condemns one, but the unwillingness to repent of it. The Holy Apostle Peter in his sermon at Solomon’s Porch taught, "REPENT therefore and be CONVERTED, that your sins may be BLOTTED OUT, so that time of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, Who was preached to you before" (Acts 3:19). Repentance and Conversion (METANOIA) means a thorough change of heart and mind, WHICH IS ESSENTIAL FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
Our Merciful and Loving God desires that we all come to the knowledge of truth and be saved. We define Orthodox Christian spirituality as PURIFICATION, ILLUMINATION, AND DEIFICATION (THEOSIS) which are results of the Uncreated energy of God. These three stages of perfection are mentioned by the Holy Fathers of the Church. It is only by the grace of God can these three stages be attained. A believer will confront many obstacles and challenges before he or she reaches his or her goal. Our enemy, the evil one, will make it very difficult and will make a deliberate attempt to sabotage our every effort. We need to be prepared for it and be determined to fight "the good fight", and win the battle. Our spiritual warfare never ceases until we are longer living. Let us renew the purity which has been divinely bestowed upon us "through faith in what we have heard" (Galatians 3:2) and let us restrain from doing evil and let us fear God Who holds us accountable for our every thought, desire, and deed believing in the coming "dread day" of judgment.
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Victorious Diakonia (Ministery),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 