Jarius’ Daughter

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Someone in your house has

a dreadful accident. Life -threatening. You call

an ambulance. Ambulance is on the way. It stops.

For a long time. to care for someone else. Your

beloved has died. If I had to transpose the story

today from the gospel into some modern situation,

perhaps that's the way I would think about it.

Except we're dealing with Jesus, not an ambulance.

We've all been, brothers and sisters, especially

our seniors, in situations of uncertainty. When

a beloved one is sick, maybe if those of you

that are younger, you haven't experienced this,

you will. A beloved one is dying. You're afraid,

you're anxious, you're in incredible pain and

suffering. You're praying, you're praying constantly.

You're waiting for God to act. Where are you,

Lord, you say? Where are you? Why don't you act?

The story today has every drama you could think

of, but in brief words with no literary dramatic

technique, St. Luke, the physician, tells this

story about this father, and you have to imagine

his wife. In terror for their daughter who is

dying. The young girl herself probably in some

pain. And then there's this woman. Tradition

knows her as Veronica. In fact, tradition tells

us that she made a statue of Jesus. Which stood

for a long time but was destroyed sometime in

the third century. And here she is. Twelve years

she's suffering from this flow of menstrual blood,

which isolates her because she's unclean, not

sinful, just can't be touched in that society,

in that religious situation. Can't eat with her

family, never touched or embraced by her husband

or her children. Can't go to the synagogue or

to the temple. The crushing loneliness and despair.

Perhaps some of you have known that feeling in

yourself or for someone you love and you pray.

The gospel tells life like it is. There's nothing

sugar -coated in this gospel. Because Jesus has

come to save us from all that destruction and

corruption and pain. I don't say that on my own

authority or as some sort of wishful thinking

about the future. The apostles were called together.

Jesus gave them power over unclean spirits to

cast them out and to heal every manner of disease.

Today, we're celebrating That beginning of the

rescue, the change, the transformation, the healing

of people in the church. I want to say something

about illness too. But let me say something about

the unmercenaries. Because today is the feast

day of the gathering, the assembly, the synaxis

in Greek of the unmercenary healers. Those who

were doctors, physicians, and caregivers who

healed without taking. In Greek, without taking

silver. They weren't paid. What a precarious

thing physical health is. Sickness, which by

nature is not good. And suffering is not good.

It is not part of God's divine plan. But he uses

it. It's not part of his will, let's say. but

he has used it in his plan so that it becomes

a path of the cross and the resurrection. A cross

is not something, as one famous writer said,

to figure out and to get over it. A cross is

something we carry and changes us. Sickness,

then, in the light of God's help, when we're

praying, when we're troubled, when we're unsure.

Sickness illustrates the weakness of our human

nature. It tells us we don't understand the mystery

of life, our existence. It shows us how fragile

we are. It shows our fallen nature, that we are

not self -sufficient, although we pretend it

and we live that way. And our pride is broken.

St. Seraphim. our venerable father said, a person

who is very sick comes back to himself. If one

has faith in Jesus Christ. Now faith in Jesus

Christ is not something that comes because of

a miracle. And in this story today, Jesus sent

everyone out of the room. And he said, after

he healed and raised this girl from the dead,

don't speak about this. Just another magician

trick. That's not what Jesus is about. Only believe,

the Lord said to Jairus. Only believe. And to

the woman, tradition knows her again as Veronica.

He said, your faith has made you well. This healing

that goes on in the church, something from God.

We have these unmercenaries to get back to that.

Cyrus and John, Panteleimon, Irmelaos, Diomedes,

Samtison, Mochius, Photius, Aniketus, Artemius,

Thalallius, Triphon, all martyrs, and St. Luke

the surgeon, who died only in the 60s, and of

course St. Luke the apostle. Perhaps the earliest

healers of these are three women. who became

the first in the long series of mercenary healers

stretched even to today. These women were sisters,

Zenaida and Filonella. We have Carla Filonella

in our parish, who is an immunologist, epidemiologist.

Is that right, Carla? With her Ph .D. These women

were born in the early first century. They were

believed to be, by the church, cousins of St.

Paul the Apostle and highly educated women at

that, which is unusual for the time. Both sisters

studying philosophy. Now, philosophy in the ancient

world is not what we think of it today. Philosophy

was the study of all of nature, including medicine.

Once they became Christian, Orthodox, they gave

themselves to the healing of others. So we have

them in the icon here and St. Panteleimon in

the middle as the leader of the unmercenary healers.

They had faith. And listen to what the gospel

tells us. Faith in what? That they'd get well?

No. Or that they could heal? No. They had faith

that Jesus could heal, yes, but they had faith

in Jesus Christ as the bringer of the kingdom

of God. Not the kingdom of this world, but the

kingdom of God. Their presence for someone in

pain is the presence of God. And we have that

reading from marvelous, incredible reading of

St. Paul in 12th and 13th 1 Corinthians about

love. You are members of one another. You have

all these gifts. But the highest gift, the one

that the unmercenaries demonstrated over and

over again, is the gift of agape, selfless, egoless

love, using the gift that God gave them. We can

cast in our faith all our hope. All our thoughts,

plans, fears, anxieties, whatever, on the mercy

of the Savior. Like the desperate Jairus and

the desperate Veronica. Because faith leads to

holiness. We can trust Christ so much we can

be like Joseph of Arimathea who served the Lord

even though he thought the dream was over. And

the Messiah, had failed. This is about love of

God so deep that we trust in his providence.

Or we can be like the young ruler with his wealth

who couldn't get over himself. I'll finish this

brief meditation with these words from St. Barsanufius.

one of the early writers on the spiritual life.

He said, let us not give in. We have a merciful

God who knows our weaknesses better than we do.

And if, in order to test us, he sends illness,

at least we have the apostle who provides us

consolation when he says, God is faithful. and

he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength,

but with temptation will also provide the way

of escape that you may be able to endure it.

And if God's help is slow in coming, we should

know that in any case the trial will not last

indefinitely, and that God never leaves a person

without means of help. Be attentive to the limits

of endurance. Do not despair. Do not be discouraged.

For God is near he who said, I will never fail

you nor forsake you. The story we heard today

from the gospel, the reality of that, is the

sign of the coming of the kingdom of God and

the healing in the resurrection. Let us rejoice

in that. What did the psalmist say? The reader

said it. The choir repeated it over and over.

Sing praises to our God. Sing praises. Sing praises

to our King. Sing praises. Make a shout of joy.

Amen.