Saint John Climacus Sunday - Fourth Sunday of Lent
Everything is possible for the believer

The Gospel text that we heard this morning says that there was a father who had a son and this son was sick with epilepsy. Based on the father’s description of his son’s illness, we can conclude that this boy’s illness was severe and dangerous. It turns out that this father came to the disciples of Jesus himself and asked them to heal his son, but they could not. Then he took him to the Savior himself. And the Savior himself, upon seeing the father and the son, said to the father this wonderful sentence: (All things are possible to him who believes), everything is possible to him whose heart is full of faith. Then he asked him, do you believe that your son will be healed by the Savior? The father answered him: Lord, I believe. Then Jesus said to him: In response to your faith, be it done to you as you wish. And his son was healed from that very hour.

A second question was raised after the miracle of healing. The disciples were amazed and said to the Savior: This man asked us to heal his son and we were unable to do so. What is the reason, I wonder? Jesus answered them: My sons, this type of disease that penetrates the soul of a person, his body, and every cell of his body, this type of disease does not come out unless the doctor fasts and prays.
These words came from the mouth of the Lord. We did not invent fasting. We learned it from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And the Lord Himself fasted. And He accustomed us to being, before all else, subject to the rules He sets. So before He came into the world to perform miracles and heal the sick, He Himself first went into the wilderness and fasted for forty days.

Beloved, we believe that sin is a very serious matter. And the face of this world would have been completely different if sin were not rooted in souls and hearts. People do not talk about sin much these days, because we have come to a generation that hides behind its shadow to hide its sin, a generation that does not like to confess its sins. In our faith, in your faith, sin and corruption, I mean rottenness and stench, sin and corruption are one thing. Therefore, death, in which there is corruption and stench, is the son of sin. Therefore, if you want to treat death, treat sin.

Death on this earth – and human death – is not a gift from God, but rather the result of our disobedience to God. Death, our death, is not natural or normal. Therefore, if we grieve over the death of a loved one, this is right, and this is acceptable because death is not in our nature. Death and corruption are linked and intertwined, and their cause is one and the same: sin. Where is the cure? The cure lies in fighting sin and seeking righteousness.

But where is goodness and who is good? The Lord Jesus is good and goodness is in Him. So how do we walk toward Him? By following His way. If we fast, if we pray, if we believe in the Lord Jesus with every atom of our being, and with every aspect of our thought and belief, we do so in order to fight corruption, to fight death with Him who alone has power over death. This is the holy logic of things in the Church.

This one thinks he is fasting for his stomach, that one for his belly, that one because people fast at such a time, and that one because he follows the (fashion) of fasting. All of this is ridiculous and all of this is superficial. Through fasting, we are looking for a cleansing process, a purification process for the atoms of this body. The eye needs purification, the hand needs purification, the whole body needs purification, the whole soul needs purification.

In our world today, why do the fruits of sin increase and increase? Today, we have threshing floors of the harvest of sin. Threshing floors of the ingredients of death and corruption. Why do we not finally turn to the healing physician? To the One who alone has conquered death and corruption?

We believers, even if our number diminishes and we become one individual in the universe, this one will continue to insist, declare, and preach that the only cure for death and corruption is with the one and only Physician, namely the Lord Jesus Christ the Healer.

Our fasting is following Him. Our prayer is a journey to Him and with Him. A Christian is one who walks with Christ. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and to life in the age to come because Christ has risen, and because He alone conquers death and corruption.

Dear friends, the climate of Lent in the Church is a climate that makes us examine ourselves a little. We need purification. Yes, we need. Each one of us needs purity, needs chastity. Each one.
Do not be arrogant or haughty, for none of us is above the sieve. May the Lord grant us to follow in His footsteps, to be purified and overcome corruption so that we may overcome death with Him, and rise with Him on the Day of His Resurrection and hear the heavenly hymn: “Christ is Risen.”

{Delivered in Damascus on 4/5/1981}.