DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. John 10:27-38 (5/31) CHRIST IS RISEN! Gospel, Saturday of the Samaritan
Woman
Reach Out:
“Now a woman, having a flow of blood for
twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be
healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped”
(Lk. 8:43,44). She reached out her hand believing in
the One Who could heal her. Many of “the nicest people”
would accept God’s help with spiritual or even physical problems, if only
they could believe in Him. Among
modern sophisticates, for whom “all truth is relative,” as Fr.
Seraphim Rose noted, “no one...wishes or professes to...believe in
absolute truth, or more particularly in Christian truth.”
The truth of God costs too much in humility,
dependence, and surrender. They
demur: “We know too much to behave with such simple, childlike trust,”
and so their blood and vitality flow out of them, leaving them seriously
weakened in the major crises of life.
In the sterile offerings of multi-channel television, God competes
“as just another ideal,” and “the wise” turn to
“doctors” who cannot heal, but only assist healing. Beloved, God is everywhere present. His garment is near. The woman with the issue of blood teaches
us to reach out to the Lord.
Consider the Apostle Peter: “...when he
saw the boisterous wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out,
saying ‘Lord, save me.’
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand, and caught him, and said
to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Mt.
14:30,31).
The struggle in this life is to keep from sinking down into the waves of
emptiness swelling all around us.
St. Peter looked at what was before him - wind, waves, clouds, water
under his feet - but not at the Lord. There is the human problem. When sickness, pain, financial loss,
betrayal of friendship, isolation, or death come, or when the benign and
dulling routines of everyday existence empty life of its meaning, reach out and
touch the hem of the garment of Him Who absolutely will not permit His sheep to
perish. He catches us with His hand
even when we “walk in the midst of the shadow of death...” (Ps.
22:4).
Finally, consider the Apostle Thomas. For him, the compassionate Lord turned aside doubts
that were planted by the enemy.
Yes, our common enemy reached out to entice even the Lord Jesus’
own Apostle, just as he seeks to distract you with the activities of this
life. Note how firm the Lord was
with Thomas: “Reach your finger here, and look at My
hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving,
but believing” (Jn. 20:27). There are so many ways in which the
enemy tries to steal us out of the Lord’s hand. The schools and universities deny God
His rightful place in the curricula.
Instead they fill impressionable hearts and minds with godless visions
of “self-actualization.”
The media, in living color, sell fleeting moments and
self-satisfaction. Beloved, Jesus
is passing by. “Reach your
hand here!”
Thou didst not reject the harlot and sinner
who approached and touched Thee, so also have pity on me, a sinner, as I
approach and touch Thee, trusting in Thine infinite
goodness.