Patriarch of Romania: Strong Faith, Ardent Prayer, and Sacrificial Fasting Help Humans Receive Healing

Strong faith, ardent prayer, and sacrificial fasting help humans receive healing, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania said today (28 August 2016), in the sermon delivered in the chapel of “Saint Great Martyr George” of the Patriarchal Residence. The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined in his homily the fact that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, shows us in the Gospel text read on the 10th Sunday after Pentecost the importance of faith, prayer and fasting for our spiritual life.

The Gospel text read today, 28 August 2016, the 10th Sunday after Pentecost recounts the Healing of the Boy with a Demon (see the text below).

His Beatitude Daniel showed that the Gospel text of the day presents three great teachings:

We see that when Jesus comes down from Mount Tabor, where He was transfigured, He sees, at the foot of the hill, the crowd’s faithlessness, as well as the long sufferance of the sick, just like Moses who faced the people’s lack of faith when he came down from Mount Sinai. Secondly we see that Jesus rebukes the people for their faithlessness, but He has mercy on the sick child, the boy with a demon. Thirdly, we see that strong faith, ardent prayer and sacrificial fasting heal humans. This is why Jesus Christ, our Saviour, says: “This kind can come out only through prayer and fasting”.

At the same time, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined in the sermon delivered the importance of prayer for our fellow human beings. We read about the example of the father presented in the Gospel text of the day, who becomes the voice of his child’s sufferance and asks the Saviour to heal him.

We see that this child cannot pray anymore, or he did not know how or could not pray to be healed, but his father is alive, feels the child’s sufferance and becomes the voice of this sufferance. He goes to Jesus after he had been at His disciples who could not heal the sick child, kneels down in front of Him and says: “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into fire or into water. Lord, have mercy on my son”. Having seen that his son could not be healed by the disciples, he tries his last chance, namely to have him healed by Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Thus, the father prays for the sick child showing strong fatherly love, compassion, and common sufferance with this sick, epileptic child. All this shows us how important other people’s prayer is for us if we cannot do it anymore, we do not know or are no longer able to pray, or do not really know how to pray to receive God’s help.

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10th Sunday after Pentecost, healing of the boy with a demon, Matthew 17:14-23

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” This kind can come out only through prayer. When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

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