Chrysostom
Humble Servant of All
When you lift your son to the Father in the name of Jesus, you do well. He who condescended to be called Son of David makes you a child of God, and your child precious in His sight. Yet I would strengthen your faith, that you not merely say the words but grasp the power of Him you invoke. The same Lord who asked the blind men, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” did not speak of entreating the Father but of His own might, because He is Very God, the only Physician who needs no amulet or incantation. Many, when a child ails, turn aside to pretended remedies, old women’s charms, trinkets, and whisperings that hide idolatry under the guise of piety. These avail nothing; they mock the Cross. The true Christian mother makes no such bargain. She signs her child with the Cross and says, “This is my only weapon, my only medicine.” Even if the sickness lingers, she would rather see her child suffer innocently than purchase a lie, and in that resolve she becomes a martyr, offering her son into the hands of the living God.
Do not then measure healing by outward signs alone. Carnal hearing expects the body to spring up at once and misses the far greater work, the cleansing of the soul, the peace that surpasses understanding, the spiritual mending that comes when we cling fast to Christ’s commandments. He who said, “The flesh profits nothing,” meant not His own life-giving flesh, but our habit of receiving His words as though He were a mere man or a provider of temporal comfort. Seek first the healing that renders the soul immortal; trust that bodily relief, if it be delayed, is not denied but held back for a richer blessing. For just as a tree often falls not at the first stroke but after many, so the fruit of patient prayer and listening to the word appears in time. Perhaps you have prayed often and seen no change, yet each supplication drives the root deeper. Despise not the slow work of grace.
The Lord who sat at table with publicans and sinners does not shrink from your son’s weakness. He wills to heal all that is broken, but He asks for a faith that looks beyond the seen. Continue to surround your son with the presence of God not by anxious repetition, but by offering him daily into the Father’s hands with a quiet mind. Let the Cross be your sign; let the commandments be your medicine; let the promises of Christ be your peace. And if the trial endures, bewail what must be bewailed, the remissness of those who refuse the Physician, yet with a mourning that itself becomes a healing, for such lamentation often amends where advice could not. Stand firm, and whether your son recovers speedily or learns to cling more tightly to the eternal hope, you shall both bear witness that the Son of God is faithful, and in His love you will find the protection no shadow can overcome.
Do not then measure healing by outward signs alone. Carnal hearing expects the body to spring up at once and misses the far greater work, the cleansing of the soul, the peace that surpasses understanding, the spiritual mending that comes when we cling fast to Christ’s commandments. He who said, “The flesh profits nothing,” meant not His own life-giving flesh, but our habit of receiving His words as though He were a mere man or a provider of temporal comfort. Seek first the healing that renders the soul immortal; trust that bodily relief, if it be delayed, is not denied but held back for a richer blessing. For just as a tree often falls not at the first stroke but after many, so the fruit of patient prayer and listening to the word appears in time. Perhaps you have prayed often and seen no change, yet each supplication drives the root deeper. Despise not the slow work of grace.
The Lord who sat at table with publicans and sinners does not shrink from your son’s weakness. He wills to heal all that is broken, but He asks for a faith that looks beyond the seen. Continue to surround your son with the presence of God not by anxious repetition, but by offering him daily into the Father’s hands with a quiet mind. Let the Cross be your sign; let the commandments be your medicine; let the promises of Christ be your peace. And if the trial endures, bewail what must be bewailed, the remissness of those who refuse the Physician, yet with a mourning that itself becomes a healing, for such lamentation often amends where advice could not. Stand firm, and whether your son recovers speedily or learns to cling more tightly to the eternal hope, you shall both bear witness that the Son of God is faithful, and in His love you will find the protection no shadow can overcome.
