Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your request for bodily health and relief from financial strain is heard. But let us consider what truly makes a person whole. When our Lord healed the man on the Sabbath, He did not merely mend a part but made "a whole man healthy," showing that the healing of the soul is greater than any outward sign. You seek a normal TSH, a new job, provision for your family. These are not evil things, yet they are not the true riches. For poverty does not consist in lacking money, but in craving more than you have; the rich man is not the one with large possessions, but the one who stands in need of nothing. If God grants you health and a livelihood, do not then grow remiss and return to the former neglect of your soul, like a sick man who, after a brief recovery, gorges on the very foods that brought him low. Many who now prosper will fall, and many in want will rise; neither despair like one already condemned, nor presume upon success as if you stood secure.
Examine why you desire these things. Is it to escape hardship, or to serve God with greater freedom? The Apostle says, "If anyone will not work, neither let him eat," yet also, "Do not grow weary in doing good." Diligently seek employment, but even more diligently seek to detach your heart from worldly wealth, which cannot travel with you into the next life and often wounds the soul as it remains behind. I have seen the poor man, content with little, shine brighter in virtue than the rich man drowning in his plenty. Your true poverty is your sin; your true health is communion with Christ. Come to the holy table not carelessly, but with a purified conscience, for the Deacon cries out that only the holy may draw near. I will pray not that you simply receive what you ask, but that you obtain a right disposition to bear both want and plenty, and that this trial may turn your eyes to the everlasting riches where no disease can touch the body and no creditor knock at the door.
Examine why you desire these things. Is it to escape hardship, or to serve God with greater freedom? The Apostle says, "If anyone will not work, neither let him eat," yet also, "Do not grow weary in doing good." Diligently seek employment, but even more diligently seek to detach your heart from worldly wealth, which cannot travel with you into the next life and often wounds the soul as it remains behind. I have seen the poor man, content with little, shine brighter in virtue than the rich man drowning in his plenty. Your true poverty is your sin; your true health is communion with Christ. Come to the holy table not carelessly, but with a purified conscience, for the Deacon cries out that only the holy may draw near. I will pray not that you simply receive what you ask, but that you obtain a right disposition to bear both want and plenty, and that this trial may turn your eyes to the everlasting riches where no disease can touch the body and no creditor knock at the door.
