Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Why let your heart be so weighed down with anxiety over the body? You ask for strong prayers, and you shall have them, but I would have you behold the true Physician. When Christ touched Peter’s wife’s mother, He did not merely repress the fever and leave her weak; He gave her perfect health at once, needing no time to recover. No hand of man can do this. All things lie in His power. So why are you troubled? Do you imagine that He cannot restore what is wanting, or that He will not decide rightly?
See the prudence of the Samaritan woman. The Lord laid bare her life, yet she did not flee or take offense. She stayed, and when she perceived He was a prophet, she asked Him no longer about water or bodily thirst, but about worship and truth. She left the waterpot. You, on the contrary, are swallowed up in the thought of bodily deficiencies. Is the body more precious to you than the soul? St. Paul, out of tender care, bade Timothy drink wine for his stomach and frequent ailments. He did not forbid care of the body, but he did not make that care a matter of consuming worry. The mercy we need for the soul is far greater.
Walk out to the porch of the church and look at the poor, the maimed, the aged who sit there. Why are they placed before your eyes, if not to teach you? The healthy man learns not to be high-minded; the sick man receives no small consolation. Let your present fear become a medicine for the proud flesh, a goad to humility. Do not despise this bitter draught, but let it cut away the sickness of the soul and bring you back to sober health. The wind blows where it lists; you hear its sound but cannot govern its course. Why then are you over-anxious about the working of God in your body? You cannot rule the one; trust the other to Him who is good.
Strive for the health that makes a man truly whole, not partially sound. When Christ healed the sick, He made the entire man healthy. Seek that wholeness. Then, if it be for your salvation, bodily strength will be added. We pray for you, not that your will be done, but that you may be filled with a quiet mind and a thankful heart, knowing that in all things the Lord’s mercy is at work. Sorrow not as those without hope. He who was raised the third day is able to raise you up also.
See the prudence of the Samaritan woman. The Lord laid bare her life, yet she did not flee or take offense. She stayed, and when she perceived He was a prophet, she asked Him no longer about water or bodily thirst, but about worship and truth. She left the waterpot. You, on the contrary, are swallowed up in the thought of bodily deficiencies. Is the body more precious to you than the soul? St. Paul, out of tender care, bade Timothy drink wine for his stomach and frequent ailments. He did not forbid care of the body, but he did not make that care a matter of consuming worry. The mercy we need for the soul is far greater.
Walk out to the porch of the church and look at the poor, the maimed, the aged who sit there. Why are they placed before your eyes, if not to teach you? The healthy man learns not to be high-minded; the sick man receives no small consolation. Let your present fear become a medicine for the proud flesh, a goad to humility. Do not despise this bitter draught, but let it cut away the sickness of the soul and bring you back to sober health. The wind blows where it lists; you hear its sound but cannot govern its course. Why then are you over-anxious about the working of God in your body? You cannot rule the one; trust the other to Him who is good.
Strive for the health that makes a man truly whole, not partially sound. When Christ healed the sick, He made the entire man healthy. Seek that wholeness. Then, if it be for your salvation, bodily strength will be added. We pray for you, not that your will be done, but that you may be filled with a quiet mind and a thankful heart, knowing that in all things the Lord’s mercy is at work. Sorrow not as those without hope. He who was raised the third day is able to raise you up also.
