Chrysostom
Beloved of All
You speak of rebuking sickness and sending it to hell, but take care that your soul does not fall into a fever worse than any asthma. God looks not only on the words of the mouth, but on the trembling of the heart. When you cry out in such haste, do you also pause to hear what the Lord would say? For as I have often preached, no single part of virtue is enough for salvation; we must cultivate all. You desire healing for your lungs, but have you also examined whether your soul is soft and unmanly in the face of trial? Have you grown dull in hearing the word of God, so that affliction becomes a stumbling block rather than a tutor?
I do not say this to leave you without comfort. Night and day I pray for those who suffer, as the apostle did, that God would perfect what is lacking. Yet the righteous judgment of God is not measured by our urgency, but by his wisdom. He does not promise to remove every bodily ill; sometimes he permits it so that we might learn to despise death itself, which is a far greater gift than a mere respite from wheezing. If he grants healing, give thanks. If he delays, groan in prayer, but do not command the Almighty as though you were his equal. That is not the tongue of a supplicant but of one who has forgotten his place.
Consider how even the poorest beggar, if he were to shout demands at you, would you not call him insolent? How much more before the throne of grace! Yet I do not forbid you to cry out; the Scripture teaches us to pray exceedingly. But let your cry be joined with humility and a ready ear. Come to the church, though your body aches. Sit among the brethren, though you feel impure. For as one who passes by a perfumer’s shop is filled with the fragrance against his will, so the very air of the holy gathering, the reading of the Scriptures, will work a change in you. Even if you hear and do not yet obey, still groan that you do not obey; that groaning is itself the beginning of healing.
Therefore, do not treat prayer as a spell to be shouted, but as a long conversation with the Physician of souls. His fullness of time is not your urgency. When all seemed lost, Christ came. He will come for you also, in the hour he chooses. Until then, let your sickness teach you to be earnest about the one thing necessary: a careful hearing of his word, fortitude, and deliverance from the love of this world. So shall your lungs, and your whole body, and above all your soul, receive the healing touch of God not as a demand granted to a master, but as a gift given to a child.
I do not say this to leave you without comfort. Night and day I pray for those who suffer, as the apostle did, that God would perfect what is lacking. Yet the righteous judgment of God is not measured by our urgency, but by his wisdom. He does not promise to remove every bodily ill; sometimes he permits it so that we might learn to despise death itself, which is a far greater gift than a mere respite from wheezing. If he grants healing, give thanks. If he delays, groan in prayer, but do not command the Almighty as though you were his equal. That is not the tongue of a supplicant but of one who has forgotten his place.
Consider how even the poorest beggar, if he were to shout demands at you, would you not call him insolent? How much more before the throne of grace! Yet I do not forbid you to cry out; the Scripture teaches us to pray exceedingly. But let your cry be joined with humility and a ready ear. Come to the church, though your body aches. Sit among the brethren, though you feel impure. For as one who passes by a perfumer’s shop is filled with the fragrance against his will, so the very air of the holy gathering, the reading of the Scriptures, will work a change in you. Even if you hear and do not yet obey, still groan that you do not obey; that groaning is itself the beginning of healing.
Therefore, do not treat prayer as a spell to be shouted, but as a long conversation with the Physician of souls. His fullness of time is not your urgency. When all seemed lost, Christ came. He will come for you also, in the hour he chooses. Until then, let your sickness teach you to be earnest about the one thing necessary: a careful hearing of his word, fortitude, and deliverance from the love of this world. So shall your lungs, and your whole body, and above all your soul, receive the healing touch of God not as a demand granted to a master, but as a gift given to a child.
