Monday of the 31st Week

Hebrews 11:17-31

Brethren, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Mark 5:24-34

At that time, a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

The message of today's readings is the power of faith. St. Paul gives us a number of examples, to which the Gospel adds the story of the woman with an issue of blood. Having previously sought the help of physicians to no avail, it was finally her absolute trust in God that healed her. As we sing in the Divine Liturgy, "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation...Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God" (Ps. 145:3,5). Faith in God alone is effective. However, what really stands out here is that faith is something active. We are often presented with a dichotomy of faith vs. works which leads us to think that works are active while faith is something passive, nothing more than a feeling or thought. St. James the Brother of the Lord utterly refutes this notion: "Someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works...faith apart from works is useless" (James 2:18-20). Some have suggested there is a contradiction between Ss. James and Paul here, yet all the above are examples of people doing things on account of their faith. By faith the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, but that deliverance was by no means passive, but rather involved an effort so great that many asked "Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" (Numbers 14:3). God, who numbers even the hairs on your head (Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7), was naturally not unaware of the woman's discharge of blood, nor was He unable to cure her from a distance as He did the servant of the centurion (Matthew 8, Luke 7), and yet He did not cure her on account of a passive faith, but rather waited for her to approach and touch Him. Even after she had been healed, He called her out, not directly but in a way that required her to respond of her own volition. "By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8). We are saved by grace through faith, not by our own strength, yet true saving faith involves an active acceptance of and cooperation (synergeia) with God's saving grace. The gift is free, but we must stretch out our hands to receive it: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7).