In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.

These and other words about patience and suffering were best received by the holy apostles of Christ; they became the first sufferers and martyrs. Patience is terrible for one who does not expect a reward in the end. Suffering and martyrdom are unbearable for those who do not know about the Heavenly Father, about the Kingdom of Heaven and about eternal life. The sufferer Paul speaks of this wonderfully, saying of himself: "Many times have I been in prison, and many times at the point of death. From the Jews five times I was given forty stripes without one; Three times I was beaten with sticks, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked... in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow countrymen, in dangers from pagans, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brethren, in labor and in exhaustion, often in vigilance, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:23-25, 26-27). And he, who has experienced so much, speaks of it thus: the present temporal sufferings are worth nothing in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us. The history of the world has not seen a more radiant halo over the gloomy suffering of man than this.

Finally, love is at the top of the peaks of love. As the light of the sun makes the light of all the stars superfluous, so love, when it shines, makes all the other commandments and all the laws in the world superfluous.

The entire New Testament shines under the sign of love. The Messiah is a God of love. The fatherhood of God is revealed through love for people; the sonship of men is manifested through love for God, the Father in heaven.

The Messiah of the world no longer carves the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, but engraves two commandments into the hearts of men. The first commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and with all thy mind. And the second commandment: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

After many centuries of fear of false, foul gods, and after many centuries of man's hatred of his neighbor, these two commandments would have looked truly incredible and fantastic, if He had not first of all shown His love for us, as St. John the Evangelist writes, and had not sent His Son Jesus to save us, the servants of demons, at the cost of His life; and further: if the Son of God had not uttered these never-heard words from the Cross in the throes of death: Father, forgive them! Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

To attain love for God and neighbor is the greatest task after liberation from Satan. After all, if Christ freed a person from Satan, and he did not cleanse himself, did not wash himself, did not change clothes, did not humanize, did not revive, and did not enlighten and warm himself with love, then he remains a lawless man as before. The first is the first, and the second is the second. The first is extraction from the tar, and the second is purification; the first is deliverance from vile demons, and the second is bringing light to the Father. Without the first, there would be no second, and without the second, there would be nothing.

Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! God! Did they not cast out demons in Thy name? and did not many miracles work in Thy name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

It is clear, therefore, from this, Theodoulos, that it is not enough to cease to be demonic, but it is necessary to become God's.

Healer of the sick

The Sun of righteousness will rise, and healing will be in His rays. These are the words of the last Old Testament prophet, the angel-like Malachi; in this amazing image he predicted the Messiah as the healer of the sick and the bearer of health.

Here is joy, Theodoulos, here is the glad tidings! The Son of God appeared into the world as the true Theodoulos, in order to serve people as a healer of torments and illnesses, in order to take our infirmities and bear our illnesses, as the great prophet Isaiah foresaw.

There is no illness that does not flee from the rays of the Divine Being of Jesus – from the rays of His thoughts, from the rays of His touch, and not only from the touch of His hands, but also from His clothes. The rays of His being destroy all diseases in the sick person, from fever to leprosy, faster and more completely than the rays of the sun kill bacilli in the air or in the water. And not only did Jesus Himself have such unlimited power to immediately, effortlessly, and completely heal all diseases in people, but He has given such power to His apostles, apostolic successors, and all His true followers to this day. And they, His rays, are the apostles and all the faithful followers. Healing was, is, and will be in these rays of the Sun of Truth, shining over the whole world.

Amen, amen, I tell you, Theodoulos: the history of the non-Christian world has not recorded a single similar case. Neither India and China, nor Egypt and the Balkans. Amen, amen, I tell you, the history of the world has only two chapters: "Christianity" and "Non-Christianity," that is, "Healing" and "Sickness." But I must warn you privately that both you and I must look into our personal lives and see if in all our life on earth, yours and mine, there are not such two heads - non-Christian and Christian, Saul's and Paul's, Theodoulos? And if we see that there is, then let us hasten to beseech the holy Apostle Paul, once a prisoner of Christ, and now in heaven like the Cherubim, to beseech him for prayerful help before the Lord, so that until the end of our age you and I may be filled with fear of God and shame before men, and that the Lord may erase from His memory, and from His memory, and our non-Christian chapter of our lives.