Let these holy words be inscribed in burning letters on your hearts! Always repeat: "What shall I, wretched, perishing, repay my Lord, Who hath repaid me so much? December 17, 1950 WEEK 31. ABOUT THE BLIND MAN OF HIREKHON. In today's Gospel reading, you have heard the story of the miraculous healing of a blind man in Jericho by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you noticed how persistently, how earnestly he asked the Lord for healing? He asked, he cried out, he pleaded, and the apostles of Christ forbade him to shout, so as not to disturb the Lord. And the Lord called him and restored his sight. Do you remember how persistently the pagan Syrophoenician woman begged the Lord Jesus Christ to heal her possessed daughter?

Do you remember how persistently the bleeding woman sought healing from Him, hoping that by one touch of His garment she would receive healing? Are not all these examples for us? Is it not a teaching that we, too, when we are in need of God's grace, must persistently, intensely cry out to Him, ask, ask, until we receive; by the persistence of their prayer they must be like the blind man of Jericho, the Syrophoenician woman, and the bleeding woman.

That's the first thing I wanted to tell you. And now let us deepen our thoughts and ask ourselves, why did our Lord Jesus Christ perform so many healings of the sick? Everyone who attentively reads the Gospel knows that all the miracles of Christ had as their goal the alleviation of human suffering. He healed the blind, the lame, cleansed the lepers – healed all the sick that came to Him in multitudes.

He fed a huge number of hungry people with five loaves of bread and two fishes. And if any of you have ever read the Muslim Qur'an, you must have been struck by the profound difference between Christ's miracles and those that Muslims attribute to their prophet Muhammad. Oh, how little resemblance, oh, how much magic in the miracles of Muhammad. How strange they are, how useless they are for people!

Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ in His miracles showed His love for people, His pity for the suffering, the unfortunate, and always tried to alleviate their sufferings. This is important, remember this. But perhaps someone will ask: "Is the circle of human misfortunes limited only to disease and hunger? Does not enough evil and misfortune, and suffering, and torment depend on the imperfection of the social and state system, on the injustice of this system?

"Oh yes, we know how many disasters people have endured at all times, in all countries, under all governments, for this very reason. And you may ask why our Lord Jesus Christ did not pay attention to these calamities, why in His earthly activity there was nothing similar to the deeds of the great reformers, the great legislators, who strove to eradicate social injustice, to put an end to the sufferings of people who depend on this untruth. I will answer this question to you.

You know that immediately after His baptism in the Jordan, the Lord Jesus Christ was led by the spirit into the wilderness and there He spent forty days without food or drink, preparing for His greatest ministry. And there, when on the fortieth day He hungered, Satan took advantage of it. He knew that a person who has been starving for a long time loses his willpower, loses the ability to resist, and therefore he waited until the fortieth day, and when the Lord Jesus Christ hungered, then he approached Him with his devilish temptation.

I will not talk about all three temptations, I will dwell only on the last and most powerful one. "Again the devil takes Him up to a very high mountain, and shews Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory, and saith unto Him, All these things I will give unto Thee, if thou shalt fall down and worship me" (Matt. 4:8-9). Do you understand the nature of this temptation, its power and danger? Satan offered Him power, indivisible, absolute, complete power over all the kingdoms of the earth, if only He would worship him.

Of course, the Lord rejected this temptation as well. Why did he reject it? Because Satan offered the power that any government has. And no state power can in any case do without coercion, without violence. By its laws it compels obedience, for non-observance it punishes them, it punishes severely, it forces it, it coerces, and without coercion no authority, even the best, the most perfect one, can act.

Coercion is a necessary attribute of state power. And how could the Lord, did He want to act by coercion? Oh no, oh no! He did not want, He rejected all power connected with coercion. And one of the people came to Him, and said to Him, Teacher! tell my brother to share the inheritance with me. And he said unto the man, Who hath appointed me to judge or to divide you?" (Luke 12:13-14).

He needed another power: He sought another power, He wanted to rule over the free hearts of men. People are created with free will, they can choose their own path in life as they like: either the path of truth and suffering for the sake of truth, the path of mercy, the path of love – or the path of rejection of all truth and service to their lusts and passions, they can choose the path of sin.

God does not force anyone to choose one path or another, for He has given us free will. And precisely because we are created with free will, Christ does not want to influence us by coercion, to act in the way that the state power does. He, as God, could force all people to obey Him with heavy punishments; He could force everyone to abandon the path of evil and unrighteousness, He could destroy even the devil himself, but He does not want to force us.

He seeks free, loving submission to Himself. He seeks in the hearts of men faith in Him and love for Him. If He finds faith and love, then by His Divine grace He saves such a person. Our Lord and God Jesus Christ once said the most important words, which none of you will forget: "... out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, blasphemy..." (Matt. 15:19).