Homily for the 27th Sunday after Pentecost. Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)

With an appeal to keep the Lord's day

Luke, Reading 71. 13:10-17

Dear brothers and sisters,

Our earthly life is a spiritual battle against the unseen spirits of wickedness and the desires of our flesh. The enemy of the human race, the devil, wages war against us with the weapon of passions. Christians, however, have their own weapons: the Word of God, prayer, and fasting. This Christian armament, which resists the wiles of the devil and the rebellion of our flesh with its passions and lusts, is described by the Apostle in the words we heard today during the Divine Liturgy: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:11–12). Furthermore, the Apostle points to the Christian's weapons: the truth and righteousness of God, peace and humility, faith, and the Word of God. And, of course, a most formidable weapon against the demons is prayer, without which our resistance to the enemy is futile, for in prayer we call upon God as our Helper and Protector in the spiritual battle. In every temptation from our enemy and adversary, the devil, we must turn to Christ with all our soul and implore: "Lord, help me, a sinner!"

Our enemy, the devil, constantly influences the flesh with passions, seeking to incite it to exalt itself above the spirit, to indulge in excess and comfort, to be captivated by lust and drunkenness. But the Christian must humble their flesh through fasting, poverty, patience, and Christian love. The days of fasting, which we pass in prayer and abstinence, are the Christian’s spiritual labor, our victory over ourselves, over sinful thoughts and habits. The spirits of wickedness rule over the souls of those who forget the Lord, which manifests in unbelief or weak faith, and estrangement from the Church. How often do our loved ones, forgetting the spiritual life, find themselves, as if in tombs, among corrupt companions, pursuing ungodly entertainments and vices, trampling upon all divine and human laws, breaking every sacred bond—spiritual, moral, and familial—and mocking holiness and sacred things. Yes, the devil establishes his dark kingdom in the modern world, binding mankind with the chains of sin. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ, in His love for the Holy Church and her children, does not leave His disciples, who trust in His protection, helpless. With His mighty word, He heals those afflicted by unclean spirits and spiritual infirmities, just as He healed the bent woman bound by Satan, as recounted in the Gospel read today during the Divine Liturgy.

On one Sabbath, during His time in Galilee, our Lord Jesus Christ entered a Jewish synagogue and began to teach the people. There was a woman there afflicted by an infirmity caused by an unclean spirit, who for eighteen years had been bent over and unable to straighten herself. The Lord saw her and said to this suffering woman, "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity," after which He laid His hands upon her, and she immediately stood upright and began glorifying God. But the ruler of the synagogue, who ought to have rejoiced at such a gracious act of the Savior, as he bore the responsibility of praying for the welfare of his flock, was indignant with satanic malice against Christ. The ruler addressed the people, saying, "There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord said to him, "Thou hypocrite! Doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" The ruler of the synagogue was put to shame by this rebuke, for he could not oppose the justice of Christ's words, and the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that Jesus had done.

The Lord’s direct rebuke of the Jewish elder teaches us to speak the truth openly and to expose falsehood, especially when it masquerades as legality or cunning pretense. As the Apostle exhorts: "Be sincere with one another"—we, as Christians and brethren, must point out each other’s shortcomings with sincerity and without judgment, so that we may correct them. Yet often, we hypocritically deceive one another—thinking one thing, saying another, and doing yet a third. We hesitate to confront lies and injustice openly, fearing that we may disrupt our own peace or create enemies. How precious, then, are friends who do not conceal the truth but speak it in love, even when it displeases us! Let us remember the saying of the wise Solomon: "Righteousness exalteth a nation" (Proverbs 14:34). Therefore, brothers and sisters, we too must always speak the truth to our neighbors and receive it without disquiet.

The woman healed by the Lord, even without her request, had suffered under a tormenting infirmity for eighteen years. That the Lord, in His mercy, healed her demonstrates that she bore her trials with humility and patience for a long time. Likewise, when the Lord sends us a bodily affliction, we should accept it as a special dispensation of God, who, through temporary illness, seeks to correct and heal our soul. Yet we often complain against God in our bodily ailments, envy the health of our neighbors, and lose patience and hope. Let the Gospel example serve as a model for us in patiently enduring the brief sufferings and sorrows sent to us in this fleeting life.

The Savior’s healing of the woman is but one of many examples of such healings performed specifically on the Sabbath—the day on which, according to Israelite law, no work was to be done. The Lord demonstrated that in His eyes, acts of mercy take precedence over the Sabbath rest and that this rest may be interrupted for the sake of benevolence. Thus, Christ earlier broke the Sabbath by healing a man with a withered hand, approving His hungry disciples’ plucking of ears of corn, and defending and justifying them against the Pharisees, who misunderstood the law of God. To support His actions, He cited the Old Testament example of how the prophet David, in his hunger, ate the showbread, which by law was reserved only for the priests. Compassionate love for the weak and hungry is placed by the Lord above ritual customs, as He declares: "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."

The Sabbath rest was established in the Old Testament in remembrance of the Lord resting from His works after the creation of the world. The Sabbath day, the seventh day, was appointed as a day of rest from labor, so that one’s strength might be restored. A similar provision was made for the land: the seventh year was a year of rest, when, after six years of bearing fruit, the earth was left unplowed to regain its vitality. The seventh day, the Sabbath, was set apart in the Old Testament as a special day: "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God," commands the fourth commandment of Moses. Yet even in the Old Testament, there were exceptions to the Sabbath rest. For example, it was permitted to loose one’s ox or donkey and lead it to water on the Sabbath—a practice that Christ Himself references.

In Christ's miraculous act performed on the Sabbath, there lies a profound symbolic meaning. When God rested from all His works, He did not abandon the earth He had created to the whims of fate. Out of care and love for His creation, He entrusted mankind with the responsibility of tending to the earth. According to St. Maximus the Confessor, humanity, as a being belonging to the earthly world in body but to the spiritual world in soul, created in the image and likeness of God, was called by the Creator to unite heaven and earth so that, through human effort, the earth might become a vessel of Divine presence. Yet mankind failed to fulfill this calling. By betraying God, humanity, along with all creation, was subjected to the dominion of the dark forces of evil.

When Christ came into the world—God incarnate and the only sinless Man—He became the center of history, the Guide who would unite heaven and earth. This is why so many of His miracles were performed specifically on the Sabbath. Through these miracles, Christ restores the true order of history, calling us, His disciples, to renounce sin and evil—to cease being fallen creatures—and to take up the God-ordained spiritual labor of transforming the earthly world into a heavenly one, beginning with the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven within our own souls.

The Lord heals humanity from sin, from the bonds and chains by which the enemy of mankind often ensnares our soul, bending it down like the woman who was bowed together, forcing her gaze to remain fixed on the ground, unable to lift her eyes to the heavens or to see the face of the Lord standing nearby.

The Lord performed this healing on the Sabbath. Today, we Christians, by the law of the Holy Church, honor the first day of the week—the Lord’s Day—instead of the Sabbath, for on this day our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Every Sunday ought to be dedicated to God, during which we should engage only in those works that glorify God and lead to salvation. On the sacred day of Sunday, we Christians should set aside worldly concerns and attend the house of God. A Sunday spent in piety, according to the commandment of God, brings great benefits to both soul and body. The commandment of God—the law of rest on holy days—strengthens our spiritual and physical health, freeing us from the destructive attachment to earthly things. Conversely, breaking the law of Sunday rest inevitably incurs consequences. Labor on holy days, unless prompted by extreme necessity, or done for the sake of gain, is rarely fruitful, and its rewards are not lasting.

By healing the woman bowed together on the Sabbath, the Lord demonstrated that not only is it permissible, but it is indeed fitting to do good deeds on the day of rest for those in need of help.

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy"—with these words, Holy Scripture calls us to sanctify festive and Sunday days, that is, to spend them in holiness, engaging in good and pious activities. To fulfill this commandment, it is not enough merely to attend church on this day and read spiritually edifying books; we must also engage in works of Christian mercy and charity—visiting the sick, the unfortunate, the lonely, and those in need of help and consolation. If, on festive days, we serve the Lord and our neighbors, the Lord will not abandon us and will assist us in all our endeavors, which will prosper even more. However, brothers and sisters, we must beware of engaging in activities on Sundays that offend the Lord. While it is sinful at any time to quarrel, indulge in drunkenness, or partake in disorderly entertainments, it is incomparably worse to commit such sins on holy feast days.

Feast days are days of rest, necessary for our soul to draw nearer to God through prayer and contemplation. This can occur unhindered only when our soul is freed from worldly distractions and concerns. Ordinary labor on feast days, being unlawful and unblessed by God, can never be successful. On the contrary, it brings disruption and harm to the work we undertake during the week. In this way, the Lord chastises those who violate the holy rest.

Neglecting one commandment of God leads to the neglect of the entire law of God and the entirety of the Christian faith. Let us recall that the transgression of a single commandment in Paradise by our forebears led to the downfall of the entire human race. Thus, neglecting—or rather, desecrating—the commandment of God regarding the sanctity of the Lord’s Day can bring the destruction of our soul. By neglecting God’s commandments, we profane the name of Christ, subjecting it to scorn and derision by unbelievers, and bring reproach upon the faith and the Holy Church.

Let us, brothers and sisters, fulfill the Lord’s commandment to dedicate holy time to Him. In the Church, the day is honored beginning with the evening: "And the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:5). The evening before Sunday is also regarded as free from all weekday occupations and tasks. The Holy Church begins every feast with the evening of the preceding day, calling Christians to prayer and divine services, which on these eves are celebrated more solemnly than on ordinary days.

But in our unfortunate times, the commandment of God to dedicate the seventh day exclusively to Him has fallen into complete neglect. Those who call themselves Christians lose all reverence and fear of God. Instead of spending the evening before a feast in God’s temple, they indulge in coarse entertainments, games, drunkenness, and hours of watching television, which feeds the soul with passions and incites vices. Could there be a worse use of sacred time than to spend it not in glorifying and thanking the Lord but in offending Him? How often we disregard the sacred time for Christians, when the greatest miracle of love and mercy is performed for us sinful people—the Divine Liturgy, the supreme mystery of our faith. We often give these sacred hours to amusements and carnal pleasures, thus replacing the great celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ’s victory over the devil with a triumph of the devil over us. In doing so, we betray the redeeming Sacrifice of the Son of God, trample upon our promises made to the Lord at Holy Baptism, and squander the precious time God gives us for the salvation of our souls. Instead of remaining in reverence, in constant prayer, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19), as the Apostle commands, filling our hearts with purity, holiness, and joy in the Lord, we waste this time on vanity and sin.

I fear, brothers and sisters, that my words may do little to change the deeply rooted unchristian customs of this world, as those who have not deemed it necessary to attend the Divine Liturgy today will not hear them. Yet I am comforted by the thought that if these words, which you now hear, prevent even a single soul, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, from falling into the temptation of breaking God’s commandment, that soul will become an invaluable fruit for the Kingdom of God.

May God grant that those who hear this sermon receive these words with a good and faithful heart, turning away from pagan pleasures and devilish temptations, and always, on the days of holy feasts, remain in God’s temple, offering reverent prayers of repentance and thanksgiving to the Lord. Together with the prophet David, let us ask for the one thing necessary for our immortal soul: "That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 26:4). To our God be glory, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

source