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Father George's Letter

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Written by: Fr George

HEALING ON THE SABBATH.

 

 

 

 

“The virtues build a new person radiating love to the world.”

(Metropolitan Paul (Yazigi) of Aleppo who consecrated our temple.)

 

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

                                                                                           (Hebrews 4:15-16)

 

SUNDAY 8^th DECEMBER. St. Patapius of Thebes (8^th). Apostles Sosthenes, Apollos, Tychicus, Epaphroditus, & Onesiphorus, of the Seventy (1^st).  St. Sophronios, Archbishop of Cyprus (6^th).

 

GREAT MARTYR  BARBARA AND MARTYR JULIANA.

Feastday 4^th December.

St. Barbara was a very beautiful young woman whose pagan father, Dioscorus, a rich and powerful man in the city of Heliopolis, built a tower in which to keep her safe from the world. Her only contacts were her pagan teachers. Barbara, however, was able to see the beautiful countryside and the flowers and all the beauty of nature and thought that there was more to life and that Creation was something that the idols of her father could not possibly have been responsible for. When she refused all offers of marriage her father thought it more prudent to let her leave the tower and experience the world. Barbara began to learn of Christ and was baptised by a visiting priest from Egypt who taught her about the Christian faith. Her father was enraged and beat his daughter, who escaped but was re-discovered and was tortured but remained faithful. Seeing her suffering a Christian woman, Juliana, spoke out against the torturers and was herself seized and tortured. The two women were paraded naked through the streets to the jeers and profanations of the crowd. They were then beheaded, Barbara's father executing Barbara himself. This happened when the Emperor Maximian was on the throne (305-311).

 

“The soul is greater than the body: the body becomes sick, and with that is finished. But a spiritual sickness extends into eternity. Deliver us, O Lord, from such illness, and grant us healing.”

                                                                                  ( St. Macarius)

 

“Do not pass through the streets of the hot-tempered and quarrelsome, lest your heart be filled with anger, and darkness and delusion dominate your soul.” (St. Isaac the Syrian)

 

 

TODAY'S GOSPEL. Luke 13:10-17. “Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “ There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it--- for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.”

 

To do any work on the Sabbath was and is forbidden by religious Jews. Christ teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath uses His authority to heal the woman bent double for eighteen years and is criticised for doing so. Jesus points out that animals in need of water are led to drink by their owners on this day of rest and yet to heal the sick and infirm, to do something for others is condemned; how can this be? This simple point puts all His opponents to shame and opens the eyes of the people who rejoice in the healing rather than hiding behind the Law for their own self-satisfaction and self-esteem.

In the account of Creation in Genesis 2:1-3  we are told that “Thus heaven and earth and all their adornment were finished. And on the seventh day God finished the works He made, and He rested on the seventh day from all the works He made. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His works God began to make.” In His day of rest Christ shows His compassion for us by healing the sick and infirm. His love manifested in His Creation reaches out to the lowliest, the humblest and the least of His children. We see around us all the flashy, sentimental self-indulgence that has become a parody for Christmas, the Feast of the Incarnation of Christ. Many people today do not really know the true meaning of Christmas, it is merely a holiday with trappings of a somewhat dubious nature with faint echoes of something to do with ‘Baby Jesus’, angels and shepherds in a place called Bethlehem"

In His healing in the Gospel for today let us picture the Child of Bethlehem in a dark cave beside His resting Mother and realise that God may rest but never sleeps. His care for us is boundless. He was often challenged in this world but always as God gave an answer that only God could give. Let us in our churches not be like the ruler in the synagogue and instead surround ourselves with His love and compassion before all else and know that He is with us. As humans we surround ourselves with rules and regulations so that we can live in some sort of harmony with each other, but when we look at the present conditions that prevail on earth today, we aren't making a very good job of it. Christ shows us the way of God, not the way of fallen mankind that we find difficult to separate ourselves from and from which we are called to be like Him.

 

                                                                                           Much Love,

 

                                                                                           Fr. George.

Thank you to all who helped in moving things to facilitate the church decoration. Your help in doing so again this Sunday will be greatly appreciated.

Please continue to pray for the peacemakers of the world whose services are so much needed “For they shall be called sons of God.”

                                                                       ( Matthew 5:9)

Also, remember all the sick and troubled in need of our prayers.​