Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the feast of the great 20th century saint, the Greek hierarch Nektarios of Pentapolis. This year we mark the one-hundredth anniversary of his repose.

In today’s Gospel reading we heard how Christ healed the woman with an issue of blood and raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus. In both instances we clearly see the divine nature of Christ. It’s rare for ordinary people to perform such miracles, and when a saint does perform such a feat it is in the name of Christ. But here our Lord performs these deeds as someone with power, as the master of the universe.

What we may have missed in today’s reading is that Jesus went through some trying moments that are natural and expected not for His divine, but for His human nature. Remember that he was mocked on two different occasions. He was mocked not only by the crowd and later by the parents of the dead girl, but also by His disciples, and not just His disciples from the 70 or even the 12, but by His best and closest friends Peter, John and James. Remember how Peter said: “The multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” Here we see that at this moment Peter and the other apostles, who had seen Christ’s great miracles, forget who He is. They accuse Him of being somewhat foolish for asking ‘Who touched me?’ when it was clear that He is in the midst of a huge throng of people who are grabbing Him and pushing. Later on, the parents, and probably the three best disciples who were in the house, were not only accusing Christ of being foolish, but laughing at Him who has power over everything.

We can probably venture a guess that for our Lord, who was a whole and perfect human, it was not easy to hear and see this type of unfair attitude towards Himself. His heart must have ached and He must have been sorrowful, especially when His friends began to mock and laugh at Him. These types of feelings are natural for any person. Although Christ was hurt, we can see that He continues His mission. He heals the woman with an issue of blood and manifests her great faith to the crowd, as well as to all of us through the evangelists. He shows His limitless love for man through the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, who in his despair mocked the Lord. After considering all of this, we are left only to wonder at the long-suffering of our Saviour and to ponder whether it is possible for a simple mortal person to live through such mockery!

St. Nektarios shows us that, in fact, man can exhibit such Christ-like patience in the face of mockery from our acquaintances, colleagues and brothers and sisters in Christ. If you are not familiar with this saint, I very much recommend that you read his life. Today let’s note that he was a bishop in Egypt where, because of envy, he was slandered. Because of the accusations against him he was relieved of his episcopal duties and compelled to leave Africa. The slander against him was so severe that he was never again assigned to an episcopal see. He settled in Athens where he worked as a school principal. At one time he even did all the janitorial work at this school. At the end of his life, St. Nektarios founded a convent on the island of Aegina (near Athens), where he served as the spiritual father. During his life he was a bishop only to become a janitor, and all because of slander. Despite everything, he remained a faithful servant of Christ, humble and meek.

Today, let’s pray to this wonderful saint that our Lord grants us the strength to calmly bear any and all slander and insults that may come our way.

priest Alexis