Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord and that of the first six Ecumenical Councils!

In today’s Gospel reading, we heard how Jesus Christ healed two blind men, as well as how He drove out a demon from a deaf and mute man. These miracles amazed the people to such an extent that they remarked: “It was never so seen in Israel.” Of course, there were wonderful signs done among the Jews at earlier times. Both Elias and Elisha resurrected the dead, but the miracles of Jesus Christ, even the less marvelous ones, were counted as extraordinary because our Lord Jesus Christ healed with authority. He did not ask that God the Father raise someone from the dead or heal someone from their ailments, but instead, worked wonders with His own authority. It is this which most impressed the simple people and really irritated the Pharisees.

On the one hand, the Pharisees could not but acknowledge that the Saviour worked unheard-of miracles, but on the other hand, they could not come to terms with this and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour sent down to earth by God. They could not even force themselves to keep quiet, but endeаvoured to explain how Jesus of Nazareth, from their point of view a sinner, could work such signs. The one thing that they thought up to say was the our Lord Jesus Christ worked miracles not by Divine Grace, but by the power of the devil. In such a way we see that the enemies of Christ, seeing more and more wonders and hearing more and more often His teaching, did not change their opinion of Him, but instead became the more embittered. If last week we heard how the scribes doubted in their minds, then today we heard how the Pharisees openly denied Christ and taught the multitudes to count Him a devil. Of course their words are nonsense, for Christ did good everywhere, while the devil knows only how to cause evil and chaos.

Jesus Christ Himself, through His own actions in today’s Gospel reading, clearly shows who He truly is. The fact that He healed the blind as well as the demon-possess mute with His own authority and not through prayer to God the Father teaches us that He is truly God. That He touched the eyes of the blind shows that He had a real human body, that He wasn’t a premonition, but the most real person. In such a way, the Holy Evangelist Matthew clearly points out to the readers of his Gospel that Jesus Christ is at both God and man.

Today let us also notice that Christ the Saviour, through the healing of the blind men, showed us an example of humility. He opened their eyes not on in public, but privately, in a house, and commanded them to keep the details of their healing hidden. Let us also, when we do good deeds, strive to act in such a way that only God notices our actions, while the world around us knows nothing.

priest Alexis