My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.
ON GRATITUDE TOWARDS OUR LORD AND CREATOR (Part II)
by Saint Nikolai Velimirovic
Thanksgiving to God raises us mortals out of the corruption of mortality, releases us from that from which we must all at some time be released, whether we will or not, and binds us to God the Living and Immortal; if we are not bound to Him in this life, then we shall never be in His presence in eternity. Thanksgiving ennobles the thankful and nourishes good works. Thanksgiving inspires benevolence in the world, and gives freshness to every virtue. The mortal tongue of man is far from being able to represent either the beauty of gratitude or the ugliness of ingratitude as graphically as both are presented in the Gospel.
"At that time, as Jesus entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off; and they lifted up their voices, and said: 'Jesus, Master; have mercy on us!' There were ten lepers. It is terrible to see one, let alone ten at once. A body covered from head to foot firstly with white spots and then white, festering scabs, that first itch and then burn like fire. A body that is decaying and falling apart. A body in which there is more pus than blood. A body that stinks without and within. This is a leprous man. When the leprosy strikes at the nose, the mouth, the eyes, imagine what sort of air is breathed through the wounds caused by this dreadful illness...
"...Hearing of the Lord Jesus as an Almighty Healer, they had also certainly heard of specific cases of Christ's healing of lepers like themselves (St. Luke 5:12-13)...He was passing that way on the road to Jerusalem. And lo, the happy chance had now come, not by chance but by God's dispensation...
"... 'Have mercy on us,' they cried aloud. And when He saw them, He said unto them: 'Go shew yourselves unto the priests.' And it came to pass that, as they went, they were cleansed.
Why did the Lord send them to the priests? Because it was the priests' duty to pronounce lepers unclean and exclude them from society, and also to pronounce the healed clean and healthy and permit them to return to the society of men (Lev. 13:34-44)...
"...The Parable ends with the Savior's words to the grateful Samaritan: 'And He said unto him: 'Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.' See the greatness of the Lord's humility, and also His gentleness. It is a joy to Him to call men fellow-workers in His great and good works. He desires by this to raise the dignity of the humiliated and subjugated human race. High above human pride and vanity, He desires to share His merit with others, His riches with the poor, His glory with the needy and the sorrowing. 'Thy faith hath made the whole.' This Samaritan had indeed believed, as had the other nine lepers; had they not believed in the Lord's power, they would not have cried out: 'Jesus, Master; have mercy on us!' But of what use was their faith?...
"...Oh, if we Christians knew the variety and number of the spiritual diseases from which Christ the Lord heals us every day, we would quickly turn to Him, fall at His feet and thank Him from this moment to the hour of our death--which hour is not far from any one of us. To our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be glory and praise, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit--the Trinity consubstantial and undivided, now and forever, through all time and all eternity. Amen. (Source: Orthodox Heritage)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George