25 August OS 2015 – Monday of the 15th Week after Pentecost (15th week of Matthew), Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Titus
In today’s Gospel, the Lord rewards the faith of the woman who had suffered with a flow of blood for twelve years:
At that time much people followed Jesus, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. – Mark 5: 24-34
St. Theophan the Recluse relates this to our struggle for the healing of our thoughts:
The issue of blood is an image of the passionate thoughts and intentions that incessantly spring forth from the heart, if it has not yet been cleansed from all sympathy to sin – this is our sinful disease. It is sensed by those who have repented and zealously strive to keep themselves pure not only outwardly, but inwardly as well. Such people see that evil thoughts incessantly proceed from the heart, and they grieve over this and seek healing. But it is not possible to find such healing in oneself or others. It comes from the Lord, or, more precisely, it comes when the soul touches the Lord and power goes out of the Lord into the soul. – from Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 190
How do we baptized Orthodox Christians know that we are not Christians in name only but that we are actually on the path to salvation? There are various indicators, but here St. Theophan points to one of them: “Such people see that evil thoughts incessantly proceed from the heart, and they grieve over this and seek healing.” Inner struggle, constant grieving over the lack of inner perfection, striving towards Christ in our minds, and begging Him constantly to cleanse our heart – this habit of mind marks a true Christian.
Outward works are indeed necessary as well (“I was hungry and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink…”). But outward works without the inner struggle, without the inner voice accusing oneself of impurity of heart, do not save. When the Lord commands, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5: 48),” He commands the perfection of the inner and the outer self, for we are soul and body, not just body, and the soul is the higher part of man, that which gives life and should govern life.
Try this: For one day, keep track of your thoughts and feelings throughout the day, as much as you can – what you thought about; how you reacted inwardly to people, news, and events; what objects the energy of your mind was spent upon. When given a moment’s freedom from work, what did you attach your mind to? At the end of the day, as part of your evening prayers, review the mental content of your day. What was it like, really? Do you think it was much different from a non-Orthodox or even a non-Christian living or working next to you? Was your mind frequently turned to prayer, to thoughts of gratitude to God, to the beauties of our Faith, to weeping over your sins and the sins of the world, to intentions of well-doing towards others, to the forgiveness of those who have wronged you, to death and God’s judgment? Or was it fragmented, distracted, and alternatively entertained and depressed by the same junk that everyone else thinks about?
Try this: Take a prayer rope to work, in your pocket or purse. On the hour, take it out (if possible) and say the Jesus Prayer 33 times. It will take less than five minutes, less than two minutes. Ask the Lord to give you a mental “re-set” for the next hour, to clean out all the bad things you may have thought and felt for the last hour, and to give your heart and mind a spirit of lightness and of prayer. Then go back to your work.
These “little” exercises can become not-so-little. They can grow into a constant habit of mind, a constant striving towards the Lord, as the ailing woman strove towards Him in the crowd on that day in Galilee long ago. He will not ignore our striving, for it was He Who inspired us and gave us the strength to do it. Power will go out of Him, and it will dry up the flow of our evil thoughts, as on that day it dried up the woman’s hemorrhage. He will replace the evil with the good and give us the abiding sense of His presence, which is a foretaste of Paradise.
