In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Today is the 4th week of the Great Lent and we are all sitting at home. Hiding from the pestilence. Pestilence. This is what the Church calls airborne diseases. At each service, we asked for “seasonable weather” (in Church Slavonic: “for the air being dissolved with grace”), but apparently the cup of God’s patience was overflowed and a drop of anger, like a tear, was poured out on the human race. Some people are not affected by the disease, or it affects them in a mild form, and for some, it becomes terribly cruel, even to the point of painful death. But does this mean that someone is guilty before God more than others? To this question, Christ himself answers: “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk.13:3).
When God creates man, He creates him from the dust of the earth: «And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul» (Ge.2:7). So, at what point did a person come to life, become a living soul? When God breathed the breath of life into his face. Without food, a person can live for many days, without water much less, and without breathing, a person cannot live even for several minutes. The virus that is now spreading across the planet in its severe form, as you already know, affects the lungs of a person, that is, his breath, his life.
However, not only the soul of a person and his body lives by breathing. His spirit also lives by his breath. “The Spirit breathes” (John 3:8), says the Apostle John the Theologian of the Holy Spirit [that is according to Church-Slavonic translation]. So, the spirit of man, created in the image of God, also breathes. Not this air, in which the coronavirus is transmitted, but another “air” spiritual, in which you can get infected with much more terrible viruses than this one. Spiritual death, that is what you and I should really fear much more than the death of this mortal body, according to the word of the Lord: “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Mt.10:28). We know that the human soul is created immortal. Why does Christ say that it can be killed?
When the body dies, which lives on the breath of this physical air, then the soul ceases to breathe this air and begins to breathe exclusively the spiritual “air”, about which the Apostle says that the Spirit breathes it (John.3:8). This spiritual “air” is the breath of the Holy Spirit, the “oxygen” of the Heavenly Kingdom. So, not only does our body have lungs through which the blood is oxygenated, but our soul also has a spiritual organ that, like the lungs, saturates our soul with the breath of the Holy Spirit. And this organ is our spirit. Our spirit also breathes.
When the soul dies, as St. Simeon the New Theologian writes when it is left by the Holy Spirit, that is, its spirit, as if infected with a virus, cannot breathe anymore the breath of the Spirit and painfully suffocating, the soul dies a spiritual death. And this death is much more terrible than physical death. And here’s why. Once dead, the body ceases to exist, at least until the day of universal resurrection. The soul, however, when it dies (that is, when it is deprived of communion with the Holy Spirit), does not disappear, but continues to exist in a state of death, which Christ calls punishment, saying that “ these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Mt.25:46). He did not say “to eternal death” but chose another expression to describe existence in this state opposite to life. Therefore the Lord says, “fear not them which kill the body” (Mt.10:28). Because the death of the soul is much more terrible and painful.
Many are in turmoil today. Many minds are seized with ideas about the artificial origin of the coronavirus as if it was engineered in some secret laboratories where the enemies of the human race create biological weapons. All these ideas indicate that we have not yet come to know the Lord, who tells us: “fear not them which kill the body” (Mt.10:28). What difference does it make whether God wants to reach us through natural mutations or through laboratory research? Or do you think that this virus appeared in the world without His knowledge and providence? Through this virus, God speaks to us. And we should have listened to the words of this Holy Scripture of our penultimate days instead of groveling on the ground, again and again, inhaling the deadly virus of conspiracy theories and animal fear.
What does God tell us by means of this microscopic king crowned with its crown? Perhaps, as He often does, God still speaks to us today through a parable, that is, allegorically?
Do you think the health and life of our body are important for God? And what if this health becomes a reason and a means for leaving Him and as a result, the cause of the death of our soul? Do you think that God would prefer the body to the soul? So, let’s listen and try to explain to ourselves what God is talking to us about.
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear a story about a disease. And about its healing. A perfect fit for today’s situation. “And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not” (Mk.9:17,18). From the very first words of the story, we understand that we are hearing about a spiritual illness. In many other places in the gospel, Christ heals the diseases of the body. He healed those who were bleeding, halt, withered, and even blind. But not here. The unfortunate father immediately speaks of the obvious thing, that his son is possessed by “a dumb spirit”. We mentioned above that our spirit breathes by the breath of the Holy Spirit. What do demons breathe? What does this dumb spirit breathe? Oh, they have their own “air” and their own breath, which I am sure every Christian who has ever entered the spiritual life has felt. This is the breath of malice, the breath of hatred and enmity against God and men. And for them, death and torment are, on the contrary, the breath of the Holy Spirit. “He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming” (Mk.9:19,20). As we see, from the image and proximity of God, the unclean spirit becomes terrified.
“And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him ? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mk.9:21-24). Now we move from illness to healing. The Lord is looking for faith as only one condition for healing. Moreover, not even the faith that is able to move mountains, but at least some, to which the father of the demon-possessed boy confesses his unbelief before Jesus and addresses Him with a prayer: “help thou mine unbelief” (Mk.9:24). “When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose” (Mk.9:25-27). After the demon came out of the boy, the Evangelist says that “he was as one dead.” That is, the breath left him. The soul, being possessed by an unclean spirit, breathed the same spiritual air with it and was “alive” by it. And as soon as the demon departed with its impure breath, the soul stopped breathing for a while, “insomuch that many said, He is dead’.Until finally his slain and enslaved spirit revived, and he breathed the Divine touch that raised him from the bed of sickness.
And then we hear the astonished disciples. “And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mk.9:28,29). Without prayer and fasting, diseases are not cured. Without prayer and fasting, a person cannot repent. And without repentance, how can he ask for faith: “help thou mine unbelief” (Mk.9:21-24)?
So, the fight against the spiritual virus that God is telling us about through the coronavirus pandemic today begins with prayer and fasting. And there is a meaning in that all this happened in the days of the Great Lent. What kind of spiritual virus is this? Oh, it can also rightfully be called a coronavirus, because it was “developed” in the spiritual secret laboratories of the devil, the prince of this world, to infect the human spirit in the same way that a coronavirus infects the lungs. And this virus is constantly mutating, bringing new images and thoughts to our infected mind. When it enters the lungs, the coronavirus attacks the alveoli and capillaries through which our blood is oxygenated. Penetrating into the mind, thoughts strike our prayer, through which the soul is saturated with the breath of the Holy Spirit. If a man does not pray, his soul is dead. And in order to pray, you need to fast, that is, limit yourself in everything, not only in the food of the body but most importantly, limit the food that our mind is used to eating. And these are images and thoughts of this world. They are the most terrible viruses of the spiritual world, from which you cannot hide in your apartment. Only prayer and fasting can resist this “pestilence”, the quarantine of the mind is necessary for our spiritual health.
Does it mean that we can treat external quarantine with disdain? Absolutely not. The solitude we have unwittingly found ourselves in is a gift from God. If only we can use this gift to our advantage if only we don’t miss it. One of the main reasons that prevent us from seriously engaging in the Jesus Prayer is that we expose excessive preoccupation and lack of time in the world. Now we don’t have that excuse. The Lord has sent us all home and given us precious time. And it will be a crime against our own soul if we do not use this time to learn the Jesus Prayer, which should become the breath of our spirit.
“And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day” (Mk.9:30,31). Do you see that the Lord also hid from the people at times and did not want anyone to know that He was passing by? This solitude was necessary for the teaching of the Apostles. And we are also his disciples. Today, He doesn’t want us to be crowded, perhaps in order to teach us something…
How long will it last? How will we celebrate Pascha? What will we live on? Put all these worries out of your mind and put your mind into prayer. Let us learn to breathe the breath of the Holy Spirit while we are given time. So that the words of the Great Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete may become our words: “As the potter molds the clay, Thou hast fashioned me, giving me flesh and bones, breath and life. But accept me in repentance, O my Maker and Deliverer and Judge”. Amen.