Interpretation of the Gospel for every day of the year. Week seven after Pentecost.

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov

Today's Gospel is about the healing of two blind and dumb people. What a wretched condition this world is in, and how varied are human misfortunes! The mute was brought to Christ as soon as the sightless blind had left. How indefatigable is our Lord in doing good, how incessantly one good deed follows another! He always has treasures of mercy in abundance, and no matter how many miracles He performs, they can never run out. Everything lies in our ability to participate in God's gift - in our faith and our prayer.

Two blind men follow Christ and shout: "Have mercy on us, Jesus, Son of David." The promise given to David that the Messiah would come from his descendants was well known to the people of Israel. At this time there was a great expectation of His coming. These blind people know, confess and proclaim in the streets of Capernaum that the Messiah has come, that He is here. An amazing thing is that those who, by the Providence of God, are deprived of bodily vision, can have rational eyes so enlightened that they can discern the great deeds of God, hidden from the wise and prudent. We have real faith.

They only ask for mercy. And we will learn such prayer. No matter how great our needs and sorrows, we do not need anything other than that the Lord be merciful to us. We ask the Lord for one thing: that we may share in His mercy. Even if He does not heal us and deliver us from the trouble in which we find ourselves today, if His mercy be with us, this will be enough for us, we will be comforted.

And they - let's pay attention to this - do not say, each of them separately, "have mercy on me", but both pray for each other: "have mercy on us." They are friends in misfortune, and their prayer is one. If our people, all Russian people, realized today what a common misfortune they are in, if they turned to the Lord with one heart and one mouth, a miracle would happen. Christ has mercy enough for everyone and for everyone.

The blind follow Christ, crying out to Him for help. But he doesn't seem to notice them. A lot of people were walking beside them and everyone was shouting, and then, maybe, when Christ passed, they just forgot about everything. He wants to see that their prayer is genuine and that their awareness of trouble is real. He sometimes does not immediately answer our prayer, so that our prayer deepens and the deliverance that we cannot receive at our first word becomes dearer to us. The Lord wants to teach us to be persistent in prayer, always pray and not lose heart.

And another important detail. When Christ entered the house, the blind followed Him and there they came to Him. Because He did not answer them in the street, they were forced to follow Him into the house. The Holy Fathers see a special meaning in this. Sooner or later, each of us must meet Christ alone. It is good to pray in the temple with everyone, with a large gathering of people, when a great feast and a common triumph involuntarily captures us. But in the end, everyone must meet personally with Christ, and this is crucial. Whether it will be in the temple or in our home prayer, or when trouble visits us. The Lord Himself is looking for this to happen to us. The doors of Christ are always open to those who relentlessly follow Him. But this encounter with Christ must be intimate. Therefore, when the blind received their sight, Christ sternly said to them: "See that no one finds out."

Today's Gospel reminds us that our prayer must be combined with unquestioning faith. Christ asks the blind, "Do you believe that I can do this?" and answers them: "According to your faith, be it to you." He could, says St. John Chrysostom, immediately heal all the blind, dumb and deaf on earth with one word. But what would that mean? Man would be put on the same level with unreasonable beings, without free will and free choice, deprived of his high destiny. But man is called man because he always faces the choice of good and evil. If he chooses good, he enters into friendship with God and becomes a child of light, heir to His heavenly Kingdom. If he chooses evil, he becomes lower than unreasonable beings, plunging into pitch darkness.

Didn't the same thing happen to the mute, whose healing is further described in today's Gospel? He is a speechless being. We often repeat that today everything is done to turn people into dumb creatures by propaganda of bestial lust. And the most important thing that is happening in the world today is the meaninglessness of the word. Holy and dirty words are mixed up, lies sound like foul language on television, and they are no longer ashamed to utter any shame in public. A little more, it seems, and they will mumble and growl.

At first, Christ cast out the devil from the mute, and only then did he begin to speak. Imagine that the Lord would free him from his dumbness and leave everything as it is. What would happen? Free, untied from the bonds that constrain him, the dumb would begin to blaspheme God and man, and praise sin. The Lord shows us today how terrible such freedom is. And where can we find deliverance from the current general blindness and dumbness. It strikes the root of evil and removes the cause. Only by the power of God can the power of Satan, which has bound our people, be crushed. Only by true faith can we acquire the gift of insight. Only in true prayer are the lips opened, bringing praise to the Lord.