HOMILY 28. Delivered to the people in the basilica of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, on the day of their feast.
READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. At that time, there was a certain royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was coming from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son. For he was about to die. Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe. The royal official said to him: Lord, come down before my son dies. Jesus said to him: Go, your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and brought word, saying that his son was alive. He therefore inquired of them the hour in which he had improved. And they said to him that yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. The father therefore knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus had said to him: Your son lives. And he himself believed, and his whole household.
The reading of the holy Gospel which you have just heard, brothers, does not require explanation. But lest we seem to have passed over it in silence, let us say something about it by way of exhortation rather than exposition. Yet this one point from the exposition seems to me to require inquiry: why the man who had come seeking health for his son heard the words: "Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe"? For he who was seeking health for his son undoubtedly believed. For he would not have sought health from one whom he did not believe to be the Savior. Why then is it said, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe," to one who believed before he saw a sign? But remember what he asked for, and you will clearly recognize that he wavered in faith. For he asked that the Lord would come down and heal his son. Therefore he was seeking the bodily presence of the Lord, who through the Spirit was absent nowhere. Thus he believed less in him whom he did not think able to give health unless he were present in body. For if he had believed perfectly, he would undoubtedly have known that there is no place where God is not. Therefore to a great extent he was lacking in faith, because he gave honor not to the divine majesty but to bodily presence. Thus he sought health for his son, and yet wavered in faith, because he believed that the one to whom he came was powerful enough to heal, and yet thought him absent from his dying son. But the Lord, who is asked to come, indicates that he is not absent from where he is invited, and restored health by his command alone, he who created all things by his will.
In this matter we must carefully observe that, as we have learned from another evangelist's testimony, a centurion came to the Lord saying: "Lord, my servant lies paralyzed in my house and is grievously tormented." To whom Jesus immediately responds: "I will come and heal him." What does it mean that the royal official asks him to come to his son, and yet he refuses to go bodily; but to the centurion's servant he is not invited, and yet he promises to go bodily? He does not deign to be present to the royal official's son through bodily presence, yet he does not disdain to go to meet the centurion's servant. What is this, except that our pride is rebuked, we who in men venerate not the nature by which they were made in the image of God, but honors and riches? And when we consider what surrounds them, we certainly fail to perceive their inner worth, while we consider what is despised in bodies, we neglect to weigh what they truly are. But our Redeemer, to show that what is lofty among men should be despised, and what is despised among men should not be despised by the saints, was unwilling to go to the royal official's son, but was ready to go to the centurion's servant. Therefore our pride is rebuked, which does not know how to value men for the sake of men themselves. It considers only, as we said, what surrounds men; it does not look at their nature; it does not recognize the honor of God in men. Behold, the Son of God is unwilling to go to the royal official's son, and yet he is ready to come for the health of a servant. Certainly if anyone's servant asked us to go to him, immediately our pride would answer us in silent thought, saying: "Do not go, because you degrade yourself, your honor is despised, your position is cheapened." Behold, he comes from heaven who does not disdain to meet a servant on earth; and yet we, who are from the earth, scorn to be humbled on earth. But what can be more worthless, what more contemptible before God, than to preserve honor among men and not to fear the eyes of the inner witness? Hence also in the holy Gospel the Lord says to the Pharisees: "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts, because what is lofty among men is abominable before God." Note, brothers, note what is said. For if what is lofty among men is abominable before God, the thought of our heart is as low before God as it is high among men, and the humility of our heart is as high before God as it is low among men.
Let us therefore despise whatever good we do; let no work of ours puff us up, let neither abundance of possessions nor glory exalt us. If we swell inwardly from any good things that abound to us, we are despised by God. On the contrary, the Psalmist says of the humble: "The Lord preserves the little ones." Because he calls the humble "little ones," after he brought forth this statement, he adds counsel; for as if we were asking what he himself would do about these things, he added: "I was humbled, and he delivered me." Think on these things, therefore, brothers; weigh them with your whole attention. Do not venerate the goods of this world in your neighbors. Honor in people—to whom, however, you have not been entrusted—that which was made in the image of God, for the sake of God. This you will truly preserve toward your neighbors if you first do not swell up in your own heart. For whoever still exalts himself on account of transitory things does not know how to venerate in his neighbor what endures. Therefore, do not consider in yourselves what you have, but what you are. Behold, the world that is loved flees away. These saints, at whose tomb we stand, trampled the flourishing world with contempt of mind. There was long life, continual health, abundance in possessions, fruitfulness in offspring, tranquility in lasting peace; and yet while it flourished in itself, the world had already withered in their hearts. Behold, now the world has withered in itself, and still it flourishes in our hearts. Everywhere death, everywhere grief, everywhere desolation; from every side we are struck, from every side we are filled with bitterness; and yet with blind mind we love the very bitterness of carnal desire, we follow what flees, we cling to what is falling. And because we cannot hold back what is falling, we fall with it, which we grasp as it collapses. Once the world held us by its delight; now it is so full of wounds that the world itself sends us to God. Consider, therefore, that the things that pass temporally are nothing. The end of temporal things shows how worthless is that which was able to pass away. The fall of things indicates that a passing thing was nearly nothing even when it seemed to stand. Therefore, dearest brothers, weigh these things with careful consideration; fix your heart on the love of eternity, so that while you despise the attainment of earthly heights, you may arrive at glory with him whom you hold through faith, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns as God with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, through all ages of ages. Amen.