|
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Congratulate you on the day of Elijah the Prophet.
Elijah was a man of God, he loved God, and the Holy Spirit revolted in him constantly against the Kings. He disclosed the kings in idolatry, called them to repent, but they did not listen. The queen, whom he had disclosed, made him harm. He said to her that she would fall and the dogs would eat her. And indeed she fell from the balcony and the dogs ate her.
However, Elijah is a good person, you should be a friend of him, and then you will be fine. But they haunted him, sent the army to catch him. He is sitting on the hill, praying and does not disturb anybody. But the army was sent to punish him. He prays - and fire comes from the sky and burns the army. "Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty” (2Kings ²:10). The king remained without army.
Then Elijah came to the king, who had already no army, and said:
- It was your fault. Let us now have a competition. Those stupid people whom you hold near you, who wore the cassocks, they do not pray to God. They pray to the devil. I'll prove that you have to pray to the Father of the Universe, and you pray to strange crocks, worms and the dead.
- How can you prove?
- It is simple. Let them make an altar than offer sacrifices, and may the fire come down and take this offering (1 Kings ÕV²²²:25-40). And so they did. They walked around that sacrifice and drummed. They did it for many hours and were very tired. It was said that if they did not do this they would die. Then they yelled with all their strength to their pagan god. And when people idolize some statuettes, believe that it is God; the devil already infuses in a person while these moments occur and possesses this person, who worships some idol, carved in tree.
Then the devil possesses such a man and starts to use this person.
Therefore, the Orthodox believers should be very careful when they bow to the statuettes, or even icons. Be careful, because we have to worship only God, who is depicted on these icons. And many people bow to icons. Do they do the right things after that? If the devil possesses them, they will do bad things. There is a healing icon. A healing icon is put in the middle of the church. And people start to elbow their way through to get to this icon. They fight as if it is bread. Is it not enough for everybody? You see? And who lives in such people, Jesus? No, there evil lives. And the evil wants to bite you. And you are bitten - but you fight who is the first to kiss an icon of the Mother of God.
And they were the same odd people. They walked around, got tired, fell on the ground, and all what they had been doing resulted in nothing. And then Elijah said, "Come here and make a trench around my altar and fill it with water."
They searched Elijah whether he had no matches, put brushwood and gave the victims, and he began to pray. He had no matches, nothing, he just prayed. "Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench”(1Kings ÕV²²²:38). The king understood the situation then. Then Elijah took a stone and ran to kill all these devils. Can you imagine? He was man of God. God did not want that filth in cassocks to lead people to destruction under His holy name. The story about Elijah is very interesting.
And then Jews waited for the new coming of Elijah. He really came in the image John the Baptist. Jesus Himself said about that: "But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased"(Ìatthew, ÕV²²:12). The same behavior had John the Baptist: again he was in the desert, again he did not want be near people and accept the luxury, he did not want to be with mother, father, who always said "you should eat and wear better clothes" and said what to do. He lived in the desert; it was good for him to live there. But when he returned to people he preached as Elijah, he also disclosed Herod and Herodias for she was not his wife. He disclosed the evil and asked people to repent. He had almost the same behavior as Elijah. He did not call the fire from Heaven. It was enough of it.
And today is the day of Elijah. Right? When it thunders, they say that Elijah in a chariot hunts the devils away. Strange are the things that people imagine. Or they say that he prays for rain. Yes, I believe he has a gift to send the rain. You can ask him: "Elijah, pray to God if He blesses, to send in my garden some rain." In fact, when there is no harvest on the fields, when there are droughts, people pray and receive help.
St. Elijah, pray God for us so that we are protected by God as you were protected by the God's fire. We ask this fire to come down on our enemies and burn all the evil in them. We ask this fire to come on us but not to burn but to inspire us to good doings.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
|
|
Apostle (James 5:10-20):
5
10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of
suffering,
take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered.
You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought
about.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear-not by heaven
or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple "Yes" or "No".
Otherwise you will be condemned.
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy?
Let them sing songs of praise.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church
to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well;
the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other
so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and
effective.
17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that
it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced
its crops.
19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth
and someone should bring that person back,
20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way
will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
Gospel (Luke, 4:22-30):
4
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that
came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me:
'Physician, heal yourself!' And you will tell me, 'Do here in your hometown what we
have heard that you did in Capernaum.'
24 "Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his
hometown.
25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's
time, when
the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout
the land.
26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath
in the region of Sidon.
27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha
the prophet,
yet not one of them was cleansed-only Naaman the Syrian."
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of
the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff
30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
|
