The Reading from the Epistle of St. James. (5:10-20)
Today’s epistle was written by St. James the brother of the Lord and the first bishop of Jerusalem. As with all of the daily readings, it is given to us today by the Church with the purpose of bringing something to light. In this case it is to focus on the prophet Elijah (who is known in Greek and Arabic as Elias) since today is the day when he is commemorated on the Church calendar.
St. James writes, “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elias was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.” He tells us that Elias was like us. A mere man. Yet his great faith made him extraordinary, rather it made his prayers extraordinary. His deep faith opened up a powerful line of communication between himself and the Lord. This faith is possible for any one of us sitting here together. In fact, God desires this for us. To know us, to speak with us, to commune with us. But our lack of faith and purity of heart and our love of the world and for sin, all stand as obstacles to this deep and true relationship. The life in Christ, the life of the Church is an antidote, a remedy and a therapeutic path towards healing and towards a right relationship with God. Some of these aspects of healing are the focus of this same epistle passage we heard today. Namely the sacraments of anointing of the sick as well as confession. In fact these two have a close connection to one another.
St. James writes, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
Some of you know that we pray the service of anointing or Holy Unction on Great and Holy Wednesday evening. We also pray this service and anoint those who are really sick whenever it is necessary. As you hear in the words of St. James, the elders of the church come and pray over the one who is sick and anoint him with the oil in the name of the Lord. In Greek the word elder that is mentioned here is “presbyteros” or presbyter, which is another term for the english word priest. So it was definitely not the case that St. James is referring to elders as merely old members of the church but rather the priests who are the “stewards of the mysteries of God.”
This rite as it is in the service books calls for 7 priests to come together to read 7 prayers with 7 epistle and 7 gospel readings. Red wine is mixed with olive oil and we pray over this oil asking the Lord the Holy Spirit to bless it for healing. This mixture of oil and wine brings our minds to the story of the good samaritan who put wine and oil on the wounds of the man who was injured. In the context of these prayers is the request that God would heal not only our bodies but heal our souls. There is a close connection between the forgiveness of sins and the physical healing for which we pray. We remember that Our Lord Jesus in the gospels would heal someone and might say “Go your way, your sins are forgiven you.”
This healing connected to the forgiveness of sins is also reflected here in the passage when St. James writes, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” Interestingly this was exactly the early practice in the life of the Church according to our best sources. The sacrament of confession was not used so much for minor sins but was typically used in the case of serious sins, what some would call “mortal sins” although that is not really the language that is used in the Orthodox Church. These are sins that would immediately cut you off from the life of Christ and His Church. Those sins would include murder, adultery, fornication including homosexual activity, idol worship, and denial of Christ among others. When someone had fallen into such a way of life it was prescribed that they come to the church assembly and make a public confession of their sins before they would receive absolution from the Lord through the prayers of His priests. In this way they showed their true humility and repentance of heart and they acknowledged that their sins, although done in private, have an effect on the whole Christian community as this is the true nature of sin.
But something changed around the 4th century regarding this practice of public confession. As you know Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the apostles the keys to the Church and He told them that whatever they bound and loosed on earth would be bound in heaven. Meaning that they and those who followed them, were given the authority to order and structure the life of the Church. So it should not disturb us that we see some minor developments in the practical or liturgical life of the Church because the Church is not static but dynamic, filled with the Holy Spirit.
By the time of St. John Chrysostom, who was patriarch of Constantinople, it seems that public confession was a cause of scandals and other practical difficulties that made it preferable for the confession to become private, one on one, with the priest standing as both the representative of the whole community and the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to hear the confession. Confession also became more regular in practice. Our archbishop, His Eminence Metropolitan SABA has mentioned that we should confess and receive absolution 2-4 times a year at a minimum. This is not a rule but a point of guidance for our benefit.
The benefits of confession are many. St. Isaac the Syrian writes, “The sick one who is acquainted with his sickness is easily to be cured; and he who confesses his pain is near to health.” but he adds, “Many are the pains of the hard heart; and when the sick one resists the physician, his torments will be augmented.” And St. Isaac continues saying, “There is no sin which cannot be pardoned except that one which lacks repentance…” + St. Isaac the Syrian, “Six Treatises on the Behaviour of Excellence”
The gift that we receive from confession is the absolution, the wiping away of the sins that we confess. We receive cleansing and healing of soul and body. We receive an injection of the grace of the Holy Spirit and we are given power to once again struggle to live good and holy lives in purity, to be full of God’s grace, just like the prophet Elijah whom we celebrate today. He had a nature like ours. May we, through faith, be like him and like all of the saints. AMEN.
Source: Sermons