ACC ~ Luke 4 v31 - 41
MIRACLES TESTIFY THAT JESUS THE PHYSICIAN HEALS CREATION
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: People who cannot be brought by argument to the sure knowledge of him who by nature and in truth is God and Lord may perhaps be won by miracles to a quiet obedience. Therefore helpfully, or rather necessarily, he often completes his lessons by going on to perform some mighty work. For the people of Judea were not ready to believe. They snubbed the words of those who called them to salvation. The people of Capernaum had this character especially. For this reason the Savior reproved them. He said, “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, shall be brought down to hell.” [1] Although he knows them to be both disobedient and hard of heart, nevertheless he visits them as a most excellent physician would visit those who were suffering from a very dangerous disease and endeavors to rid them of their illness. He himself says, “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, only those who are sick.” [2] He taught, therefore, in their synagogues with great freedom of speech. For he had foretold this by the voice of Isaiah: “I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth.” [3] COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12. [4]
[1] Lk 10:15.
[2] Lk 5:31.
[3] Is 45:19.
[4] CGSL 96-97**.
NEW CREATION BEGINS ON THE SABBATH
AMBROSE: He describes the works of divine healing begun on the sabbath day, to show from the outset that the new creation began where the old creation ceased. He showed us that the Son of God is not under the law but above the law, and that the law will not be destroyed but fulfilled. [1] For the world was not made through the law but by the Word, as we read: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established.” [2] Thus the law is not destroyed but fulfilled, so that the renewal of humankind, already in error, may occur. The apostle too says, “Stripping yourselves of the old man, put on the new, who was created according to Christ.” [3] He fittingly began on the sabbath, that he may show himself as Creator. He completed the work that he had already begun by weaving together works with works. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4.58. [4]
[1] Mt 5:17.
[2] Ps 33:6 (32:6 LXX).
[3] Col 3:9-10; Eph 4:22, 24.
[4] EHG 137**; CSEL 32 4:168.
JESUS HEALS MEN AND WOMEN
AMBROSE: St. Luke did well to first set before us the man freed from a spirit of wickedness, then substituted the healing of a woman. The Lord had come to heal both sexes, and man must first be cured because he was created first. But woman, who had sinned by an uncertain mind rather than depravity, must not be overlooked. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4.57. [1]
[1] EHG 136-37**; CSEL 32 4:167-68.
THE POWER OF JESUS’ WORD
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The bystanders, witnesses of such great deeds, were astonished at the power of his word. He performed his miracles, without offering up a prayer, asking no one else at all for the power to accomplish them. Since he is the living and active Word of God the Father, by whom all things exist, and in whom all things are, in his own person he crushed Satan and closed the profane mouth of impure demons. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12. [1]
[1] PG 72:547-50; CGSL 98**.
JESUS REBUKES FEVER POSSESSING PETER’S MOTHER-IN-LAW
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus arrived at Simon’s house and found Simon’s mother-in-law sick of a fever. He stood and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Matthew and Mark say that the fever left her. [1] There is no hint of any living thing as the active cause of the fever. But Luke’s phrase says that he stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her. I do not know whether we are not compelled to say that that which was rebuked was some living thing unable to sustain the influence of him who rebuked it. It is not reasonable to rebuke a thing without life, and unconscious of the rebuke. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12. [2]
[1] Mt 8:15.
[2] CGSL 99**.
UNCLEAN DEMONS KNOW JESUS IS THE CHRIST
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He would not permit the unclean demons to confess him. It was not right for them to usurp the glory of the apostolic office or to talk of the mystery of Christ with polluted tongues. Yes, nothing they say is true. Let no one trust them. Light cannot be recognized with the help of darkness, as the disciple of Christ teaches us, where he says, “What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?” [1] COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12. [2]
[1] 2 Cor 6:15.
[2] CGSL 101**.
WE ARE NEVER TO LISTEN TO DEMONS
ATHANASIUS: Even when the demons spoke the truth, for they spoke the truth when they said, “Thou are the Son of God,” the Lord himself silenced them and forbade them to speak. He did this to keep them from sowing their own wickedness in the midst of the truth. He also wished us to get used to never listening to them even though they seem to speak the truth. LIFE OF ST. ANTHONY 26. [1]
[1] FC 15:159**.
JESUS THE CHIEF PHYSICIAN
JEROME: “Now Simon’s mother-in-law was kept in her bed sick with a fever.” May Christ come to our house and enter in and by his command cure the fever of our sins. Each one of us is sick with a fever. Whenever I give way to anger, I have a fever. There are as many fevers as there are faults and vices. Let us beg the apostles to intercede for us with Jesus, that he may come to us and touch our hand. If he does so, at once our fever is gone. He is an excellent physician and truly the chief Physician. Moses is a physician. Isaiah is a physician. All the saints are physicians, but he is the chief Physician. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK 75. [1]
[1] FC 57:144*.
JESUS HAS POWER OVER DEATH
ATHANASIUS: What irreverent men do not believe, the spirits see—that he is God. So they flee and fall down at his feet, saying just what they uttered when he was in the body. ON THE INCARNATION 5.32. [1]
[1] NPNF 2 4:53**; LCC 3:86.
THE HOLY FLESH OF JESUS HEALS HIS CREATION
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus laid his hands upon the sick one by one and freed them from their malady. He demonstrated that the holy flesh, which he had made his own and endowed with godlike power, possessed the active presence of the might of the Word. He intended us to learn that, although the only-begotten Word of God became like us, yet he is nonetheless God. He wants us to know that he is easily able, even by his own flesh, to accomplish all things. His body was the instrument by which he performed miracles. …
Jesus, then, entered Peter’s house, where a woman was lying stretched upon a bed, exhausted with a violent fever. As God, he might have said, “Put away the disease, arise,” but he adopted a different course of action. As a proof that his own flesh possessed the power of healing, because it is the flesh of God, he touched her hand. “Immediately,” it says, “the fever left her.” Let us therefore also receive Jesus. When he has entered into us and we have received him into mind and heart, then he will quench the fever of unbefitting pleasures. He will raise us up and make us strong, even in spiritual things, so that we might serve him by performing those things that please him. But observe again, I ask, how great is the usefulness of the touch of his holy flesh. For it both drives away diseases of various kinds, and a crowd of demons, and overthrows the power of the devil. It heals a very great multitude of people in one moment of time. Although he was able to perform these miracles by a word and the preference of his will, yet to teach us something useful for us, he also lays his hands upon the sick. For it was necessary, most necessary, for us to learn that the holy flesh which he had made his own was endowed with the activity of the power of the Word by his having implanted in it a godlike might. Let it then take hold of us, or rather let us take hold of it by the mystical “giving of thanks.” May we do this so that it might free us also from the sicknesses of the soul, and from the assault and violence of demons. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12. [1]
[1] CGSL 99-101**.
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