35th Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 18:35-43 and 1 Timothy 1:15-17
Two fundamental prayers of our Greek tradition find their roots in these two scripture passages today: the Prayer before Holy Communion and the Jesus Prayer. I am sure many of you recognized both these prayers in the readings today.
The context of St Paul’s letter to Timothy is that Paul knows he is not worthy of Christ’s mercy because he persecuted the Christians without mercy, even putting to death St. Stephen, before Christ appeared to him and saved him on the road to Damascus. We repeat St Paul’s words and recognize our unworthiness before Our Eucharistic Lord every time we say those same familiar words: “I believe Oh Lord and confess, that you are truly Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.”
But this “Prayer before Communion” is itself rooted in the “Jesus Prayer”, which is one of our oldest Christian prayers and is taken from both the publican’s and the blind man’s prayers in the Gospels, altered just slightly, we pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
To better understand these prayers, let’s take a closer look at what the Fathers have to say about the blind man who cries out to the Lord on the way to Jericho and for his faith, receives his sight. St. Cyril points out that the blind man called out to Christ with confidence and without shame, even thought the crowd told him to be quiet, “It is a good thing to lay aside shame in behalf of divine worship.” The Jesus prayer is a prayer of worship, as well as petition because we, with the blind man, acknowledge the divinity of Christ, the Son of God, and praise and glorify Him.
Cyril also says he was released from a double blindness, both physical and intellectual because, “he would not have glorified Him as God, had he not truly seen Him as He is.” So when we pray the Jesus Prayer we should offer our praise and worship as well as ask the Son to illuminate our intellect with the knowledge of truth so that we may better serve Him, because as St Gregory says, “He who sees [the Way the Truth and the Life] also follows [Him], because we practice what we understand,” meaning our actions will conform to the truth if we clearly see and understand it.
The trouble is that we do not always see clearly because
we suffer the effects of the original wound: our minds are darkened, our wills are weakened, and our passions run wild. This is why we need to pray the Jesus prayer, “without ceasing.” The demons sow thoughts and arouse images in our imagination and even disturb us in our prayers, much like the crowd that tries to silence the blind man. But the blind man cried out, all the louder: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” because, as St Gregory says, “the more violently we are assailed by restless thoughts, the more fervently we ought to give ourselves to prayer… By being steadfast in prayer, God becomes fixed in our hearts and our lost sight is restored.”
And St John Chrysostom says this about the Jesus Prayer: “We must continually cry ‘Lord Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me,’ so that the name of the Lord Jesus descending into the depths of the heart will subdue the serpent ruling over the inner pastures and bring life and salvation to the soul… Always guard your heart by remembering our Lord Jesus Christ until the name of the Lord becomes rooted in the heart and it ceases to think anything else.” And the Greek, St. Hesychios, says it is impossible to purify our heart from passionate thoughts and to drive out mental enemies without constant calling on the name of Jesus.”
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner! Amen.