Take Up Your Bed & Go Home

On the 6th Sunday of Matthew, we hear about a paralytic whom Jesus healed. On July 20, we also commemorate the Holy Prophet Elias (Elijah).

Read:

Elijah was of priestly lineage, a man of a solitary and ascetical character, clothed in a mantle of sheep skin, girded about his loins with a leather belt, and a zealot who was compared to fire and a burning lamp. Elijah commanded the rain to stop for 3.5 years, multiplied the little flour and oil of the poor widow of Sarephtha of Sidon (and raised up her son), brought down fire from Heaven upon Mount Carmel, slew 450 false prophets and priests at Kisson, and received food from an angel. Elijah beheld God on Mount Horeb, divided the flow of the Jordan (so he and Elisha could walk across), ascended into heaven on a fiery chariot in the year 895 BC, and appeared at the Transfiguration.

Ponder:

"The incarnate Angel, the Cornerstone of the Prophets, the second Forerunner of the Coming of Christ, the glorious Elias (Elijah), who from above, sent down to Elisha the grace to dispel sickness and cleanse lepers, abounds therefore in healing for those who honor him" (Apolytikion of Prophet Elias).

Simply put, Jesus wants to heal us and sends His prophets and priests (from before the Incarnation and long after the Ascension) to affect that healing.

Pray:

Lord, I do not want to be afraid as the crowds were when you healed the paralytic. Heal me and show me Your will!

Prophet Elijah, intercede before Christ, so that I may gain the strength to help others in their infirmities too.

Icon with the Prophet Elijah, 1180–1200, made in Kastoria, Greece. Egg tempera on wood, 48 13/16 x 24 5/8 in. Image courtesy of the Byzantine Museum, Kastoria, via the Getty Museum.