Saturday, July 23 (10), 2022

Rom.9:1-5; Mt. 9:18-26

“If I may but touch His garment” ─ said the woman with the issue of blood, ─  “I shall be healed” [Mt. 9:21] ─ and she received what she asked for according to her faith.

As we live in the material world, we need physical contact to receive immaterial power.  The Lord has ordained everything this way.  His holy Church has a visible, material setup.  We are surrounded by the elements of the Church and get in contact with them continually.  In that contact the power of God, His grace which dwells in the Church, is given to those who have means to receive it, ─ that is, to those who have faith, saying: “If I may but touch Him, ─ I shall be healed”.

The Church is both the Body and the garment of the Lord.  Her most significant parts which we touch are the holy Sacraments ─ Baptism, Chrismation, and Eucharist together with Repentance.  But any other element of the holy Church in contact with our faith can give us the much-needed power of the Lord Who is everywhere, Who sees everyone and tells us inside our hearts: “Be of good comfort, My child!” [Mt. 9:22].

Thus, the liberals, the haters of the Church external rites, deny themselves an opportunity of getting in contact with the inner, divine, life-giving power.  That’s why they remain sick and, exhausted by the vain flow of their mental energy, dry up in spirit and lose vitality.