If he himself and his whole house believed because he was told that his son was well, and because he compared the hour of the report with the hour of the proclamation, then when he was asking, he did not yet believe.
The Samaritans waited for no sign. They believed only His word. But His own fellow countrymen deserved to hear, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe." Yet when such a wonder was performed there, no one believed except him and his house.
After one word from Him, many Samaritans believed. After His miracle, only that one house believed in which the miracle was wrought.
What, then, brethren, does the Lord show us? Galilee of Judea was then the Lord’s native country, for He was brought up there. Yet now these events foretold something special.
For prodigies are not called prodigia without reason, but because they foretell something. A prodigy, prodigium, is as it were something spoken beforehand, porrodicium: what is said beforehand is indicated beforehand and foretells some future thing.
Since all those events foretold something, and since they all predicted something, let us for the moment consider Galilee the native country of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
For He had no native country on earth except according to the flesh which He assumed on earth. Let us then consider the Jewish people to be the Lord’s native country.
See: He has no honor in His own country. Consider the multitude of the Jews. Consider that this people is now scattered throughout the whole circle of the lands, and that it has been torn from its roots.
Consider that they are branches broken off, cut away, scattered, and dried up. After these branches were cut off, the wild olive was counted worthy to receive grafting (cf. Rom 11:17).
Look at the multitude of the Jews. What do they say now? "He whom you worship, He whom you honor, was our brother." Let us answer them: a prophet has no honor in his own country.
In short, they saw the Lord Jesus walking upon the earth and working miracles. He gave sight to the blind, opened the ears of the deaf, loosened the mouths of the mute, and gave life to the limbs of the paralytics.
He walked upon the sea, commanded the winds and waves, and raised the dead. They saw Him performing such miracles, and only a few of them believed in Him.
I speak to the people of God: how many of us believe, and what miracles have we seen? What was done then foretold what is happening now.
The Jews then were, and now remain, like the Galileans. We are like the Samaritans. We have heard the Gospel, accepted the Gospel, and through the Gospel believed in Christ. We have seen no miracles, and we ask for none.
For Thomas, although he was one of the twelve chosen and holy ones, nevertheless belonged to the Israelites, that is, to the Lord’s people. He wished to put his fingers into the Savior’s wounds.
The Lord reproved him just as He reproved that royal official. He said to that royal official, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe" (Jn 4:48). To Thomas He said, "You have believed because you have seen" (Jn 20:29).
He came to the Galileans after the Samaritans, who believed His word. Among them He worked no miracles, and soon He calmly left them strengthened in faith, for He remained with them by His divine presence.
When the Lord said to Thomas, "Come, put your hand here, and do not be unbelieving, but believing" (Jn 20:27), Thomas touched the wounds and cried out, saying, "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20:28).
Then He reproved him and said to him, "You have believed because you have seen" (Jn 20:29). Why did He say this to him, unless because a prophet has no honor in his own country (Jn 4:44)?
But since this Prophet has honor among strangers, what follows? "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (Jn 20:29).
We were foretold, and what the Lord praised beforehand He has deigned to fulfill in us. Those who crucified Him and touched Him saw Him, yet few believed. We have not seen Him or touched Him. We have heard and believed.
Let this be accomplished in us. Let the blessedness promised by Him be fulfilled in us: here, because He preferred us to His own country; and in the age to come, because we have been grafted in place of the cut-off shoots.
For He showed that He intended to cut off the shoots and graft in this wild olive when He marveled at the faith of the centurion. The centurion said to Him, "I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.
But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does."
Turning, He said to those who followed Him, "Truly I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith" (cf. Mt 8:8-10; Lk 7:6-9).
Why did He not find such faith in Israel? Because a prophet has no honor in his own country (Jn 4:44).
Could the Lord not have said to this centurion what He said to that royal official: "Go; your son lives"? See the difference. That royal official longed for the Lord to come into his house.
This centurion said that he was not worthy for the Lord to come into his house. To this man Jesus said, "I will come and heal him" (Mt 8:7). To the other He said, "Go; your son lives."
To this man He promised to be personally present. The other man’s son He healed by a word. The former pressed Him to come. The latter said he was unworthy of His presence in his house.
Here there was a concession to pride; there, a gift to humility. It was as though He said to that royal official: "Go; your son lives. Do not weary Me.
Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. You want Me to be present in your house, but I can also command by a word. You believe only through signs.
The centurion, a foreigner, believed that I can act by a word, and he believed before I acted. But you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders" (Jn 4:48).
Therefore, if this is so, let the proud branches be cut off, and let the humble wild olive be grafted in. Yet let the root remain when those are rejected and these are received.
Where is the root preserved? In the patriarchs. For the native country of Christ is the people of Israel, since from them He came according to the flesh. Yet the root of this tree is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the holy patriarchs.
And where are they? In rest with God, in great honor. Thus the poor man, received into Abraham’s bosom, received consolation after bodily death. He was seen far away in Abraham’s bosom from the proud rich man (cf. Lk 16:22-23).
Therefore let the root remain. Let it be counted worthy of praise. But the proud branches deserved to be cut off and dried up, while the humble wild olive was grafted in their place (Rom 11:17).
Hear, then, how the natural branches, rami naturales, were cut off, and how the wild olive was grafted in. Hear it in the centurion himself, whom I thought necessary to mention for comparison with that royal official.
"Truly I say to you," He declared, "not even in Israel have I found such faith. And I say to you that many will come from east and west" (Mt 8:10-11).
What vast spaces the wild olive has covered. This world was a bitter forest. Yet because of humility, because of the words, "I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof" (Mt 8:8), many will come from east and west (Mt 8:11).
Suppose that they come. What will happen to them? If they come, they will be cut off from the forest. Where must they be grafted so that they do not dry up?
"And they will recline," He says, "with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (Mt 8:11). At what feast, lest someone suppose that You have called them not to eternal life, but to abundant refreshment?
They will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Where? "In the Kingdom of Heaven," He says.
What, then, will happen to those who come from the root of Abraham? What will happen to the branches with which the tree abounded? Surely only this: they will be cut off, so that others may be grafted in.
Show that they will be cut off. "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness" (cf. Mt 8:11-12).
Therefore let the Prophet have honor among us, because He had no honor in His own country. He had no honor in His own country, in which He was born. He had no honor in the country which He Himself brought forth.
For the Creator of all was born there, born in the form of a servant (Phil 2:7). That very city in which He was born, Zion itself, the Jewish people itself, Jerusalem itself, He Himself brought forth.
He did so because with the Father He was the Word of God, for all things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing (cf. Jn 1:3).
Thus concerning that Man of whom we heard today, "there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Jesus Christ" (1 Tim 2:5), there is also the prophetic psalm, where it says, "Mother Zion, a man shall say" (cf. Ps 86:5).
A certain man, the mediator between God and men, the Man Himself, calls Zion mother. Why does He call Zion mother? Because there He received flesh. From there came the Virgin Mary.
From her womb He appeared in the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), in which He deigned to show Himself most humble.
"Mother Zion," says the man. The man who says, "Mother Zion," was born in her. "A man was born in her" (cf. Ps 86:5).
For God was before Zion, but man was born in her. That Man who was born in her Himself established her as the Most High (cf. Ps 86:5), not as the most humble.
A man was born in her as the most humble, for "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). He Himself established her as the Most High, because "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
"All things were made through Him" (cf. Jn 1:1, 3). Since He made this country, let Him have honor here. The country in which He was born rejected Him. Let the country which He has brought forth anew receive Him.
THEOSIS