In principium indictionis

On the Beginning of the Indiction of the New Year, and on Martyrs, and on the Woman with the Issue of Blood. 1. An unceasing sign from the Lord Christ is the abundance of good things, and one wealth succeeds another. Behold, today also the victorious martyrs feast us, having set forth their own contests as a common banquet of joy. For it was necessary, it was necessary that the martyrs, who are ever young in grace, should also be an occasion of welcome for the pious at the entrance of the year; it was necessary that such exultation should meet the faithful in the new year; it was necessary that we should greet the preludes of the change of time with such a blessing; it was necessary that the festival of the present day should be received honored by the choir of the saints; it was necessary that the cycle of the year should be adorned with the crown of the martyrs; it was necessary to use such a feast for the year that has come, bringing also the honor of the martyrs. For they are the cause of all joy to the race, the noble soldiers of Christ, who even after death are heralds of his power, who trampled the deceitful serpent under the feet of endurance, and strangled the tyrant-minded lion with the hands of love of God, and made the truth manifest; who hated the present life as vain, and longed for the kingdom of the heavens as sons for a mother; who through death opened the gates of immortality, and put to death the begetter of death by their own death; who in the body conquered the bodiless demons, not by strength of body, but by faith of soul; for through faith they overcame all things of the world, than which nothing is more choice for Christians.

Having acquired faith as a coworker, they confirmed the words by deeds. For the achievement of righteousness is truly great; and the virtue of temperance is splendid; the care for love of the poor is likewise useful; the practice of continence is good along with these; and the power of the advantage of faith brings victory over all things. This once cultivated the barren womb of Sarah for Abraham after the great expenditure of time into a fruitful field; by this, Moses made the sea, which is sailed, to be walked upon; through this, Elijah commanded the sky, and was heard; this drove away countless kinds of passions in the case of the Savior; a leper, through faith, was freed from the scales of his affliction; a blind man, through that faith, received eyes which nature had not bestowed; the Canaanite woman, having this as an ally, and being pressed concerning her offspring, snatched her daughter from the demon that possessed her. A hidden faith also dried up flows of blood, and in other cases the gift followed a preceding request, but here, in silence, from one who was silent, as she thought, she stole the grace. O woman, wretched and blessed at once! Wretched because of the former, blessed because of the latter. For behold, it says, a woman with an issue of blood for twelve years. If the number of days had been as great as the time of years that was consumed, it would have subdued her, but not twelve years.

Into a natural condition, I think, the affliction had passed; which, having consumed her entire life on physicians, added to the wasting of the body also the diminution of her wealth. And by no one was she able to be cured. Oh, that "was not able": the woman had as antagonist the enemy of the affliction. So her belly gushed forth; a stream of blood, never failing, poured down. Nor did the length of so much time exhaust the flow of the foul-smelling channel. She was still tormented in mind by pains and anxieties, how she might break the bond of the grievous illness, how she might shake off the twelve-year affliction, how she might loose the unyielding pangs, how she might stop the unbridled streams, how she might end the madness of her veins. Wandering by night and dragged about, she wore herself out at the doors of all physicians; for she shunned the light, lest the falling drops of blood, having made a path, should expose the hidden shame of the woman walking. As payment to those willing to treat her, she exhausted all the property she had, necessity compelling the gift; for the desire for health persuades one not to spare money. And thus all physicians, warring against the disease, grew weary; various contrivances of drugs were unable to tame the savagery of the affliction. For just as some deaf beast remained heedless of the art of the charmers, so it seemed to speak back to those who forced it in vain: "Why do you fight a mightier beast? So long a time has not plundered me of my habitation in the body; I yield not to the sciences of the healers; no one will buy my power with money; no one will check my course upon the earth. One physician alone, born of a virgin, will banish me.

I guard myself for his glory as well; I am preserved as a witness of his power along with the others. Why then do you display useless labors, slaves forcing themselves to snatch victory from their master? I will not spare the creature unless I behold the creator. Oh, how many things fought against the woman! Length of time, unyielding pains, useless expenditures, grief of a wasting body, reason consumed by empty hopes. But so many enemies did not plunder the weapon of her endangered faith; so many triple waves of terrors did not cause shipwreck for the woman; so many assaults of trials did not overthrow the enduring woman. She saw, it is said, Jesus. The perishing woman saw the savior, the bound woman saw the deliverer, the storm-tossed woman saw the anchor of the world, she saw the king of passions coming from above, she saw an unexpected hope of joy, she saw an invincible power of healings, she saw a fountain of remedies distributing streams without fee, she saw life dwelling among the dead. She saw, and she turned back such a thought of cheerfulness. "I have found," she said, "a suitable healer; this physician will not demand a fee of gold; one fee, I think, he will demand, a genuine disposition; he will seek from me one gift of faith. But I have it; for of this alone the disease has not deprived me. But I am drawn back by lack of reasoning. What then? Shall I run and seize him? I shrink from the danger from the crowd. Shall I cry out my condition? They will drive me away as unclean. Shall I hide my misfortune? But I cannot bear the pain. Shall I run to him as a physician of nature? But I fear him as a king. Will he receive me as a suppliant? Or will he flee from me as one who defiles?

Will he have pity on the suffering? Let him not condemn what has been revealed. 2. What then shall I do? What reasoning shall I adopt? Shall I appear shameless? I am ashamed, lest I remain uncured again. Shall I not fear the crowd, despise the terror, become a spectacle, flee the external laughter? I will heal the internal war. The law hates her as if she were filthy, the lawgiver pities her as if she were sick. Eagerness and hesitation divided the woman's soul; but she found faith as a mediator for the undertaking. For having approached, it says, behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, "If only I touch the fringe of his garment, I will be saved." O theft that has acquired faith as a mother! O theft, which he himself praised, who punishes thefts! O theft that delights the one who was robbed! O spoils crowned by the judge! And see the wondrous thing. Having stolen the gain, she is admired as if she had given a gift. For she said to herself: "God," she says, "is a master who knows nothing; a master, not needing bodily eyes, is a physician healing souls, is an eye penetrating thoughts; he sees me even when hidden, he hears me even when

When I speak, he touches; even if I have withdrawn, he knows that I could not bear the sight as unworthy. What then? Shall I make a secret approach, honoring him in my intention and not insulting him by my appearance, and coming from behind, touch the hem of his garment? This alone, if I achieve it, is enough for my healing; for surely that garment too is filled with the energy of the one who wears it. The covering of life cannot but send forth rays of salvation. Moses was great among the prophets and a chastener of a difficult people, but still a man; this one is master of that one, and a friend of man. If, then, the rod of the servant divided the Red Sea, making a wall in the waters, how shall not the hem of the Master petrify the streams of blood? Elijah was a zealot and a fervent servant of God, but he too was one of nature, and yet he had a sheepskin that worked wonders. Again, Elisha, having inherited the grace of his teacher with increase, curbed the streams of the Jordan with his sheepskin. If, then, such grace is present among the prophets, how great will be the power of the one prophesied by them? Why do I not say it briefly? Peter’s shadow heals; and shall the garment of Christ not heal? I perceive how much even the mere deliberation has curbed the running disease. O faith, which allowed no delay to the affliction! For she believed only, and the warring enemy fled; she believed, and the contentious beast did not resist; she believed, and the perennial fountain of blood was dried up, as if blinded by some invisible cautery. But she touched the garment and approached from without.

He, however, recognized the thoughts within. She, unseen by the body, had exhausted her service; but the Savior publicized her soul’s beauty. For he did not allow such piety’s untriumphant loveliness; he did not permit a spark of righteousness to be consigned to the night of oblivion. The narrative of the Gospels bestowed upon life the faith of one woman, who had well plundered God by her unwavering judgment. Who is this honored through theft as if through faith? The woman’s faith anticipated the thief; before his tongue, her hand is praised; before he plundered paradise with his voice, she had plundered the giver of the kingdom by her silence. For when Jesus, it says, perceived the power that had gone forth from him, he asked the disciples, “Who touched me? How did you not recognize the theft? How were you ignorant of the robbery? Who touched me? Who from my treasures enriched health from disease? Who touched me?” What are you saying, O Master? You gave, and you do not know the receiver? You saw the faith, and you did not recognize the believer? You perceived the hidden intention, and you did not observe the visible appearance? “Who touched me?” Who touched you? To whom did you apply the remedy of your energy? To whom did you dispatch the healing, O Master? You drove out the affliction, and you were ignorant of the one saved? “Who touched me?” Who touched me in thought before hands? What reasoning of mine grasped the divinity? Who is this just robber of my energy? Who rekindled the lamp of his extinguished salvation from my torch? “Who touched me?” Either I learn from you, or I teach. I wished to run to the conclusion of the subject.

The time, however, reserves another day of teaching for the wonder. For if she, warred against by the passion for twelve years, did not loosen the tension of endurance, shall we not remain for one single day in the long struggles of the woman? Whose faith the company of martyrs also emulated, not touching the Lord’s hem, but even stripping off the body itself for Christ. And so, beloved, let us rouse our own minds to zeal for the same faith; let us not become worse than one foreign woman, if we have enjoyed more of the sight of piety than she. She sufficed only to touch the garment once; but we, as you know, holding the Savior’s body each day, even as we are nourished by the Lord’s members, let us offer thanksgiving; for glory is due to him unto the ages of ages. Amen.