{"id":5691,"date":"2026-08-09T23:04:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T21:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gomos.se\/en\/?p=5691"},"modified":"2026-10-13T23:10:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:10:03","slug":"h-e-metropolitan-cleopas-of-swedens-homily-on-the-tenth-sunday-of-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gomos.se\/en\/h-e-metropolitan-cleopas-of-swedens-homily-on-the-tenth-sunday-of-matthew\/","title":{"rendered":"H.E. Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden\u2019s Homily on the Tenth Sunday of Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

St. George Cathedral of Stockholm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday, August 9, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dearly Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s Gospel reading we see a suffering father kneeling before Christ and pleading, \u201cLord, have mercy on my son.\u201d The suffering of the child has also become the suffering of the father; therefore, he does not simply ask the Lord to heal his son, but to have mercy on them both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord rebuked the evil spirit, and the child was healed immediately. Through His word, Christ restored what evil had wounded and filled with suffering, fear, and disorder. His words, \u201cO faithless and perverse generation,\u201d are not merely a rebuke directed at the father or the disciples; they reveal the deeper spiritual illness of humanity\u2014our estrangement from God and our lack of trust in His love and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the disciples privately asked Christ why they had been unable to cast out the demon, He answered, \u201cBecause of your unbelief.\u201d He then assured them that if they possessed faith \u201cas a mustard seed,\u201d nothing would be impossible for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Lord does not speak of a superficial belief, but of a living faith through which a person entrusts his entire life to God. Just as the tiny mustard seed contains within itself remarkable strength and the capacity for growth, so even a small but genuine faith can move the \u201cmountains\u201d of fear, sin, and despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ also teaches us that \u201cthis kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.\u201d Prayer and fasting are a path toward spiritual freedom and communion with God. Through prayer, we open our hearts to divine grace, while through fasting, we restrain the passions and learn not to become enslaved by our desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the conclusion of today\u2019s passage, Christ foretells His Passion, death, and Resurrection. He thus reveals that the ultimate victory over evil is not achieved through human power, but through the Cross and the Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us, therefore, entrust to the Lord our children, our families, our illnesses, our fears, and all our difficulties, repeating with faith the prayer of the suffering father: \u201cLord, have mercy.\u201d Let us ask Christ to increase our faith so that, through prayer, fasting, and humility, we may face every trial with the certainty that, in His presence, no hope is ever lost. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. George Cathedral of Stockholm Sunday, August 9, 2026 Dearly Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, In today\u2019s Gospel reading we see a suffering father kneeling before Christ and pleading, \u201cLord, have mercy on my son.\u201d The suffering of the child has also become the suffering of the father; therefore, he does not simply ask […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t