In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.

Our hearts go out to this desperate father and his suffering son who is in agonies, and his father is suffering in fear and terror and has not been able to find any way for healing for his son. And we cry out with this father in his desperation: "Have compassion. If there's anything you can do at all, help this suffering child?"

And the Lord's response is not entirely encouraging: "If you believe, all things are possible for those who believe." Isn't he there coming because he believes in Jesus? Why else is he there? Why else ask the master, the one who has worked so many miracles, if you don't believe in the one who works the miracles?

For the terrible reality is, brothers and sisters, and we know this ourselves, that we can want to be well, we can want to be healthy and whole, but at the same time be unwilling to accept the necessity to change, to allow those things in our life to be changed so that we can be made well, that we can be made what we need to be.

"Lord, heal me. Lord, free me from slavery. Lord, make me well." But not if that requires me to give up this part of my life that's so familiar, the part that I don't know who I am without that darkness in my life, that unhealth, that disease, that sin.

And brothers and sisters, all the darkness, all the sin, all the despair of this world comes down to this: despite what we might say on the surface of things, choosing our own will and not following the will of God.

This week I was blessed to be part of a little retreat for clergy with Mother Melania at the Holy Assumption Monastery, and I'm going to share some insights with you because they help us with understanding this whole trouble that we are in.

In the beginning, in the garden, Adam and Eve saw the fruit and desired it because to them the fruit looked good to the taste. And so they gave into gluttony. And it seemed pleasing to the eye. And so they gave in to avarice. And it seemed it would make them wise. And so they gave in to pride.

These are the words from Genesis, the account of the fall. And so we can discern these three great sins from those preliminary instincts, those beginning movements of Adam and Eve that drew them close to that fruit and allowed them to pluck it and eat it for themselves, against the will of God and against their own life.

And from these three great sins—gluttony, avarice, and pride—come all the rest, all that separates us from God, that causes us to forget him and to forget our neighbor, our brother, our sister.

And we, the children of Adam and Eve, find ourselves far from heaven. And we are told that somehow we are meant from this earthly state, surrounded and entangled in sin, we are meant to draw near to God. We are meant somehow to ascend from earth to heaven. How can we possibly do it?

And we begin with the word that the Lord gives to his disciples that we heard at the end of the Gospel as they were troubled that they were not able to cast out this evil spirit that was so terribly afflicting this son of this suffering father. And the Lord says to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Great Lent each year, we are given the remembrance of St. John Climacus who taught about the Ladder of Divine Ascent. This ladder that is a blessed gift to us to lead us from earth to heaven, planted firmly in the ground right where we are in our low estate, our humble and simple condition—it's right there at our feet so we can take step by step by step along this ladder that leads from earth to heaven. In each of the steps of this ladder, turning from these sins that separate us from the love of God and replacing each one with the practice of loving God, of loving our neighbor, and so that we actually learn how to draw near to him and be made new.

The fast that is given to us as we are now drawing to its close—it is given to us not as a gloomy misery, not as a punishment, not as a campaign of self-improvement, but rather it is a loving gift from our God to his church. It is medicine given for our terrible illnesses.

Fasting, almsgiving, prayer. Each of them given to treat the great illnesses of our soul: gluttony and avarice and pride.

Fasting teaches us not to worry so much about our belly, our appetites, to allow ourselves to go hungry so we can leave room for the food that comes only from God. We eat simply, less often, and simply less so that we allow for what is truly worthy for our life to take its place.

Alms is the practice of detaching ourselves from our stuff, from our desires, from these imagined good things of this earth that are so pleasing to the eye—to give things away, practice holding things lightly and sharing them freely so that we learn to genuinely love our neighbor, to learn their names, to learn to care for them, and care much less for the things of this earth that will pass away, our stuff, our wants, and so on.

And prayer is the practice of seeking God and learning to listen to him above all, knowing that we have been deafened by our pride, blinded by our self-will, and we hardly know how to be.

And so we cry out with the father here in this story from the Gospel today: "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Help me to begin to allow myself to be changed. Help me to loosen my grip on my own sins and passions and their grip on me so that I may be free to follow you, to learn to love you above all and to learn to love others as you have shown love to us."

This is the beginning of genuine prayer. And in all of this, we practice gratitude, thanksgiving, gladness for what it is that we have received, shifting from complaints and resentments and envy to wonder, to awe and gladness at what we see around us—the blessings that our heavenly Father showers on us every day of our life in things great, the miracles and wonders and signs that are granted to us, and in the small, the sun and the rain, the gifts of creation, our very breath, all of it given to us freely by God.

And in all this, we learn to focus less on ourselves. And we begin to learn real joy, real peace, the awareness of God's presence in our lives. And these beginning steps lead us one step followed by another followed by another. Gratitude, humility, and love lead us up toward heaven and into the kingdom of God.

Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.