We all believe that the Lord, who created this world, has complete power over nature. That is as easy to imagine as an officer commanding soldiers on a parade ground: at his command they all turn right, and at another they all turn left!

But do we believe that the Lord can heal a sick person before our eyes—just like that: He speaks, and the person recovers? “Well,” we might say, “in theory we believe that too...” Do we see the enormous difference between theoretical belief in God's omnipotence and faith in a miracle that directly concerns us? No such gap existed in the military mind of the Roman centurion: his faith was not theoretical but living—and a miracle occurred. Perhaps the Lord would not find such faith not only in Israel...

Here is the answer to the question: how is it that people, so different from one another, can still be one in the Church? "By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body," says the apostle Paul. From a human point of view, it appears that no group of people can do without disputes, quarrels, and divisions. But the Lord planned everything differently, and in Him unity in love is possible. So where is this unity?

What is the Church? The Church is us, believers in Christ, baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And if there is no unity in the Church, that means there is little love in us. And if there is little love in us, that means we have not yet been fully given to drink of the Spirit. Today, on the day of Pentecost, let us ask the Lord that rivers of the living water of the Holy Spirit may flow in our hearts, so that we can manifest this unity.

Today we return again to such a fundamental concept as faith. In the Bible this word most often means not simply trust in some information, but the ability at a critical moment to "take hold" of God, to lean on Him as on a firm pillar or rock.

Today's story about the Roman officer who asked Jesus to heal his servant, and whom Christ sets as an example for His disciples, illustrates this well. He is a military man, trained in army discipline, and he is absolutely certain that his order will be carried out, just as he himself is ready to carry out the order of his commander. In his relationship with God, such confidence rests not on discipline and military order, where a soldier is punished with death for disobedience, but on something no less strong: namely, on faith.

Strictly speaking, when Scripture speaks about faith, it is speaking about faith that is stronger even than death, so that the sick are healed and the dead are raised.