Fr. Matthew Howell offers a homily about Christ's healing of the woman in the synagogue who had been hunched over for 18 years. He talks about the liturgical use of the word "Orthoi" which means "straight" (usually translated "Stand Aright"). He also discusses how we need to straighten out our souls, and by doing so we receive the fruit of the Holy Spirit mentioned by St. Paul in the epistle reading from Galatians 5:22. Along the way he mentions how we get bent out of shape or out of sorts in both body and soul.
Post Script: A few days after delivering this homily, Fr. Matthew found the following relevant passage and note from the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament of the Orthodox Study Bible. It was not mentioned in the homily but is worth sharing:
"You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord. Now therefore remove the foreign gods from among you and make your heart straight toward the Lord God of Israel" (Joshua 24:22-23).
The note from the Orthodox Study Bible on this verse says:
"To 'make your heart straight toward the Lord God of Israel' means to return the soul to its natural state, as it was when the Lord made it. John the Baptist meant the same thing when he said, 'Make His paths straight' (Matthew 3:3). For if we abide as we have been made, we are in a state of virtue. When God made our soul, it was beautiful and exceedingly honest, but if we turn aside from our natural state to morally depraved thoughts, we shall be living in vice. Therefore, let us willingly return to the virtue endowed by God within our nature, for we have no need to leave our homes or cross the sea for the sake of God's kingdom, to find virtue outside ourselves. All we need is a willing heart, for the moral integrity of the soul consists in its spiritual part being in its natural state as it was created. If this is the case, the Lord will recognize His work as being the same as when He made it" (Antony of Egypt).
