The Healing of the Ten Lepers (Luke 17:12-19)

    In today’s Gospel reading we hear of the healing of ten lepers. It is easy to pass by this account without noticing some very important lessons that explain our spiritual condition and how we are able to be healed of our spiritual infirmities.

    

    We can think back to the garden of Eden and recall how our first parents, surrounded by unlimited delight and enjoying perfect health failed to be grateful for these gifts by pondering on the venomous words of the Devil and eventually believing them, that God was withholding something from them that would truly make them happy. Only once cast out of Eden did our first mother begin to thank God for all that He provided for her, when after giving birth to her first son Cain, she said, “I have acquired a man through God.” Sadly, we usually are not able to cherish anything until it is gone. When things go well, we take them for granted. And so, we might sometimes wonder why it is that God at times instructs us to pray constantly, and at other times makes it clear that before we pray, He already knows what we need. In today’s gospel reading we see our Lord asking, “were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger?” This question from our Lord is similar to His question in the Garden to Adam once he had transgressed, when He asked, “Adam, where art thou?” Our Lord does not ask these questions to find anything out for He knows all things. In both cases, He was lowering Himself to help us come to the right understanding of our sinfulness and the need to ask for forgiveness and once it is given to be thankful for it. So, from this it is abundantly clear that God does not need our prayers, but rather we need them as they help us to remember our sinfulness and they help us to never become ungrateful for all of God’s great gifts and acts of mercy.

    We also notice that our Lord told the lepers to go show themselves to the priests. Jesus was making clear that He was not against the Mosaic Law. We do not believe that God instituted these things for no reason, but rather believe they foreshadowed the Christian priesthood that He would establish. Sadly, many reject the Christian priesthood, making it appear as if our Lord made a mistake by having a priesthood in the Old Testament. As Orthodox Christians however, we continue the tradition of going to the priests to be declared healed of the “leprosy” of sins in the Mystery of Confession. And just as how the Jews were instructed to not even go near a man with leprosy, we see that we are not to keep company with sinful people.

    Lastly, we should notice how our Lord gave the credit of the leper’s healing to the leper saying, “thy faith hath made thee whole,” showing us how we should give credit as much as possible to others and not take credit for ourselves. Our Lord had all the right to show that it was He Himself that was responsible for the healing of the lepers, but since He cares nothing for pride, but only wills to share His dignity with us ungrateful humans, declares that it was the leper’s faith that healed him. The infinitely smaller portion that we contribute is viewed by God as so important that He is willing to give it all of the credit. We need to imitate our Lord and not speak of how much we do, but how much we are indebted to God and our fellow man for everything good in our lives.

    May we learn from the Samaritan leper from what great illness we have been delivered and continuously give thanks to our Lord until the day we finally enter into the heavenly mansions that we will never take for granted again. Amen.

Lazarus and the Rich Man – Luke 16:19-31

Our Lord has taught us the purest form of Holiness with regard to the use of our riches in His instructions earlier given where He said, “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.” Later he also told the rich young ruler how to be perfect saying, “sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.”

But our Lord is merciful and desires our salvation more than we do ourselves and has provided a lesser way in which we can still learn and be granted access to Heaven. He teaches us saying, “And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Those that cannot fully abandon money altogether are told to distribute it to those in need and when it fails us as we leave this life, we will be received into the everlasting habitations of Heaven for having taken care of the poor.

In today’s gospel reading we hear of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. We are shown the drastic difference between one who was so wealthy and took no notice of the need to care for the poor and someone so poor and sickly that he could not take care of himself, much less offer anything to the poor. In one way we could say that God unequally lends possessions to men. This is done to teach man that we depend on each other and to make wise use of what God has lent us, working towards both our own salvation and that of our brethren.

But in another way, we would say that God has equally bestowed possessions among mankind because with each person’s amount of possessions, different temptations are made. Those with less possession struggle with temptations like despair and sadness, while those with many possessions struggle with almsgiving, gluttony, pride, and a plethora of sins.

What is seen by the physical eye is many times not what is true of the spiritual reality. In the parable we see a rich man in costly apparel that actually physically represents the spiritual reality of Lazarus because he was spiritually rich because he had learned the truth of the vanity of transient riches and become humble enough to desire only crumbs that had fallen to the floor, not seeing himself as deserving of great honor as many of us do.

On the other hand, we see Lazarus, poor and sick and starving to death. He physically represents the spiritual condition of the rich man. He was lacking the basic decency of not feeling sorry for Lazarus and providing him even the minimal help of giving him his leftovers from his daily feasts. The passage does not even add other sins to this because it is clear that if he was lacking in this area, many other sins abounded in him.

What can we learn from this story other than the basic teaching to not neglect the poor? If we look closely to the description of the rich man, we can glean a few other lessons. First, we see that the rich man was clothed in purple and fine linen. This is no mere trivial description. St. Gregory the Great teaches that this description proves the sinfulness of acquiring costly clothing saying, “No one looks for remarkable clothes except out of vainglory, to appear more worthy of respect than others. That no one puts on expensive clothing where he cannot be seen by others testifies that costly clothing is only sought out of vainglory.” He then makes note that the Holy Saint, John the Baptist is described wearing cheap clothing to prove that wearing cheap clothes is virtuous.

Next, we see that the rich man fared sumptuously every day. We are tempted to find pleasure in entertainment every day. But we must remember that we are not to have hearts that are only aroused to merriment by musicians and dancers, but that our hearts must be filled with joy and merriment by God as the Psalmist says, “My heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God” (Psalm 84:2)

As we see the judgment of the Rich man and Lazarus, we see the reversal of the joy and suffering experienced by the two men. The rich man is now like Lazarus that only wanted crumbs, asking for a drop of water. We are warned about the torment that awaits those in Hell.

Many are deceived into thinking that Jesus has lightened the strictness that God required of His people as laid out in the Old Testament. But as seen in this parable and in many of our Lord’s teachings, much more is required of Christians than was required of the Jews. Then he only commanded to not steal, now by not giving of what is legally yours, you will be condemned.

We might wonder why the rich man seems to be concerned with his 5 brothers, when he seems to be an evil man. It’s possible that he is making the excuse that he was not warned enough about the need to give alms and is using his concern for his brothers as a way to justify himself. It is also possible that part of the torments he was experiencing were due to his influence on his younger brothers. If he was able to warn them, his torments could be reduced. It could also just be that although he still had love for his own family members, he was not found worthy of entrance into Heavenly life, much like the commandment to love our enemies. We are told that even sinners love those that love them.

Allegorically, we can look at this rich man as those who have been given so much abundance in the knowledge of God through the Church but instead of being a source of Love, it became a source of pride. The poor beggar, Lazarus, symbolizes those around us that we fail to even give even the crumbs of the faith that we have squandered.

In these trying times in which man is in desperate need of God’s Love, may we find ways to share with those starving and covered in sores the banquet we have been blessed to have access to in the Sacraments of the Church. We cannot keep these things to ourselves just as we cannot hoard our physical possessions. We will all have to account for how we shared what God has graciously given each of us. May we be found worthy of joining the ranks of our Father Abraham who although was materially wealthy, is not described as rich, because his virtue was greater than his wealth, being known for his hospitality to strangers in which he cared for angels that represented the Holy Trinity, to whom be the glory, honor, and worship, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Matthew 22:35-46: The Greatest Commandment and the Two Natures of Christ

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear of a lawyer testing our Lord to see if He would contradict or add to the law of Moses. He asks what is the greatest commandment. We are blessed to hear how all of the commandments are really summed up into two commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor, and that even these two are really combined into one commandment because one cannot truly be done without the other. We are reminded of our Lord asking Peter if he loved Him, and then asking him to feed His sheep, and of the inspection at our Lord’s second coming where He will either commend or condemn us for seeing Him hungry and feeding him or not in the people we encounter.

The very man that came originally to catch our Lord in blasphemy was so amazed at the Wisdom of God that he responded to Jesus with a clear understanding of the importance of loving God and neighbor more than fulfilling the burnt offerings and sacrifices required by the Law, because these practices could easily be done out of obligation and not out of Love. In the parallel account in Mark, Jesus tells the man that he is not far from the Kingdom of God, showing that although he did not perfectly understand who Christ was, he was beginning to open himself up to accepting our Lord in the flesh.

Our Lord was very patient in revealing His Divinity because He knew that it would be very difficult to accept it if He appeared to be setting Himself up in some form of opposition to God the Father. He allowed the crowds to think less of Him and to continue speaking of God as being One, although in reality God is really three, because in a few very important ways, God is One. He is one in essence, and more importantly He is One in opposition to thinking there are really other gods in the idols created by men and the demons.

He then led them to further understanding of His Divinity by asking what they thought of Christ; who’s son is He? They reveal their misunderstanding of the prophecy by saying that He is merely the son of David. He shows them how it is said that David calls the Christ Lord, although He is also his son. He is showing how both are realities, He is the son of David, but is also Lord, being of the same essence of God the Father and therefore equal in honor to Him. The Church’s teaching of the two natures of Christ are clearly shown in this prophecy and in our Lord’s use of this prophecy in His teaching.

After our Lord clearly explained how the Law taught the Divinity of Christ, all understood and could no longer use blasphemy against Him until He was arrested and condemned. At that point they were coming up with false charges to put Him to death because He brought Light to their darkness.

Sadly, there are many good-hearted Jehovah’s witnesses that have been so far removed from the Church that they have gone back to the understanding that Christ is merely the son of David and not Lord in the sense of being of one essence and equal in honor with God the Father. There are great dangers in reading the Holy Scriptures with an independent attitude and not with the guidance of the Church’s interpretation. God knew there would be this possibility and has allowed it to show us the harm of developing an independent spirit and not having the virtue of obedience to His bride and protector of the Faith, His Church. 

May we humble ourselves and beg God to show us through the Holy Saints how to understand His Holy Word that gives us Life. Amen.

Matthew 22:1-14 The Invitation to the Marriage Feast of the King's Son

Today’s Gospel reading is a very sobering reminder of the need to respond to our Lord’s invitation by putting on the wedding garment of the virtues and not ignoring or even hating our Lord’s call to holiness.

Many unrighteous people hear about this call to holiness and find fault with our Creator asking, “why did He create people who He knew were going to be damned?”

To answer the question, we must recognize that without the possibility of doing evil, man would not be rational. Reason without free choice or self-governance would be pointless. Man could be neither good or evil.

So, in demanding that God should not have made those that will be punished, one also is saying that He should not have made those that will be saved or any rational and free beings at all. And since the creation was made for the sake of mankind, they are saying that God should not have created anything at all.

What was God to do then? Should He have not made men that would be good on account of those who would turn out evil? St. Gregory Palamas answers, “That would be the greatest injustice imaginable. For even if there were only going to be one good person, it would not have been just to stop creating, since one man who does God’s will is superior to innumerable sinners.”

And it is not as if God does not invite all to become holy and provide the loving means to do so for each person.

In the parable we hear about a marriage for the King’s Son. This is the union of the Son of God with man’s nature, and hence with the Church. And the Greek uses the plural for nuptials or festivities because whenever Christ, the bridegroom of pure souls, is mystically united with each soul, He gives the Father occasion to rejoice over this as at a wedding.

We see in the parable the rejection of the invitation by the Jews and the calling in of the Gentiles. But both good and bad are brought in, and then an inspection is done by the King.

Then we hear the haunting words of God, “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The evil man is called friend on behalf of his faith, but is condemned on behalf of his sinfulness and lack of virtue and good deeds. The garment we have at inspection will be how we used our time in this life acquiring the virtues of self-control, purity and chastity, compassion, humility, and modesty and meekness.

The very hands and feet of the wicked that are now shackled by their sins, will be bound for all eternity and cast into outer darkness, going even further away from God.

May we use our feet and hands to do good works and run to the service of God and our fellow man so that at the last judgment we will have put on a beautiful wedding garment and can enjoy the marriage feast of the righteous with our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and honor, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Christ walking on the water and about temptations (Matthew 14:22-34)

As Christianity has become more watered down over the ages due to the lack of persecution that has lulled Christians into a sort of sleep, we have begun to view things as the world does and not as Christ has shown us. One of the clearest examples is our view of trials or temptations in the form of suffering.

Many Christians today wonder why, when they have been faithful to God and have striven to obey God’s commandments, it is that they seem to suffer more than those that have denied God and make no effort to obey His commandments.

While it is natural to expect God’s favor after striving to follow His commandments, we seem to have lost the foundational view of this current life in this fallen world. We have become confused and have fallen for the delusion that the enemy constantly presents to us to lose sight of the realities that Christ has shown us, namely exchanging eternal life in Heaven for temporal pleasure on this fallen world.

Our Lord did not teach a health and wealth Gospel. The health and wealth that Christians receive is invisible to the fleshly eye and only seen by those who also love God and holy things. To the fleshly eye, we look pitiable and weak, but to the eye that sees clearly, Christians are seen to be strong and rich, having an inheritance in the Heavens.

Just as an athlete is only able to obtain the highest achievements through rigorous training, so likewise is a Christian able to reach perfection only through the training of temptations. For those whose faith has already reached a level of perfection, temptations help to demonstrate their perfection. And for those that are still imperfect, temptations provide a method for their becoming perfect.

Today’s Gospel reading is an example of the latter. We read about the Apostles being tempted by the wind and sea while aboard a ship.

Wanting to train His Apostles in patience and being able to bear hardship, our Lord allowed them to be tempted on the dangerous sea for a long time and even allowed them to think He was a ghost before giving the calming words of salvation, His declaration of His divinity, calling Himself, “I am”, the title of God, the creator and controller of all things, including the boisterous sea.

St. John Chrysostom explains why it was that Jesus allowed them to be tempted so hard saying, “He lets them be tempest-tossed all the night, thoroughly to awaken, as I suppose, their hardened heart. And together with the compunction, He cast them also into a greater longing for Himself, and a continual remembrance of Him. Accordingly, neither did He present Himself to them at once. For, “in the fourth watch,” so it is said, “of the night, He went unto them, walking upon the sea;” instructing them not hastily to seek for deliverance from their pressing dangers, but to bear all occurrences manfully.”

Our Lord taught his Apostles in stages. Earlier He had calmed the seas while aboard a ship with them. Now that they had learned more and developed a stronger faith, He does not stop the storm, but demonstrates His power over the temptation by walking on it and showing that He can also give the ability to walk on the water to those with faith.

This account can be symbolically interpreted to represent our situation. Jesus had just healed, taught, and fed the crowds in a miraculous way and went up the mountain and sent his disciples to cross over the stormy sea. Likewise, our Lord has brought healing, wisdom, and spiritual sustenance through His Incarnation and has Ascension into the Heavens as our Mediator, and has sent us to cross over this stormy life by which we are tempted to produce and show our faith.

Just as the Lord did not calm the sea, but gave Peter the ability to walk on it, in our life here in this fallen world, trials are not taken away from us, but we are given the ability to overcome them by our Lord if we only have faith in Him. Only when Christ returns in His second coming will He fully put an end to the terrible waves stirred up against His Church and trample them under foot.

There are also different types of temptations that we can speak of. Concerning these types of temptations that are being taught today, there are those of pleasure or pain, health or sickness, honor or dishonor, riches or poverty. And those considered more favorable to the world are actually the more harmful and dangerous.

But there are also different types of temptations in another sense. There are temptations that come from outside and those that come from within. These that we have spoken about and that God uses come from outside. The temptations that come from within come from sin and bring spiritual death, departure from God. These temptations do not come from God and we must flee these temptations. That is why we ask God to lead us not into temptation.

We have confused these types of temptations and ask God to shield us from the temptations that actually bring us eternal life and perfection and these other deadly temptations we overlook. If we cleanse ourselves from all iniquity by repenting, we will only need more moderate temptations here and will in the future return to the life free from sorrows and trials.

May we imitate our Lord who lowered Himself and was tempted in all ways like us except for by sin so that we too can share in His Ascension to the Heavens with those who have patiently awaited their reward for their endurance in temptation, to Whom be the glory and honor and worship, together with the Father and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Matthew 8:28-9:1 The freeing of the demoniacs

    In today’s gospel reading we learn a few things about the demons and the final judgment, but we also can learn some spiritual lessons that apply to each one of us.

    First, we see that demons have the ability to possess men, making their victims worse than dead men. For at least the dead have their souls in the hands of God, while those possessed by demons have their souls and bodies enslaved by the demons. The healing of these possessed men is actually much greater than the miracles of Christ raising the dead.

    We also learn that the demons are very strong and dangerous and desire the physical and spiritual death of all mankind. We learn from the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke that these demons caused the possessed men to cut themselves with rocks and caused them to strip themselves of clothing and dwell in the cemetery. They were able to beak the chains that were put on them by those that tried to restrain them and they forced those that lived nearby to avoid them out of fear for their lives.

    They chose to live in the cemetery to trick the people into believing that the souls of the dead became demons, causing great confusion and leading people into sorcery.

    By their action of destroying the multitude of swine, we see that they would quickly destroy all of mankind if they were given the ability to do so by God. We also see that even when they were cast out of these men, they desired to bring further misfortune to men by destroying the costly multitude of swine, with the desire that the pig herders curse God for this great financial loss.

    Next, we learn about the great judgment and the torments of Hell. The demons immediately felt the torment that awaits them when our Lord confronted them, like the bright sun to weak eyes. They knew that they had a little while to continue in their filth and were grieved when it seemed that maybe the time had come for them to be cast into hell and to be deprived of tormenting man any longer. They, like many men confronted with death, out of torment and despair, tried to appeal to our Lord’s mercy by calling on Him as the Son of God.

    We should learn from the demons who are aware of the torment to come, that this torment also awaits sinful men in no less measure. Unlike the demons, we have the choice to turn from our wicked ways and to be spared the torment prepared for the demons.

    Lastly, we can speak about the spiritual lessons that apply to each of us. By God allowing the demons to enter into the swine, we learn that the demons desire to enter into those that are swine-like in their uncleanness and glutenous behavior. Our Lord wants to teach us how quickly we go to destruction, like the herd of swine, when we do not practice patience and fasting and do not strive to lead a pure life.

    These demoniacs spiritually represent men addicted to all kinds of vices. Like the demoniacs that went about naked, these men, although clothed in garments, are deprived of the true covering, the glory of the image of God. And as they cut themselves with stones, these sinful men cut themselves with their sins. And as they haunted the tombs, these men cannot break free from frequenting places of sin which are more full of death than any cemetery.

    And as they were able to break free from all types of restraints, these sinful men also do not listen to threats or counsel that would restrain their wickedness and free them from their sin.

    And we also are very much like the city that saw the great works of our Lord and asked that He depart from us. We are given so many miracles and promises of spiritual healing in the Church and yet we still would rather enjoy the pleasures of this fallen world than take the narrow path to salvation that requires of us a stricter way of life. We would prefer the multitude of swine over being in our right mind.

    It is not possible for us to be cured of these sicknesses on our own. So let us beg our Lord to give us the strength to turn from our passions and to follow after Christ, and like the freed demoniac, share with all the great things that our Lord has done for us, to Whom be the glory together with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and ever and unto the ages of ages, Amen.

Sunday of All Saints (Matthew 10:32,33, 37, 39; 19:27-30)

    This life is a test. God, in His wisdom has willed that we be born into this world that has the plagues of sin and death. Just as we learned the reason why the blind man that was healed by our Lord was born that way; we too are born spiritually blind so that the works of God can be made manifest in us. Only by not having that which we easily threw away, will we be able to appreciate and never again forsake. Being born in death and darkness, our Lord has shown us the Light and has breathed Life into us through the Church and Her Saints. But unfortunately, we prefer the darkness and prefer death with her pleasures than Life with her commandments.

     Thanks be to God, God is patient with us and slowly we continue to be enlightened and to let go of the deception that Satan has instilled in us. Our life is a steady progress toward humility and full dependence on God and letting go of our ego and self-reliance. And we see in today’s Gospel reading the goal toward which we are aiming. At the final judgment we will either be confessed by our Lord Jesus to the Father, or we will be denied by Him. Will we have our spiritual eyes open then and confess God as our only means of Life and view all other things that contradict that view as something to be detested, whether it come from a friend or foe?

    We would never take seriously someone who insisted that we do not need oxygen to live and asked us to enter into a place void of oxygen. We know better; we know that only by breathing are we able to live. Likewise, we should never deny Christ as our God and should clearly confess Him as our source of Life.

    Saint Gregory Palamas said the following about the great superiority of God’s recompense to those who confessed Him: "Each saint, as a servant of God, boldly acknowledged Him in this fleeting life before mortal men, though actually just for a brief period of this present age and in front of only a few. By contrast, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and Lord of heaven and earth, will speak openly on their behalf in that eternal, never-ending world before God the Father, surrounded by angels, archangels and all the heavenly host, and in the presence of all mankind from Adam onwards. For all will rise and appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Then, before everyone and in the sight of all, He will proclaim, glorify and crown those who demonstrated their faith in Him to the end."

    And in case we misunderstand the call to love God more than our family as some kind of command to hate them for no reason, our Lord makes clear that we are to also put the love of God above our love for ourselves saying, “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” The message is clear that anything contrary to God is to be rejected and that only by enduring the persecution that comes with following Christ are we worthy of Him confessing us before His Father.

    As we celebrate the numerous Saints, many of which we don’t even know of because of their humble manner of lives, may we show them the greatest honor “by imitating them and purifying ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, and hastening towards holiness through abstaining from all evils.” (St. Gregory Palamas)

    Liturgically we have just gone through the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord, and His sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Now the Church shows us the many fruits that have been harvested for eternal life by the coming of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

    As St. Nikolai Velimirovich describes them, “They are alive and powerful, and close to God. And they are also close to us. They constantly observe the life of God’s Church on earth; they vigilantly accompany us from our birth to our death; they hear our pleas, know our troubles and help us with their strength and their prayers, which, like the smoke from incense, rise through the angelic heights to the throne of God.”

John 5:1-16 The Miracle at Bethesda

    When we read the account of the man healed at Bethesda, a few questions may come to mind. First, we hear of an angel that would periodically come and trouble the water of a pool and whoever was first to enter the pool would be healed of whatever infirmity they had. It may be hard to understand what God purposed by only allowing one person to be healed at a time. Let’s look at a few reasons why in God’s Providence this was allowed up until the time of Christ’s great Salvific work, which was typified in his healing of the man that was infirm for 38 years by His words alone.

    First, we can see the Law of Moses symbolized by the few that were healed, because it was only a small group of mankind that was given the salvific communion with God through the Jewish Law. Only these were given the opportunity to be healed of their diseases of idolatry and enslavement to sin. God intended to eventually offer Salvation to all mankind, but it began with a limited group. God rewarded the faithfulness of the Patriarchs by revealing Himself to them and allowing their line to be the line through which our Lord would enter the human race and bring salvation to all mankind. But at that time, the majority of mankind was not able to healed of their spiritual infirmities. St. Theophylact says, “In former times infirmity prevented many from being healed in the waters of the pool, and only one was made whole. But now, what hinders any man from being baptized? If the whole world approached at once for Baptism, its grace would not be diminished.”

    Another lesson that can be learned by only one person being healed at a time is that obviously the most infirm would never be able to be first to enter the pool and therefore they never would be healed. This helps us to see that before Christ, it was impossible to be healed of our infirmities caused by sin, and to restore our relationship with God. The few that were healed could be thought of like the rare exceptions of men that restored their relationship with God and abandoned sin even before the Incarnation, like Enoch and Elijah who were judged worthy of being taken by God alive. The majority of man however have sinned against God in such great ways that we are not worthy of God but rather have voluntarily become sons of the devil. We, being held captive by sin and the devil, needed a savior to enter into death and to free all those held captive there. Only by becoming members of the Body of Christ are we given the Holy Spirit who is able to give us the power to overcome sin and grow in righteousness. We must recognize our inability to be healed by our own power alone and beg God to have mercy on us. But for Him to heal us, we must confess our sins and repent of our former way of life.

    One more lesson we can learn from there only being one person healed at a time is the need to struggle for salvation. It was only the person who quickly responded once the water was disturbed that was able to benefit from the gift of God. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” (1 Cor. 9:24) God does not want us to be idle in our lives as Christians, depending entirely on Him to accomplish Good in us and in the world. He requires our participation and expects us to bring healing to the world by being His representatives who imitate Jesus’ perfect example. We are called to pick up our Cross and follow Him, dying to our old sinful way of life. How dangerous it is to believe the heresies of Calvin and others that taught that we are all predestined to be either the elect of God or condemned to Hell for our sins, that we contribute nothing to the result. The demons have infiltrated even those that claim to be followers of God and have confused millions of people, causing them to remain idle in the race for Salvation.

    Another question that arises from reading this passage is, ‘why does Jesus ask the man if he would like to be made whole?’ It clearly states that Jesus knew that he had been in this state of infirmity for a long time, and we also know that Jesus is fully God, and therefore knows all things. So why did he ask him a question that he knew the answer to and that quite frankly seems somewhat obvious to even us who have limited knowledge? We see that this man had great perseverance and never despaired of being healed by his continuing to come to the pool hoping that one day a man would help him to be put into the pool. The Lord in asking a question that many would respond to in frustration or anger, wanted to display the patience and meekness of the man worthy of Jesus’ healing. Just as He had asked for faith from those that had seen Him perform miracles before he would heal them, here He displays the virtues of the man that He is about to heal. The man answers gently and humbly, he does not blaspheme, he does not rebuke Christ for asking a dumb question, he does not curse the day of his birth. He responds this way without even knowing to whom he is speaking, but simply wanted help from Jesus to be put into the water. He endured this for 38 years and did not despair, but we suffering minor afflictions curse God and turn against Him.

    After the man is healed, our Lord tells the man, “Thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” From this we learn that this man’s infirmity was a result of his sins, much like most infirmities of man. When we suffer, we should seek the cause of the suffering in ourselves. “We should remember all of our sins from childhood onwards; remembering them with the fear of God and with the expectation of suffering for our sins.” (St. Nikolai Velimirovich) St. Nikolai Velimirovich says, “Blessed is the man who uses his sufferings, knowing that all suffering in this brief life is loosed on men by God in His love for mankind, for the benefit and assistance of men. In His mercy, God looses suffering on men because of their sins – by His mercy and not His justice. In place of death, God gives healing through suffering. Suffering is God’s way of healing the soul of its sinful leprosy and its death. Only the foolish think that suffering is evil. Only sin in a man is a real evil, and there is no evil outside sin.”

    May we recognize our sins and when suffering exclaim the last words of our Father amongst the Saints, St. John Chrysostom, when he was dying in exile, tormented and despised by men, “Glory to God for everything!” Amen.

On the Paralyzed man in Capernaum

 

Excerpts from St. Gregory Palamas' homily on the Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Holy Lent on the Paralyzed man in Capernaum:

"It was love of human honor that distanced the Pharisees from faith in the Lord, which is why He said to them, “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” (John 5:44). Others were prevented from drawing near by lands, weddings, or worries about the affairs of this life (Luke 14:18–20), but the paralyzed man's physical weakness put an end to such things and removed them from his thoughts. There are times when illness is better for sinners than good health, because it helps them towards salvation and blunts their inborn evil impulses. Inasmuch as it repays the debt of sins by means of suffering, it makes them able to receive healing of their souls in the first instance, then healing of their bodies. This happens most of all when the sick person, understanding that the affliction is a remedy from God, bears it courageously, falls down before God with faith and asks for forgiveness, through whatever works he can manage. This was shown by the paralyzed man who did what he could, and proved by the Lord's own words and actions. The Pharisees, however, were incapable of comprehending, and blasphemed and murmured among themselves (Mark 2:6–7). “When Jesus”, it says, “saw their faith”, the faith, that is, of the bed-ridden man who had been lowered, and of those who had let him down from the roof, “he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5).

What a blessed way to be addressed! He hears himself called “son” and is adopted as the child of the heavenly Father. He is joined to God who is without sin, having immediately become sinless himself through the forgiveness of his sins. In order that his body can subsequently be renewed, his soul first receives deliverance from sin from the Lord, who knows that in the beginning when the soul fell into the snares of sin, physical illness and death followed, in accordance with His righteous judgment.

They said that they had never seen anything like this, glorifying God by their words and showing that this miracle was greater than any previous ones. But we are unable to say the same now, for we have seen many much greater miracles performed not only by Christ but also by His disciples and their successors, just by calling upon Christ's name. Let us then, brethren, glorify Him now by our actions, regarding this miracle anagogically as a pattern for virtue. Anyone addicted to sensual pleasures is paralyzed in his soul, and is lying sick on the bed of voluptuousness with its deceptive bodily ease. Once, however, he has been won over by the exhortations in the Gospel, he confesses his sins and triumphs over them and the paralysis they have brought upon his soul. He is taken up and brought to the Lord by these four: self-condemnation, confession of former sins, promising to renounce evil ways from now on, and prayer to God. They cannot, however, bring him near to God without uncovering the roof, scattering the tiles, earth and other building material. Our roof is the reasoning part of the soul, which is set above everything else within us. But it has lying on top of it, like a large quantity of building material, its connection with the passions and earthly matters. Once this connection has been loosed and shaken off by means of the four things we have mentioned, then we can really be let down, that is, humbled, fall down before the Lord, draw near to Him and ask and receive His healing.

When did these acts of repentance take place? At the time when Jesus came to His own city, which means, after He came in the flesh to stay in the world which He created and is therefore His own. As the evangelist says of Him, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:11–12). So when we fall down before Him with such faith, our paralyzed mind immediately hears Him saying “Son”, and receives forgiveness and healing. In addition it receives strength to lift up and carry the bed on which it is lying. The bed is to be understood as the body to which the mind which pursues fleshly desires clings, and through which it applies itself to sinful actions. After being healed, our mind has our body under control and leads and carries it about."