SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
SUNDAY OF PARALYTUS
(4th Sunday after the Great Sunday of Pascha)
(03-05-2026)
WRITTEN DIVINE PROCLAMATION
Divine word - human pettiness - evil formalities
It is, my Christians, admirable the healing of the Paralytus of today's Sunday. And it is remarkable for the way of healing: the word of the Lord Jesus came, so that the bedridden man immediately found strength, not only to get up, but also to walk by lifting his bed! And this power of His word underlines His omnipotence, while at the same time reminding us of the way the Creator Father created the world. As Moses describes in Genesis, the whole creation was given substance by a single word of His: «Let there be»! And the vast nothingness saw light and began to give itself, to evolve, to follow the Divine Council.
And the Jews, instead of admiring the power of Jesus, instead of being led to the Faith by the «semiosis», resorted to narrow-hearted denial by resorting to the type of the Sabbath holiday. Their psychological defense (and at the same time their petty calculation) led them to reject the Divine Hypostasis of the Nazarene, to envy for Akako and to conspire for the Peacemaker!
So they took refuge in... the law. A law given by God to the Sina as to its essence, but degenerated by men into pure formalism. The guides and at the same time spiritual oppressors of the Jews were the Scribes and the Pharisees. They would not tolerate any questioning of their «establishment». Who was this - a young Nazarene carpenter - who was to teach the people the truth, the way and the life? How was he allowed to teach the Scriptures «not to be taken.»;
The spiritual blindness of the rulers of Israel reached the point of not seeing the miracles of Jesus (always benevolent). For them Christ was only a danger. And they had to neutralize him. Before deciding on His physical annihilation, they resorted to trying to neutralize His thousands of believers. And they enlisted the «press»: how much He would walk on the Sabbath, how much He would work on the Sabbath holiday. And, unwittingly confessing the greatness of miracles, they called «forbidden work» any relief of the sick. In vain did the Lord Himself teach how «The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.» They - sitting on Moses' throne - demanded of the people strict adherence to the formula...
«All these signs that were made before them believed not on Him.».
Two thousand years later, my Christians, let us not be captivated by the types. Let us constantly inquire what God's will is, «the good and pleasant and perfect». Let us live the life of our Church in accordance with the teachings of Him, His disciples and our God-fearing Fathers.
There - in His Church - is our breath, the meaning of our life, life, truth, joy.
Rev. P. Mariatos
