SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
SUNDAY OF PARALYTUS
(26-05-2024)
WRITTEN TH. KIRYGMA
«...thou shalt be of sound mind; be not afraid, lest thou shouldst not know what is to come.» (John 5, 14)
A problem that has always preoccupied and still preoccupies people is why man is tortured. Why he gets sick and suffers. It is indeed a complex and difficult matter and the answer is not just one. But in today's Gospel passage we get part of the answer.
The Lord connects the disease of paralysis with sin. Jesus Christ heals the paralytic and says to him: «Thou shalt grow old in health; be not afraid, lest thou handle what is done.». «’For we know... that the disease was put there by sin.» (John Chrysostom, John, Vol. 1, PG 59, 211). Many diseases are consequences of sins, but not all. This is also evident from the Lord's answer on the occasion of the question which his disciples put to him about the man who was blind from birth. «Rabbi, what is this man, this man or his parents, born blind? answered Jesus: ’Neither he nor his parents sinned, but he revealed the works of God in him.» (John 9:3).
But illnesses and unpleasant situations in general, whether they are consequences of sin or not, are not in reality evil, but imagined evil, and are part of the mystery of divine providence and divine education. Divine wisdom, extracting from the bitter sweet, uses imaginary evils for the service of good and the fight against moral evil, sin, which is the actual evil. It is the constant teaching and belief of the Church that the sufferings permitted by God, pain, sorrow, suffering have a beneficial and educational character, aiming to cure the disease of sin and to bring man back to the path in which the purpose appointed by God will be achieved. By means of imaginary evils, or otherwise physical evil, God often educates and restrains man to goodness, using them as a means of his paternal energy and guardianship. Pleasure has cast man out of the bliss of God and it is suffering that will restore him.
According to Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople:
«They that are tempted and hurt of the body do not cast off the divine guardianship, neither do they oppose his charity for us; for education and correction are both brought about and forgiven, for both the poor and wise economy is considered as the grace of the judge.’ (Photius of Constantinople, The Amphilochia, 69, PG 101, 437AB).
That is, they too «the supposed temptations and injuries of the body do not abolish the divine guardianship, nor are they contrary to God's charity towards us. For our education and correction, some of these things are imposed and others are allowed to be done. But by both of these things the sufficient and wise economy of God is considered to be fulfilled.».
We know its power. He healed the son of Basil, the mother-in-law of Peter, the leper, the paralytic of today's hagiographic reading, the lame, the blind and many others in Capernaum and Galilee. He raised the widow's son in Nain, Jairus' daughter in Capernaum, Lazarus in Bethany. He is the great physician of souls and bodies.
If he wishes to cure the patient he can cure him, but he can't. If he wishes his disease to continue, then for some reason he allows it. It is up to us to take a stand against the afflictions at these times. To confess the divine word: «The hand of the Lord is my delight» (Job 19:21) and to be glad of it, because «As the Lord loves, he chastises.» (Heb 12:6). We are to receive divine instruction with patience and joy, for Paul says: «I rejoice in my sufferings» (Col. 1, 24) and again «we are boasting in our sorrows» (Rom. 5:3) Trust ourselves in God's love and praise him for everything, for to him belongs all praise and thanksgiving. Amen.
Hierodeacon Fr.Ierotheos Kritikos
