The Sunday of the Paralytic

Today in the Pentecostarion period we hear how Christ raised up the paralytic from his bed of affliction.  In two weeks we will have the healing of the blind man.  In the services of the Church our attention is drawn to our spiritual poverty and need of growth in the life in Christ.  The services tell us that our spiritual state is as though we are paralyzed or blind in our soul.  We read, sing or hear this but do we really believe it?  How can this be? After all we faithfully attend Church services, we strive to pray, fast and read Church books.  So how can this be?  Can we really believe this which the Church services tell us?  That we are blind and paralyzed in soul.

In order to solve these perplexing illustrations we need to take a look at the state of our human condition in this life.  In the Matins Canon of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ we read: “Man fell from the divine and better life, though made in the image of God he became wholly subject to corruption and decay, but now the wise Creator fashions him anew.”  In his Eucharistic prayer St. Basil the Great tells us that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God Who had created them; being deceived by the guile of the serpent they were sent forth from paradise into this world.  They were alive in body but what was the state of their souls?  They lost their uninhibited communication with God.  Their souls were in a state of separation from God.  What is meant by a state of separation from God?  St. Ignatius Brianchaninov tells us that in paradise Adam and Eve had union of mind and heart, and that mind and heart were separated after their fall.  As the heart is the meeting place between God and man, their souls were in a state of separation from God.  And as descendants of Adam and Eve this is what we inherit from them: separation from God, and also the inclination to sin—this is the result of ancestral or original sin.

But what has happened to us, the descendants of Adam and Eve, since that time?   According to the Church calendar we are now in the eighth millennium and our separation from God and attachment to the world has certainly become greatly augmented.  In addition outright evil has abounded to great heights.  What do we need?  We all need repentance.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23)  We all need repentance.  And not repentance as a one-time act but continual repentance.  The Orthodox faith is an ascetic faith, and for an Orthodox Christian ongoing repentance is something central to true life in Christ.  Repentance in the Orthodox Church has various shades of meanings.  The Greek word “metanoia” literally means a change of mind, implying what the holy Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans: “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).  The equivalent word in Slavonic – “pokaianie” – implies to be wretched, to mourn and lament – to be filled with tears.  In conjunction with the disposition of one’s heart, and effort of free will, this “spirit of repentance” acts in varying degrees.  In some people it acts temporarily according to the sins they have committed.  There is confession, the resolve to change, remorse, and maybe some act of penance.  However, in others this “spirit of repentance” acts systematically, remaining upon one, leading him from one degree of purification to another.  Then, continuing on, this “spirit” – which is an action of the grace of God – leads one from one degree of enlightenment to another.  Perhaps this is what the Apostle Paul wrote of in his letter to the Corinthians: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord” (IICor. 3:18). 

We can see the struggle set before us.  Let us not be self-satisfied and think we are just fine in our Christian life, let us not be stagnant.  Rather let us keep in mind the words of the Apostle Paul: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Then he adds: “Let those of us who are mature be thus minded.” (Php. 3:14-5)  Why did he add the latter?  Because God is infinite, therefore our struggles never end.  Let us then never cease struggling in our life in Christ and in so doing let us also keep in mind the words of the Apostle Paul: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.” (Php. 3:12)  Those final words: “Christ Jesus has made me His own”, give us the hope we need to struggle and not despair. So let us take up our struggle to repent, to ascend in purification, to be ever more illumined.  Thus being delivered from spiritual paralysis and blindness we may, as the Apostle says, “Have the eyes of our hearts enlightened, we may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might.” (Eph. 1:18-9)  Amen.