Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ is Risen!

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord!

During today’s Divine Liturgy, as is the case every year on this fourth Sunday of Pascha, we heard the wonderful and deep Gospel reading about the healing of the paralytic.

The first question that comes to mind about today’s excerpt is why did Christ heal this unfortunate man, for he did not approach Christ, nor did he manifest faith in Jesus as was usual. We know that there were times when the Lord did not perform miracles because the people in that particular place did not have faith (Matthew 13). Some exegetes say that Christ acted in such a way with the paralytic because He had only begun His ministry, and few people knew anything about Him. He could not require faith from the ailing one because the man had never even heard about Jesus. Therefore we can probably say that Christ perfromed this miracle purely out of mercy and love towards man.

Let’s note that having healed the paralytic, Christ immediately left. There was a large gathering of people around, and the Lord was lost in their midst. Perhaps we cannot exclude the possibility that He did not just naturally blend into the crowd, but in a miraculous way hid Himself. When the paralytic came to the realization that he was healed, his benefactor was already gone. St. John Chrysostom, as well as Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, give two reasons for why the Lord acted in such a manner. The first is so that the healed paralytic himself would witness to the miracle. Thus, no one could say that Christ in some way influenced or pressured the man into explaining the deed to the Jews. The second reason is so as not to irritate the Jews. For them, Jesus Christ, even at the beginning of His ministry, was a temptation. They envied Him. Therefore, having healed the man on the Sabbath, Christ hid Himself, so as not to lead them to greater malice.

In our own lives, we are called to follow Christ and to emulate Him. Of course, we are unable to work miracles, to heal the sick, but we are obliged to show mercy and love towards our neighbours. When we help those around us, let’s try to do it like Christ did it when he healed the paralytic. Let’s do good deeds so that, as much as possible, no one takes notice of them. In such a way, let’s hope that neither we, nor our deeds are glorified, but instead our Saviour. Let’s also hope that, acting in such a meek and humble manner, we will protect ourselves from vanity and pride and our neighbours from envy.

priest Alexis