The paralytics of the 21st century – Fr. Theologos

Surprisingly and shockingly, the Sunday of the Paralytic is very, very relevant today and, unfortunately, we don’t realize how important this event is and especially we don’t know how to manage it so that we don’t remain paralytics for life.

Watch this material for an analysis of this phenomenon in our daily lives.

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Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

Christ is Risen!

When I think of the Sunday of the Paralytic, I think of myself, you should know, because I am very weak and cannot do much, please forgive me! When I say that I cannot do much, I am not only referring to my physical strength – of course, that too – but above all to my spiritual power. Beyond that, I also think about the fact that this event is as relevant as can be – the event with the paralytic – you should know!

First of all, related to this, I want to ask for forgiveness because I am not able to respond to all the messages you send. I am a weakling. Please forgive me!

Brethren, you should know that this episode at the Pool of Bethesda is primarily an icon of a mysterious spiritual reality, beyond the actual physical healing of a paralytic or a weakling – whatever he was. However, let us see step by step what Scripture says and why this event is of great interest to us today.

At the beginning, it says that at a Jewish feast Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Of course, this, like the entire event, is a real fact. If it were only this, then we would not have thought about deeper spiritual meanings, that is, about reality – even though the Holy Fathers say that Jerusalem, which is somewhat interpreted as deep peace, the foundation of peace, is the icon of the spiritual heart, that is, the icon of the spiritual center of the human person.

Nevertheless, the Holy Fathers say that every thing in Scripture has its spiritual, saving importance because if it did not, the Holy Spirit would not have placed it in Scripture. Do you understand?

In the next verse, we are given more details that show us even more clearly that we are dealing with spiritual matters behind the physical things mentioned. It says that in Jerusalem – that is, in the heart of man – near the Sheep Gate, there was a pool with five porches called Bethesda. Yes, okay, the Sheep Gate is called so because sheep were sacrificed there for the offering, but if these details did not have spiritual significance, it could have been simply said, At some pool miracles were performed. You see that in the case of many miracles, Scripture does not give us any details about the place, architectural details like the porches and others of the sort.

Spiritually, the pool of Bethesda is interpreted as follows: at the existential center of the human being, in their heart, near the gate of the rational sheep – you know well that spiritual people are often called sheep in Scripture – that is, where spirituality passes, spiritual information, there is a pool called the House of Mercy, because that is what Bethesda means— which has five porches, obviously, the five senses. That is, we bathe, we cleanse the senses through which we relate to this world and make them spiritual through the house of mercy, of compassion, that is, through the lens of mercy, of loving communion that is attained in the Church. Do you understand?

The lens of stubbornness, hardness, lack of mercy obviously does not cleanse the information that comes through the five senses and cannot pass it through the gate of the spiritual sheep into the existential core of the person. A stubborn person is a very limited person, you should know. They do not see well, they have no clear vision in almost anything, especially regarding the target of their bitterness.

Sadly, today, however, we no longer have time to have mercy because our attention is chaotic and is constantly stolen by very powerful centers of attention to which we are exposed— first of all, to screens through which all this culture of physical excitement comes to us. We are very focused on our pleasures, on our selfish goals – we no longer have time to have mercy on others.

Let me tell you an incident that struck me; I believe I have told you before. At a primary school, the pupils were behaving terribly in class, and the teacher – a theology teacher, I think – in any case, a very spiritual teacher – raised his voice slightly to the children to cover them up and said, Have a little mercy! The children replied indignantly, What is mercy? As you can see, the children no longer knew what mercy meant. Why? Due to the abundance of worldly information, devoid of personal love, the children no longer had in their minds the spiritual concepts necessary to achieve mercy.

Today we have a lot of information entering through the five porches, a lot of water flowing through the five senses, but sadly, because we are not in the house of mercy, we cannot bathe, we cannot cleanse this information to be useful for eternal life. Mercy involves contemplating the person in the grace of God, and today we no longer have time for that. We are preoccupied with business, with optimizing and fulfilling our selfishness, as I said.

If we were to rediscover the art of contemplating the other, the art of listening, to have the patience to listen to what the other person says and not to burst out immediately when the other says something that does not align with our logic, then things will level out much more easily and everything will be fine. I am not saying, brethren, that the other or we are always right. I am saying that everything will be fine and the truth will naturally emerge gently and with good understanding, without love being struck down.

You should know that interpersonal loving relationships between us are much, much more important than scientific or technological truth – not to mention that this truth is usually correctable. Even the Lord said, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, meaning we should not sacrifice others on the altar of our pseudo-righteousness, because Scripture also says that the truth of men is like a filthy rag before the Lord.

In fact, brethren, we are all nothing before God as creatures. On the other hand, we are absolutely important because of His perfect love for us and, through our likeness to Him, our capacity to love others.

Speaking of our insignificance, you see that in the following verses Scripture says that in the pool of Bethesda there was a multitude of sick people – lame, blind, paralyzed, weaklings – who were waiting for the movement of the water. But why were they waiting for it? The next verse says that an angel went down at certain times into the pool – that is, at the right moment, from time to time – and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made whole of whatever disease he had.

Yes, you see, all the sick, the lame, the blind, and the paralyzed were waiting for the MOVEMENT of the water, and the angel of the Lord would STIR it. This difference in words further emphasizes the spiritual, mysterious dimension of the event, a mystery that we will discuss further.

The mysterious dimension of this miracle, which took place regularly, is even more emphasized by the fact that only the first sick person who entered the stirred water was healed. If we think about it, let’s say there was someone very quick on their feet who had a blemish on their face, a wart that bothered them, or an athlete who was slightly cold or had a minor insignificant scratch. You realize that this person would get there first instead of those with very serious illnesses, whom Scripture explicitly mentions – that is, the blind, the lame, the paralytics, and those with other similar conditions.

Well, then how is this explained? How does God, Who is Almighty, respond? How can this happen, God being all-loving? God, being Almighty, could have healed everyone at once. Or could have left everyone as they were so that through the cross they bear, they would detach from the pleasures of this world and fly toward eternal happiness. You must know that God is all-knowing and knows what benefits each person.

So why did He allow this race toward the stirring of the water? And why was everyone waiting for the movement of the water, and when the time came for it to move, Scripture says that an angel stirred it? The same word could have been used because, from a physical point of view, the phenomenon was the same… However, from a spiritual point of view, it was not quite the same phenomenon. Do you understand? Let us explain.

Water is the symbol of the life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit. Do you understand? In fact, you will see that on the Sundays during the Pentecostarion period – that is, roughly the Sundays after Pascha – you will notice miracles related to water because water gives life to our body and therefore is a symbol of the grace of the Spirit. Because water is life-giving and grace is life-giving for our soul.

We are all spiritually sick in this world and we await the movement of the water, that is, of grace, so that this grace may heal us of all our illnesses. However, when grace comes through the angel of the Lord, it disturbs our self-esteem with a good disturbance, shaking the existential hinges, trying to pull us out of the comfort zone of our own selfishness and to elevate people to a higher existential plane. Whoever plunges in at first, that is, with maximum determination and faith in this pool of grace, will be healed.

Now, brethren, there are many such examples in which Christ disturbed people to take them out of the very narrow frames of their selfishness and thinking – one of the most representative being, for example, that of Holy Communion. Christ could have made it so that He would not give us His most pure Body to eat and His precious Blood to drink, but instead give us a kind of pill and say, Take this twice a day – morning and evening – on an empty stomach. Or, ultimately, He could have gently told people, You know, actually it is not My Body and Blood, but just an imagination, a symbol – in fact, it is bread and wine. Know that the latter is a heresy that to this day is perpetuated among Protestants and Neo-Protestants.

However, Christ did not say that! And He did not give pills. He said, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He did not even tell them that the bread and wine would be visible, even though it is indeed His most pure Body and His precious Blood, which disturbed the people who therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this Man give us His flesh to eat? Do you understand? That is, He completely shook them in their way of thinking. What is this Man saying? This is a hard saying! as the Apostles said. Do you understand? He did this to break our way of thinking, which was confined to logic. A way of thinking without spirit, without resurrection, purely physical, Cartesian.

In fact, I do not know if you know, one of the malicious accusations against Christianity in the early centuries was precisely this: that child sacrifices were made at their gatherings and that they were eaten.

As you can see, we, the people weakened by sins, await the movement of the waters of grace, but this most often does not come gently, but with disturbance so that we detach ourselves from our self-sufficiency and our high opinion of ourselves. We must detach ourselves from our way of thinking, from our judgments. However, we must believe and seize this disturbance of the waters of grace from the very beginning, without the doubt and disobedience sown by the devil through the thoughts that come to us.

So, as we see, this miracle reveals to us that it has a secret, spiritual, and very important plan, much more important than the physical, material plan of bodily healing. That is, it concerns the way of our spiritual healing through the courage and faith with which we must decide firmly to obey the grace of God when it disturbs our life in a positive sense. Do you understand?

Yes, brethren, we must act decisively but not without discernment and not hastily. I say this because young people today, especially, act very, very quickly with much superficiality and without analyzing things. It is an entire society living in the century of speed, a speed that is much greater than the legal limit allowed by the law of God. Today’s man can no longer control himself because of the speed at which he lives, and because of this, he very often ends up in trouble, which leads to the dramas that generate traumas, insecurity, and nervous diseases, mainly depression.

This speed, which comes from increasingly shorter and more frequent cycles of excitement – you know that dopamine is already famous for this – is deliberately generated to ensure control over others, a larger market share, money, and other similar passions. Do you understand? Everything is generated and it is a snowball rolling downhill.

Brethren, we need to stop! Let’s stop for a moment! We need to have some time for ourselves, for our relationship with God and with other people. Let us sit quietly for a while. Sit quietly for a moment! Try to spend 20 minutes, half an hour, sitting quietly and praying. Turn off your cell phone!

Brethren, we are the weaklings of this age. You see, the weaklings at the Pool of Bethesda were waiting for the movement of the water, waiting for the movement of grace. We must do the same, we who have become paralyzed by our sins. Every sin is an existential paralysis, a small death, a weakening of our existence.

We must wait for the movement of grace when the angel of the Lord wills it. Know that this waiting is not passive, that is, not an existential stagnation, but must be a very active waiting, preparing for the leap forward in the good disturbance caused by grace, as I said. Through trials, we will move forward, for if there are no more trials, no one will be saved. This preparation is done in silence.

Folks, young people, we need to calm down a bit to see what our relationship with God is, with others, and what we are doing with our lives. Let us turn off our cell phones and screens a little each day and pray, read, study spiritual subjects, and do good deeds to unite with God, that is, to regenerate our capacity to love, to conceive, to think, to be human, to be joyful, to rediscover the beauty, simplicity, and complexity of nature’s harmony.

Brethren, let us reflect: when was the last time we spoke to God in silence, when did we last listen to His voice in our hearts, when did we last listen to our loved ones? In fact, today we are so rushed that we no longer even have time to love, no longer even have time to truly fall in love, no longer even have dear people to listen to with admiration. This is our tragedy: the lack of time dedicated to love. Do you understand?

Because there is so much sin in the world, because there are so many centers of attention, the love of many grows cold, and we become insecure and sad blocks of ice optimized for money production. Cut out worries and things that seem interesting to you and give more time to people. Have patience with people.

You see that the paralytic waited 38 years for the healing water to move. The weakling… actually, in Scripture it does not say he is a weakling – or, well, paralytic, in the Greek edition – this is a title added at a later date. Brethren, his illness does not matter. It only speaks about a man because we are all sick due to sin. There was a man there who had been waiting for a lifetime for the stirring of grace. He had made hope, in fact, brethren, a way of life. Do you understand?

We, the paralytics of the present world, are more to be pitied than he is because we do not have the faith and hope that he had. You see that the Lord crowned his hope, protecting him from despondency and appeared before him. Despondency is a serious problem, brethren, because young people today are despondent. If we have hope, God will crown us and appear before us and ask if we want to be healed. Do you understand?

You see that Christ asks him not because He needed to ask to find out. Christ, being God, knows everything. He asks him also to show His willingness to help him, and, on the other hand, to start a discussion in a humble and vulnerable way – I say vulnerable because the other could have answered him brutally, What, man, don’t you have eyes? Don’t you see I have been here for 38 years and you still ask me if I want to be healed?

The man was somewhat humbled by his illness and therefore did not answer rudely, but he did not humble himself as he should to ask the Lord for help, to say Lord, help me! Instead, he speaks from a position that somewhat allows him to keep his selfishness intact, still trying to persuade the stranger before him – that is, Christ – hoping that perhaps He will help him. He says to the Lord, I have no man to put me into the pool. Do you understand?

This, of course, shows us on a spiritual level that in the pool of mercy, that is, in the loving communion of the Church, we need a person – that is, a spiritual leader who will throw us into the water of grace when the grace moves. Especially today, it is very difficult without a spiritual leader because people are dizzy from so much information and the chimera of pseudo-science.

And it is very easy – if you do not have a person, an experienced leader – instead of entering the good disturbance of grace that heals us, to enter the bad disturbance of the mire that drags us down into darkness, even though it is possible that those thus drawn into the mire believe they are doing well, hardened in their thoughts.

You see that the man who kept his selfishness and did not have a leading person to throw him into the pool of mercy to be healed waited 38 years until he met Christ for the first time, and when he met Him, he did not recognize Him even though He healed him on the spot and said to him, Take up your bed and walk! Do you understand? He did not realize the paramount importance of the Man before him. Do you understand?

Christ tells him through this, You have been healed, you are strong now by my grace, you have an active life, you are stronger than the illness of sin, only if you want, of course, only if you remain in My grace, only if you stay with Me. The Lord tells him that the cause of his being bedridden was sin and warns him not to sin anymore because it will be worse for him.

In fact, you should know that if a person is not careful, then their falls after knowing grace are much greater – mainly due to the fact that they can be touched by thoughts of pride and vain glory, represented in Scripture by the Pharisees. In fact, the former paralytic does exactly that: he commits one of the greatest sins and goes to the Pharisees and denounces Christ, knowing that they are looking for a reason to accuse Him based on a blind legalism that knows nothing of love.

Yes, brethren, do you know what the sin of the paralytic was? It was one of the greatest sins: ingratitude. In fact, we all suffer from this ingratitude, more or less. Brethren, this form of insensitivity is one of the saddest effects of Adam’s fall. In fact, we resemble dogs that once they have snatched the sausage, run away with the sausage in their mouth, without thanking anyone, as St. John Climacus says.

On the other hand, as St. Ephraim Katounakiotis says, the key to opening the Kingdom of Heaven, the key to the charismatic gifts, is gratitude, thankfulness. Let us never forget to give thanks.

Brethren, let’s not forget to be human, to be noble, to be spiritual, to be gentle. If we cannot be spiritual, at least let us be polite and attentive to others. Let us not forget that we always need one another, because alone we will not recognize Christ.

We need to be shown multiple times and to have an experienced spiritual leader and spiritual people to show Him to us, for otherwise we will not recognize Christ, we will not enter the water of grace, and we will not be healed. Thus, we will remain bedridden at the edge of existence, unable to cleanse the senses with which we interact with the universe, with all the reality around us—we will be eternal weaklings…

Let us humble ourselves and ask the Lord God to help us rise from our bed and walk toward His joy! And let us be grateful! I am grateful to you and thank you that we have all remained steadfast until now in this word! Christ is Risen! Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

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