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Dear
beloved, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today
on the 26th day of March, the year 2000 we have come
to the beginning of the second week of Lent. Today we are all gathered
together to honour three separate occasions, a tri-hypostatic commemoration.
The first occasion is the Sunday of the Paralytic, which
actually commemorates the twofold miracle of forgiveness and healing performed
by our Lord on a certain paralysed man. It is the commemoration of the
power of God working through Jesus Christ.
We may look upon the paralytic as a messenger of God, an imperfect
human messenger. Nevertheless he was made complete by the power of God,
and was sent home by our Lord to be a living and walking message of hope
to his family and friends.
The second occasion is the commemoration of a heavenly body, a
messenger of good news, the Archangel of our Lord. His name is Gabriel
which in Hebrew translates as "the power" or "might
of God".
Third and last (yet not least of all) is the commemoration of a
Holy messenger -- St. Gregory Palamas. Saint Gregory was a mere
mortal filled by the wisdom and power of God. He was a vigilant
contestant of the Orthodox faith, trying to keep Orthodox Christianity
unpolluted by heretical doctrines. A proclaimer of the reality of the
powers and energies of our God and the uncreated light
which our Lord revealed at Mount Tabor.
From these three different types of mediators or messengers, we
observe that God works in many different and mysterious ways. He works
through His angels, he works through His Apostles and Saints -- but he
may also choose to work through his sinful, imperfect servants. In other
words God may also work through any of us here today.
How does God work through us you may ask? We are all sinners, we
are all imperfect, we are all unworthy.
Yes indeed this is true we are all unworthy, but God who has eyes
everywhere can see through and beyond our sins and can penetrate our hearts.
God can also see through our false piety our empty prayers and
pietistic tears. He alone knows our potential our true intentions, whether
they are good or bad. He alone knows if our faith is true, or false.
Ultimately - we are all unworthy, but by the grace and power of
God we may become counted worthy to serve our God.
The Church proclaims that those whom God loves He tests and chastises
in order to strengthen them spiritually. The Old Testament is filled with
such examples, the prime example being the chastisement of the faithful
and righteous Job.
In the New Testament Saint Paul is perhaps the prime example, who
proclaims that he is the first of all sinners. He initially persecuted
the Church, yet God chose Him, God knew that deep inside Saint Paul was
the potential to protect and proclaim the truth to all the Nations. A
later example? Saint Mary of Egypt, initially she was a prostitute but
was chosen by God nevertheless to become a Saint of our Church.
Today we celebrate a similar occasion where our Lord recognised
and discerned the heart of the sinful paralytic. In conjunction, He also
saw the faith and heard the wishes of the four loyal friends who carried
the afflicted man. And with one Word, He forgave the sins of the paralytic,
and with another Word, He healed him of his bodily paralysis.
But let us pause for one moment, and let us think; how is it possible
that a mere mortal can forgive the sins of another mere mortal? Surely
it is only God who has such authority, It is His power alone which can
forgive our sins. Yes indeed God alone has this power, but they failed
to realise who exactly Jesus was. This is exactly what the devil wanted
the people following Jesus to believe. But Jesus perceived the deception
in the hearts of the scribes, who reasoned against His actions. So Jesus
revealed His true power to the unbelievers. He performed a second miracle;
He made the paralytic walk. Jesus proclaims that this was done in order
for them to "know that the Son of Man has power on earth to
forgive sins" (Mark 2:10).
Jesus the Son of Man was the righteous judge foretold by
the book of Daniel the prophet. But what does the title Son of Man mean?
It does not mean what most of us think it means today; that he was born
by a human. Son of Man in Hebrew Ben Iysh means that He is the Son of
the image and likeness of God. Son of Man in Hebrew means one that
has God's authority and God's power yet appears to
be human in every way.
The wise men the scribes (or as they are called today) the theologians
of Jesus time knew very well that only God could do what this seemingly
simple man could do. But they were deceived by their self-righteousness
and pride. Satan had put up a wall against their reasoning and deceived
them to think that Jesus was a blasphemer.
They could not, they dared not, open their subjective minds and
look upon Jesus Christ's face to see his righteousness, his truthfulness,
the true light shining from within. Instead they were scared and lacked
true faith and so plotted against Him.
Let us now look more closely at this twofold miracle. One notices
that not only was this paralysed man forgiven and made to walk after being
healed by the power of God, he was also told by Jesus to take up his bed
and go home. To lift up his bed after so many years of having lost all
power to the muscles of his limbs. He was physically weak, however his
faith together with the faith of his four companions and friends, who
lowered him down through the roof, all contributed to this very special
miracle recorded in Mark's Gospel today.
If we are saved in the last days, my brothers and sisters, it will
be in Christ. If we are granted God's mercy and forgiveness it will not
only be our soul which will be saved, it will also
have to be our body as well. Our body must be pure so that our
soul may also be pure, but more importantly our soul must be pure in order
for our body to be pure. If we defile our body, the temple of the Holy
Spirit, then what hope do we have of God saving our souls?
We observe then in this particular order -- that sin defiles the
body and that the defiled body harms the soul. We observe that Jesus Christ
being pure and sinless works in the opposite way -- He first cleansed
the soul of the paralytic, and then He cured and revitalised the body.
This was done to show that neither fasting nor praying nor even
righteous acts can forgive our sins if we do not first repent. It is almost
futile to fast and pray and do all manner of righteous acts if we do not
first go to confess our sins and reject our old selves in order for the
power of God to empower and revitalise our degenerating limbs and souls.
Only God knows our sins and so can heal both our souls and our
bodies. Holy Scripture tells us that our body will be resurrected together
with our soul and will be transformed by the grace of God into a spiritual
body on the day of the resurrection of the dead.
Today Saint Mark implores us to believe in the saving power of
God working in this world. Today Saint Mark reminds us to believe and
trust in the power of God working through His messengers, whether human,
divine or angelic. Most of all my brethren, the central message we must
remember today is to pray for one another and carry each others burdens
as these four men did for this man. If we would just do this for each
other, then assuredly all of us gathered here would be saved. And
remember that it is never too late to be healed, it is never too late
to repent. Arise then my beloved brethren so that we may take up our Cross
daily no matter how heavy it is and follow Christ. And may God grant us
all perfect health to our souls and our bodies.
Amen.
by Kosmas Damianides
Greek Orthodox Parish of St Nektarios, Perth
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