The Font of Grace

A Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic

On this day there was read the account from the Gospel of John of the healing, by Christ’s word and command, of the paralytic in Jerusalem who lay at the sheep’s pool. There lay there «a great multitude of the sick, of the blind, of the lame, of the withered, awaiting the movement of the water; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and troubled the water, and whoever first stepped in after the troubling of the water was made well of whatever disease he was held by». The paralytic healed by Jesus Christ had been at that font for thirty-eight years. «Jesus, seeing him lying there, – relates the Evangelist, – and knowing that he had already lain there a long time, says to him: Do you want to be made well? The sick man answered Him: Yes, Lord; but I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled; and while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus says to him: Rise, take up your bed and walk. And at once he was made well, and took up his bed and walked. Now this was on a Sabbath day. Therefore the Jews said to the healed man: Today is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. He answered them: He who made me well, that same One said to me: take up your bed and walk. They asked him: What Man is this who said to you: take up your bed and walk? But the healed man did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him: See, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse come upon you. This man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him»[1]. This Gospel offers us much that is instructive and edifying. The miraculous pool or font in Jerusalem prefigured the Christian font of baptism, in which not one, not two, but all who are immersed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit receive healing from the ailments of the soul, that is, from sins, according to the faith of those baptized or of their sponsors; – and it is no longer an angel of the Lord, but the Holy Spirit Himself, the Lord and giver of life, who descends into the font and sanctifies the water and grants it the grace of renewal, of quickening, of the healing of the ailments of soul and body.

And by whom has this font of grace, given us for rebirth, for cleansing and for sanctification, been procured for us? By Jesus Christ. Without this font we would forever be unfit and unworthy, not only of adoption by God, but even of God’s regard; for the Lord God is a Spirit most pure, and He abhors every impurity of sin. Let us all, then, carefully guard the spiritual garment of baptism, the garment of purity and incorruption and of the pledge of the Holy Spirit, which we were made worthy to receive at baptism; and if we have already defiled this garment with various sins and passions, let us take care to cleanse ourselves by sincere repentance, and to spend the rest of the time of our life in repentance and virtue and in preparation for eternity; for we have all been called by the Lord to holiness and righteousness[2] and to eternal life. The wretched paralytic was sick for thirty-eight years, lying on his bed, and could not be healed, because he was helpless and had no man who would at once lower him into the pool when the water in it was stirred by an angel; only the Lord, taking pity on him, healed him at once, and afterward said to him: you have now been made well; sin no more, lest something worse come upon you.

This paralytic represents the whole of mankind ailing with sin, which has suffered the paralysis of sin for so many thousands of years. Only Christ God, the one righteous and holy, who offered Himself up as a sacrifice for us to God the Father for our deliverance from sin, can heal us of the infirmities of sin, those forerunners of the eternal death to which unrepentant sinners will be subject; but for our complete healing from sin He requires only complete repentance, which, though it is the work of our free will, is at the same time also the greatest gift of God’s goodness granted to us. So then, sinners paralyzed and weighed down by sins, let us offer God full and sincere repentance, demonstrated and vindicated by good deeds, that we may be made worthy of Christ God’s gift of health of soul and body, and, what matters most, of eternal well-being and blessedness in the life to come, for which we were redeemed by the sufferings and death of the Son of God. Only warm, fervent repentance cleanses sins and gives our heart health, peace, calm, light, strength and might, boldness and joy; only the pool of tears heals us of the terrible, malignant disease of sin. Let us weep, then, over our sins. Lord! Grant us tears that cleanse away the defilement of our hearts[3], that by them at least we may please You. What forbids you to repent, to shed tears over your sins? These means of salvation are always with you, if only you have faith in Christ and hope in His mercy, which all our sins together cannot conquer. There is no need now to wait for the water to be troubled in the pool, and that pool no longer even exists—the pool that in its own day was an image of our font of baptism and of the pool of tears of repentance. Now one can be healed in one’s own pool of tears every day and every hour, as soon as one repents.

Our sweetest Savior Himself stands at the doors of your heart and knocks on them, so that you may open the doors to Him through your repentance: and He will come in to you and heal you, and strengthen and comfort you. Here I stand at the door, – says the Lord, – and I knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will share the evening meal with him, and he with Me[4].

Glory to You, our all-good Savior, on every day and hour, always, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.