The Lord Is With Us Even Now

A discourse on the second Sunday of Great Lent

Jesus came into Capernaum, and it was heard that He was in the house; and immediately many gathered, so that there was no longer room even at the doors, and He spoke the word to them. And they came to Him, bringing one paralyzed in his limbs, carried by four (Mk 2:1-3)

If an earthly king or a king’s son visits some city or village and stops at a certain house, then immense crowds of people gather around that house, because everyone longs to see the king’s clear eyes, turned with care upon his whole vast kingdom and upon all the peoples subject to him; everyone longs to hear the king’s merciful word. So exalted is the rank of a king, so weighty on earth is his service to God and to men, that everyone feels an involuntary reverence toward his person; and often his very appearance fills people with rapture. But there was a time when the King of heaven Himself, the King of the whole world, the beginningless God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the King of the kings of the earth, appeared on the earth and lived among men, journeying from city to city, from village to village. O, what happiness, what blessedness it was to see the King of heaven Himself—those most radiant, never-slumbering eyes that look down upon the whole universe, that gaze that gladdens the Angels and is dreadful to the demons—and to hear from His sweetest lips the words that grant life, peace, consolation, and gladness to every sincere and upright soul!

You envy those fortunate people who lived during the sojourn of Jesus Christ on earth. Do not envy them. He is with us even now, never departing, by His Divinity, by His grace, by His life-giving Mysteries, by His divine body and His all-pure Blood: we are in no way wronged in this respect in comparison with the contemporaries of Jesus Christ; we are deprived of nothing—we have even received more than they: because they did not have the blessedness of partaking of His life-giving Body and Blood, while we partake of them and are deified. The Liturgy, during which this Mystery is celebrated, paints before us the whole life of Jesus Christ from His cradle to His ascension into heaven; – and the holy Mysteries manifest His personal presence, the measureless love of the Lord for His rational creation; and the exalted appearance of God in the flesh and in the image of a man shows, my brothers, the dignity of human nature, created in the image of God but abased, disfigured, enfeebled, and put to death by sin. It assures us that if a man lives on earth righteously and holily, he will be equal to the Angels and will live with them forever and exult through endless ages; that after the Mother of God and the holy Angels, God holds nothing higher or more precious than man—man, to whom He made Himself like, for whom He suffered, died, and rose again; that all of heaven and the kingdom of heaven is the inheritance of man, and there are no more heirs besides him to whom it would be said: Come, blessed ones of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world[1].

But let us turn to what is said in the Gospel. There entered, it is said, Jesus into Capernaum, and it was heard that He was in the house, and immediately many gathered together, so that they could no longer find room even at the door. The Jewish city of Capernaum stood on the Lake of Gennesaret, not far from where the Jordan River flows into it, and was one of the flourishing and populous cities of Galilee in the time of Jesus Christ. During His three-year public ministry for the salvation of the human race, the Lord more than once had His dwelling in Capernaum, preached in the Jewish synagogues, and worked many miracles. Among others, here was healed the paralytic, who was unable to walk, of whom the Gospel was read today. Here were healed: the servant of a certain Roman centurion, the mother-in-law of the apostle Peter together with many others, the woman with an issue of blood, two blind men, a demoniac; and – the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, was raised to life. Happy, a hundred times happy, you will say, were the inhabitants of this city, in which Jesus Christ so often had His dwelling. – But I will not say this. No, I cannot call the inhabitants of Capernaum happy merely because the Son of God often stayed with them; I cannot, because the inhabitants of Capernaum, who many times saw His miracles, His benefits to their fellow citizens, remained ungrateful toward their Benefactor and Wonderworker – unfaithful, unrepentant sinners. The Lord Himself rebuked this city for not repenting, saying to it: And you, Capernaum, who were exalted to heaven, will be cast down to hades; for if there had been manifested in Sodom the powers, that is, the miracles, that had been manifested in you, it would have remained to this day, that is, it would have repented; but I say to you that it will be easier for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you[2]. Now you see that the inhabitants of Capernaum are unfortunate people, because, though they often saw the Lord’s miracles and heard His teaching, they remained unrepentant sinners and are condemned to hades.

My brethren, let us consider ourselves: have we been less favored by the Lord than the inhabitants of Capernaum? We were born of water and the Holy Spirit in baptism and were adopted as children of God; in chrismation we were sanctified by the Holy Spirit; in Communion we are made worthy to partake of the all-pure Body itself and the all-pure Blood itself of the Lord; in repentance, after sincere and heartfelt contrition for our sins, we are granted their forgiveness; in the priesthood we have teachers of the faith and of the Christian life at all times, celebrants of the saving Mysteries, and guides to God and to eternal life; in the anointing with oil we have a remedy for bodily ailments through repentance for our sins. What, then, do we render to the Lord for all His mercies toward us, for all the wonders of His long-suffering toward us? – Ingratitude, malice, hard-heartedness, unbelief, distraction, sluggishness, and impenitence in our sins. But will it remain so, and always? Will the measure of God’s long-suffering toward us not soon be filled? Does not the sword of God already hang over our heads? Is not the deadly axe already laid to the root of the tree, to our very heart? Has not the outer darkness of hell already opened its jaws to swallow us? Let us come to ourselves, let us wake up, let us repent from the soul, while we still have time for repentance. Let us occupy ourselves with the word of God, zealously attending God’s temple, and let us devote ourselves to works of benefaction and almsgiving. It is true that among us too, during Great Lent, the church is sometimes filled with worshippers, like that house in which Jesus Christ was, and the people can scarcely fit inside it. Glory to God! O, would that it were filled with Christians more often! And yet the theater is filled far more often.

But let us continue the explanation of the Gospel. And He spoke the word to them. Everywhere the Lord appeared with the word, and this word was sweeter than honey from the comb; it healed souls and bodies; it bowed and transformed hearts, as it did Saul’s; it raised the dead, drove out demons, flung the presumptuous to the ground, and commanded all the elements, and they obeyed the voice of the Almighty; it transformed creation in an instant; this word sounds in the church even now. Why, then, do so few listen to it and carry it out? Because of our distraction, because of our love for the world, for vain goods and pleasures. You cannot, the Lord said once and for all, serve God and mammon[3], that is, the world. But remember: this word will judge us on the last day. Let us then give the more heed to what we have heard, lest at any time we drift away[4] inwardly from God. For this very reason the holy Church requires our attention when the Gospel is being read.

And they came to Him, bringing a man paralyzed in his limbs, carried by four men; and because they could not draw near to Him on account of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was, and digging through it, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay[5]. How pitiable a man is when, fully conscious, he cannot walk on his own because of extreme weakness and must constantly avail himself of the services of others: he is a burden both to himself and to others. Such was the paralytic mentioned in today’s Gospel; such among us are those stricken with paralysis and with certain other diseases. But there is also a spiritual paralysis, from sins, from passions, which is incomparably more dangerous and more worthy of pity than the paralysis of the body, because it often leads to eternal death. In this respect, every sinner is a paralytic. Paralysis of the soul accompanies every sin, as a consequence of falling away from God, in Whom is our life and our strength. And since we all sin, we are all paralytics. How can we be healed of this paralysis, of this first beginning of eternal death? – Through sincere, deep, complete repentance for our sins. This, of course, is why the Gospel reading about the paralytic is appointed for today: so that his condition, which was the consequence of sins, might touch our hearts and dispose us also to fervent repentance. This is why Jesus Christ healed the paralytic, granting him forgiveness of sins beforehand. And seeing their faith, that is, of the bearers, He said to the paralytic: Child, your sins are forgiven you[6]. From this it is evident that the sick man suffered for his own sins.

My brothers! When you fall ill, first of all bring repentance for your sins to God, and run to the almighty Physician—partake of His life-giving Body and His life-giving Blood. There is a hidden and close connection between sin and sickness. Some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts: why does this man speak such blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone?[7] To the wicked, envious, and ambitious scribes—that is, to the scholarly teachers of the Jews—the good deed of Jesus Christ seemed blasphemy, and it troubled them. Even now, brothers, good deeds as well lead a wicked man into taking offense: you go to church to pray to God, you read sacred books, you keep away from amusements, entertainments, spectacles, and parties; and they say: there is a hypocrite. You give alms—they say: he is breeding parasites. But would it not be better for these wicked people to look at themselves, at what they themselves are like, than to judge and condemn others? It is necessary to remember the words of the righteous Judge: do not judge, so that you are not judged[8]. Jesus Christ, as the Knower of hearts, exposed the wicked thoughts of His opponents. He said to them: what are you pondering in your hearts? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you? Or to say: arise, and take up your bed, and walk?[9] In fact, is it not equally impossible for an ordinary man both to forgive another man like himself his sins against God, and to heal sicknesses by a word? It goes without saying that it is impossible. To whom, then, is it possible? — Only to God; therefore, if the word of Jesus Christ was a deed, that is, if it absolved sins and healed every kind of sickness, as all the people saw, the scribes among them, then how could they accuse the Lord of blasphemy? Looking simply at the deed, they ought to have believed that Jesus Christ is God, because He forgives sins and by a word heals all sicknesses; yet they say: he speaks blasphemy. And what did the Lord answer them? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has on earth the authority to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic: I say to you: arise, and take up your bed, and go to your house. And he arose at once, and, taking up the bed, went out before them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying: we have never seen anything such as this[10]. Here you see, the word became a deed: the sins were forgiven, the paralysis passed away, and the man became completely healthy and strong; and the forgiveness of sins and the healing of the sickness—both the one and the other showed that Jesus Christ is the Judge, the Giver of Life, and God, and not a blasphemer, as the scribes thought.

My brothers! The power to forgive people their sins belongs to God alone, as Creator and Lawgiver; and which of you has not experienced for himself that Jesus Christ forgives and absolves us from every sin? O, how easy and peaceful, how joyful the soul feels when you repent from your whole heart of your sins before the Lord and hear the word of forgiveness: Child, your sins are forgiven you. How joyful the soul is when with faith and love you taste of His divine Food—His most pure Body and Blood! Even now, how often the sick are healed soon after they have repented before the face of a priest and received the holy Mysteries of Christ! All of us have experienced in ourselves, beyond counting, that Jesus Christ is our Judge, our Savior, our Life-giver, and God: let us then always earnestly turn to Him with faith, that from His constant, proven mercy we may receive the forgiveness of sins, inward peace, and at the same time health for the body. The treasury of mercy is always open to everyone: let each one draw from it even a thousand times a day—our countless sins will not overcome the Master’s boundless mercy, provided only that we are sinners who sincerely repent. Glory to Your mercy, O Lord, forever and ever! But let us also, brothers, be merciful to our neighbors. Once again I turn to your love with a word about alms for the poor of our parish relief committee. Be pleased to do this in the name of God: He who gives to the poor, by the mercy of God, will never be lacking[11]. Amen.