A Word for the Sixth Sunday After Pentecost (3)

At today’s Sunday Liturgy there was read, beloved brothers and sisters, the Gospel from Matthew, of the healing, by our Lord Jesus Christ, of a paralytic lying on a bed. Let me relate to you this Gospel account in the Russian tongue, copied out from that very Gospel: «At one time Jesus arrived in His own city» — that is, where He lived, in Capernaum. «And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: be of good cheer, child! your sins are forgiven you. And at this, some of the scribes thought within themselves: this man blasphemes. But Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said: why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, «your sins are forgiven you,» or to say, «rise and walk»? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—then He said to the paralytic: rise, take up your bed, and go to your house. And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the crowds saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men» (Mt 9:1-8). Here ends the Gospel appointed for today. Have you seen the twofold gift of Christ our Master and God to a weak man—the gift of the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of bodily healing? But to understand how great this gift is, especially the gift of the forgiveness of sins, one must know thoroughly what a great loss, misfortune, and ruin sin is for a man; for bodily infirmities are more visible, and their misery is more or less evident to everyone, while the calamity and ruin of sin, for many—either through pride and unbelief, or through blindness and ignorance—is imperceptible or unknown, or, at the very least, not evident.

So then, to understand the greatness of the gift given to the paralytic—the Lord’s forgiveness of his sins—let us make clear to ourselves what a great misfortune, what great ruin, sin in general is for a man. Sin, first of all, is lawlessness (1Jn 3:4), according to Scripture—that is, the transgression of the Law of God, given to man, and, first of all, the law of love for God and neighbor—a rebellion against God, against His majesty, His holiness and His righteousness, a disobedience to Him, and an agreement and alliance with the devil, the originator and instigator of every sin—a rebellion of the sinful man against himself, against his own soul and body, against his own conscience, this guardian of the soul and body, of their holiness and purity; it is the distortion, the perversion, the defilement in us of the image of God, in which we were created in the beginning; sin is the abominable uncleanness of the soul, which estranges it from God, the Source of life—the enemy’s delusion, the shameful captivity and voluntary chains of the soul, sorrow and distress; it is a hellish darkness, a moral chaos, disorder, a weakening of the powers of soul and body, a demonic tumult, a storm within the soul, tossing the poor sinner’s soul this way and that, the loss of the soul’s quiet haven, which is God; it is a willing sickness and disease of the soul, and, if the sinner does not repent, it is the hardening of the heart, and temporal and eternal death.

Such, in general terms, is the ruin of sin. And yet many, many sinners commit every kind of sin, often love sin, play with sin, repeat their sins, adding sin to sin. And it was from just such a calamity of soul and body that the Lord delivered the paralytic, as He delivers us too. For what, then, did the Lord deliver the paralytic? For the faith of those who carried him, and for his own faith: «Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: be of good cheer, child, your sins are forgiven you». See how strong faith is! For faith alone, deliverance from how many evils! Have, then, the faith of God; and if anyone does not have it, let him ask it of God, who gives to all simply and without reproach: «and it will be given to him» (Jac 1:5). With faith, life is blessed; without faith, it is heavy and joyless. Having faith, one may be delivered from sin every day, seventy times seven, and be found worthy, just as many times, of the peace of God and the righteousness of God; but without faith it is easy to perish altogether in sin, as many indeed do perish.

Yes, brothers and sisters, faith is a priceless, incorruptible, heavenly treasure; let us all take care to acquire this treasure. Whoever believes lives in the light; he strives to live a holy life, guards himself against sin in every way, and if he sins through human weakness, he at once brings to God a heartfelt repentance, and is found worthy of forgiveness. But let us return to the subject we were speaking of, and continue to speak of the evil consequences of sin for our body, and of the Lord’s mercies toward the very body of the repentant sinner, and especially toward his soul. Since the consequences of sin are usually ruinous for our body too, on account of the close bond between soul and body, and the sinner is subjected to various sicknesses, the Lord, in having mercy on the soul of the believing and repentant sinner, has mercy on his body too, and heals it. «See, you are made well: sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you» (Jn 5:14). Such is the bounty of the Lord toward the repentant sinner!

His whole being is healed and renewed. And when the sinner’s sins are forgiven him, he is reconciled at once with God, with the hosts of heaven, with himself, and with the Church, this holy society of those being saved in Christ, and is once more found worthy, from God, of the adoption of sons, which he had boldly cast off before, in committing sin, and once more receives the grace and the power to do good works, to which each of us is called by our Christian calling, and is found worthy of the hope of the future inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ God, of which everyone who remains in sin deprives himself; to him return heavenly peace and quiet of conscience, an inward light, freedom and largeness of soul and body, boldness before God and men—in a word, the sinful man, forgiven by God, is renewed, is changed by a good change, becoming a new creature, and remains so, so long as he guards himself from new inclinations to sin. But if he falls again into the same or similar sins, his punishment is already redoubled and trebled, because he has rejected the grace of God and shown himself ungrateful to God his Benefactor. See, then, brothers, how great a gift the paralytic mentioned in today’s Gospel was found worthy of: all his sins, the cause of his sickness, were forgiven him; he was healed of the sickness itself; he was reconciled with God, with his own conscience, and, as we must suppose, believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, became a Christian, a child of Christ, and an heir of the heavenly Kingdom. See, then, what a great gift of God repentant sinners are found worthy of, for their faith. May we too, brothers, be found worthy from the Lord of His great mercy—the forgiveness of all our sins, and the all-blessed inheritance to come, and joy with the saints. Amen.