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"....My beloved, the story about the healing of the paralytic man at the
Pool of Bethesda is well known. There was this huge
cistern of water, around which there was always a swarm
of ailing people waiting patiently, given that God's love provided healing (albeit limited) to those who
could immerse themselves whenever the pool’s waters were
swirled violently by the presence of an angel of God.
We can clearly identify from this
Gospel narration that their healing was not a natural one, that is, it
wasn’t the result of a thermal spring, but a direct,
supernatural energy by God.
Alongside that cistern - the 'Pool', as mentioned by the Evangelist
John – was also a paralyzed man for a very long time; he
had been waiting there for 38 whole years, hoping to
enter the water in time, while it was being swirled by
the angel, so that he would be healed.
The Evangelist John notes: “And there was some person there,
having thirty-eight years with his illness.”
We become dizzy,
my beloved, when we hear that an illness lasted 38 whole
years! And what kind of illness was it? Paralysis... Can
a person really endure such a long-term illness, mainly
psychologically? Thus, we are looking at the phenomenon
of incurable and long-term illness. It is a phenomenon
that is unfortunately not at all rare in our day and age.
And there are indeed cases of people who are incurably
ill and have been suffering for a very long time -
either from birth, or from an accident that happened to
them, or from an illness that had appeared at some point
in their lives; and when all of them do remain disabled
thereafter, for life, they are unable to live as all
people normally live and move. And this, my beloved, can
happen to all of us; to others and to us. To all of us.
But
we might
ask,
if that happens to others, that is, to someone who might be a relative, or a
familiar person, or our neighbor, or a friend, then how
should we present ourselves in the presence of such a
person, who is incurably ill? The first thing we have to
do is to maintain a tireless friendly companionship with
them; with a conversation that we will have with them
when we are together – one that will not tire them. We
should not turn our discussion towards the issue of
their illness. If possible, we should take their
thoughts away from their situation.
I will give you an example. When we go to express our condolences to a
person or a family for their loss, because someone close
to them has died, we should not revolve our conversation
around the person of the reposed one – of the deceased.
Because, do you know what the result will be? When we
leave, these people will be even more distressed. They
often mention this, by saying “We don't want visitors,
because visitors make us more depressed”.
Why? Because the visitors don't know how to act
when they go to give their sympathies to the mourners.
And I would like to emphasize this point: that in
our discussions with them, we should avoid the topic
that is already tormenting the minds of the others.
Likewise with a sick person, we should distance
their thoughts from their problem, at least for as long
as we stay with them, in order to take the issue of
their illness away from their thoughts. We should talk
about various other things. That way, we will truly be
giving them – even if only for a little while – a
restful oasis.
Furthermore, when we go to visit them, we can and should always bring
them something - even if it's something small; even if
it is not something costly - for example a sweet, a
flower, a rose that we cut from our garden. Or if you
want, even a useful object, or a book – not necessarily
an expensively bound one with gold print; just a small
booklet - a cheap book, which, when they read it, will
keep them company for when we are away. We can also
tackle any external chores of theirs - bureaucratic
affairs - certificates, or a certain specific need. We
can go to the market and shop for them, etc. We can even
pray with them. But we must always tell them that we too
pray for them. Can you see how much we can offer to a
person who is bedridden, or in a chair or in an armchair
and unable to get up?
However, it is very important for us to try to ensure that their soul
is not overwhelmed by despair; we must in every way
stimulate their hope. Because... who can say that one
day a medicine won’t be discovered and they will be
cured? Or, that even a miracle of God may intervene?
Don’t miracles always take place? Undoubtedly, yes. I
could in fact tell you, that if the paralytic man in
today's Gospel passage had become disillusioned and
hadn’t gone to the Pool of Bethesda, the Lord would
undoubtedly not have approached him. But He did see him,
because the paralytic always had hope that something
would be done for him there, at the Pool - even though
that hope had extended for 38 whole years.
But if God's love and God's discipline permit this incurable and
long-term disease - it could easily be a long-term but
not incurable one, but it can also naturally be
long-term when incurable - so I will take them both into
account. Anyway, if it can happen to us, how should we
handle it? I would like to tell you how we should handle
it, with a true story that is close to us.
A few - very few - years ago, a man had died in the “Asylum for the
Incurable” in Athens. I will even tell you his name. His
name was Panayiotis Stylianopoulos. You may have even
heard mention of his name. He In fact, on the 7th
of December in 1958, had received a special diploma from
the Athens Academy, awarding him for his beneficial
social activity. How did this happen? Listen up and
learn. At the age of 19 he became paralyzed. And then he
was admitted to the “Asylum for the Incurable”. I don't
know if it's still called “Asylum for the Incurable”,
but still, that’s a terrible title. So, when this
19-year-old youth entered and had seen the sign “Asylum
for the Incurable” outside, he was overcome by despair:
“Does that imply I will never leave here? Will I only
get out of here when I’m dead?' he asked... So, you
can understand how despair came and literally crushed
his soul.
God's Grace, however, illuminated him. So he began to study the Bible.
Then hope entered him and he began to feel consoled. And
so, it occurred to him that there are others who are
surely worse off than him – for example, the blind,
which he had quite rightly acknowledged. So this
paralyzed man began to think about what he could do to
help the blind. He began to imagine making a machine
that would produce books printed in the Braille system
for the blind - which the blind could read by touch. I
don't know if you've seen any books that are written for
the blind. This machine of his achieved it. In fact,
this invention was considered unique in the whole world.
It was adjusted to his bed (by others of course), and
so, he would sit on the bed - because he was paralyzed
from the waist down, but his hands were not paralyzed -
and thus began, my beloved, to type books for the blind,
from the book with the Alphabet for young blind
children, to university books, religious books, the Holy
Bible... everything... he had supplied 10,000 blind
people in Greece with books.
I remember once, a few years ago, I was visited by a girl who had
finished - yes, she had truly finished - high school,
and I think perhaps also University, later on. When she
was about 5-6 years old, while playing with her sister
with a hand grenade they had found outdoors (this
incident had taken place here, in Larissa), she was left
blind when the grenade exploded. So I asked her: “How
do you manage, my child, and are able to study and read?”
(She was the student who was the top of her class at the
time, in high school – in the last grade)...
She explained: “Thanks to Mr. Stylianopoulos”.
“What is he?” - I asked – “a Doctor?”
“Don't you know”, she says to me, “Mr. Stylianopoulos?”
He was the same Stylianopoulos whose story I just described to you...
So, my beloved, that is why this man was so great and beneficial. The
Athens Academy - as I told you – came along to award him
for his contribution to society... to award the one who
had offered his services so beneficially to the
incurably blind. I forgot to tell you that he also gave
a tutorial to those people who had become blind – old
people, or those blinded after an accident or any other
cause - who of course were educated, but now were no
longer able to read. So he tutored them himself, helping
them to learn to read. Who helped them? That incurably
paralyzed man...
This story is, I think, a very eloquent answer. What did we say he did
first? He
received hope from God. A huge asset. He received hope
from God, then he considered how there were others in a
worse condition than his.
By the way... there’s a colloquial (Greek) expression that we use
frequently, but haven’t wondered what it implies: “Not
worse!”'
What does it imply? It is used when we warn
someone seriously, saying “What on earth are you
doing – or what were you thinking? Not worse!” That
is, we are wishing them 'May it not get worse!'.
That is what the expression ‘Not worse!’
implies.
So, what did he do then? He put his strengths to work - the strengths
that he had; he
surpassed himself, and also ignored his disability.
That's a huge thing. He didn’t grumble. He studied the
Bible and came to be a spiritual man. He didn’t grumble.
He didn’t feel resentful towards God. He had a lot of
patience. With such an attitude, we can clearly see how
he helped himself by surpassing himself, because he had
something to keep him preoccupied, without focusing on
his own problem. He had something to tackle. And he
eventually overcame the darkness of his despair.
But, dear ones, as you can see, in a long-term or incurable illness,
there is always a theological depth. A very important
theological depth. If we ask what illness is, we see
that the key to the answer is given to us in the same
Gospel passage, and it is given by the Lord. When the
Lord healed this man and then met him in the temple
after a few days, the Lord said to him: “Behold,
you have become healthy; Sin no longer, lest something
worse befalls you.”' Ahhh... so that means there
is a connection between sickness and sin; that is why
the Wisdom of Sirah notes: “Stay away from
transgression (=Do not commit, stay away from
sins) “and keep your hands accountable, and
cleanse your heart from all sin.”
Take note: “stay
away from sin” – why? Because in Wisdom of Sirah in
chapter 38 verse 15, “the sinner – by acting
against the One who created him -
will fall into the hands of a physician,”
In other words,
'he who sins will himself fall into the hands of a
doctor'. There ought to be signs, I think... I don't
know... inside hospitals - with this inscription. “He
who sins against the One who created him (=his
Creator) falls into the hands of a doctor”....
So: you don’t fast according to God? Some day you will be fasting
according to a doctor’s instructions, and so on....
Consequently, we can see that illness constitutes a means of punishment
– a pedagogical punishment- for rectification.
But, the interpreter Theophylactos asks: “But do
all sicknesses come from sin?” (are all
diseases, sicknesses on account of our sins?). “Not
all of them, but most of them” he
says; “for some of them are for sins, as in the
case of this paralytic” (in today's Gospel
reading on the paralytic), “and the other ones are
for
prospering and restoration, as in the case of Job, so
that his virtue would be shown.” (i.e., there
are also sicknesses that are not on account of sins). “And
an example of this” - says Theophylactus – “is
Job, who had no sins”... But of course no-one is
entirely sinless, but Job had no sins that would justify
his sufferings to be incurable - he had no grave sins...
It was for that
very reason, my beloved, that God gave them to Job... He
had given permission to the devil, so that Job’s virtue
would eventually prosper even more.
Then, let’s recall the very words of the Lord, when that blind man whom
the Lord had healed (it is in the forthcoming Gospel
reading) where the disciples asked Him: “Lord, who
had sinned? (he was born blind) His
parents or him?' Then one might wonder: When did
he manage to sin, if he was born blind?
But that’s
another story. Come here next Sunday to hear it – I will
tell it to you. Anyway, the Lord replied to that
question: “Neither he nor his parents.”
His blindness had been allowed, so that God would be
glorified (when Jesus Himself would be miraculously
restoring his vision.)
So, we see there are also instances that are not because of sins! Dear
friends, if we know a disabled or seriously ailing
person who has indeed committed sins, let us never say:
'Look, God has punished him for his sins'. Let us
not say it, lest sickness leaves him and comes to us.
Let's not say it, but instead let us say: “May God
show mercy; may God educate through sickness; the ‘why’
and the ‘how’ and God's plans cannot be deciphered by us
- they are inaccessible to our knowledge.”
For this reason, since the purpose is pedagogical, we should learn this
pedagogy of God when an illness comes to us, trace God’s
plans as much as we can, and end up giving praise to
God. In other words, we should not complain like “oh,
look what happened to me... what has befallen me...”
but we should say: 'Glory to God!'
If you see someone who is bedridden and they are suffering from one
thing or another and they have no prospect of getting
up, yet you hear them say: 'Glory to God', that person
has matured, they have progressed spiritually - and that
is very important.
It is also characteristic that the paralytic was a “someone”. Speaking
of which... what was his name? Well, It is not of
importance that his name wasn’t written in the Gospel
text... He was “some person”.
This is how the Evangelist John puts it:
“And there was a certain person....”
(some person)... What does that signify? It means
that every person, anyone, who is anonymous to us, is
nevertheless eponymous to God. God knows each one of us.
If I may use the expression, Christ went ‘expressly’ to
him. Why? Because Christ knew him.
You may ask “how
come He knew the man?” Well, wasn't Christ God? That’s
how He knew the man. So,
one must NEVER say: “God doesn’t know me”... or,
“He has forgotten me”.
A little further down, we will see this: “And (Jesus),
knowing that the (paralytic) man
was already thus for a
long time...”, what did He do?
He went to that man!
And how did Christ know about him?
Well, that’s what I want to tell you, my beloved:
that God is neither unaware, nor does He forget. So,
don’t ever say “God has forgotten me”. Or that
blasphemous phrase: “There is no God. Because if
there was, why has he left me (beware! A
second blasphemy!)... to be tortured?'
Is it God who
torments man? What is He? A torturer?!
“Jesus - on seeing him lying on the
ground (per the pursuant verse) and
knowing that he (the paralytic) was
already thus for a long time, says to him: do you want
to become healthy?”
Jesus saw the paralytic man “lying on the ground”. What does “lying on
the ground” imply? It is suggesting that the man’s body
was stretched out on the ground in a horizontal
position. It
certainly wasn’t the positon we take when we want to
sleep; it was an unnatural positon – a different kind –
because that person was unable to take a different
position in order to get up... It was as though the Lord
was saying to him - when he saw him lying on the ground:
“I, your Creator, had fashoned you to be upright.
So how come you are now lying down on the ground,
horizontally? Who threw you down? I had fashioned you as
upright.”
You do realize, my beloved, that this incident was symbolic of the
fallen image of God’s creation (Adam) – of
the fallen man, of fallen humankind? Because that is
what drew the Son of God to the paralytic: fallen
humankind. It drew the Son of God to come in our
midst in order to raise us up again.
“And knowing that he (the
paralytic) was already thus for a long time...”
How ‘long’ was
that time? Of course He knew that, because (His)
divine nature informs (His) human nature.
Christ knew it, supernaturally.... Well, it was the
time of pre-Christ humankind. It was the ‘long time’
that mankind has remained fallen.. the time before
Christ, for all of mankind... It was the time that had
led humanity into paralysis. A little longer - as a
wise man had said - and humanity would have become a
corpse. It would have died. So, the Son of God had
chosen the most suitable time to become incarnate.
It is what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians: “When
the fullness of time came” (the fulfilling, the
proper moment, the time had come), “God sent forth
His Son, who was born of woman, that we might savour the
adoption...” (receive adoption from God).
And when Jesus saw him lying on the ground, what happened? “He
says to him....” (Yes, with His incarnation, God
opens a dialogue with man, He talks with man); Mount
Sinai no longer covers itself with smoke, nor is it set
ablaze by the presence of God. People no longer hear
God's voice from Mount Sinai and are afraid they will
die of fear... God's voice becomes human; it becomes
very human. And what does Jesus say now, on
commencing a dialogue with the paralytic? “Do you
want to become healthy?” God goes as far as
asking the man if he wanted to be upright again...
healthy... completely healthy...
He also wants in that way to show God’s respect for the freedom He had
bestowed on man. Because you may actually not want
to become healthy... Because perhaps the question...
(but, really, what kind of question is “Do you want to
become healthy?”)... Well, there are way too many people
who do not want to get well. It’s quite simple:
you want to not have cancer, to not get cancer...
At least in one case... in one case; In fact, the first: “Don't smoke!”
But you do smoke, therefore you don't want to not get
cancer. In which case, the question: 'Do you want to
get well?' is not inappropriate.
I'm sorry I don't have time to show this to you... many people love the
situation they are in and don't want to get well!
Strange? And yet it's real, it's true. However, this is
where we see the freedom that God gives to man, by
asking him: “Do you want to get well?”
implying “I'm not going to forcefully make you
healthy.”
The Lord also wants to show him that, apart from the Pool, it is also
Jesus who heals - not the pool alone. Or rather, we
should say that Jesus literally is the One who heals and
that He alone is the One who heals. And the Pool? It was
a “foreshadowing”.
Jesus now comes, preparing a new Pool - the Christian Baptism - which
gives us wholeness and also grants us the Adoption.
Dear friends, everything that today’s Gospel reading narrates, and
whichever other passages mention miracles of Christ in
the Gospels, the Apostle Peter has described in a very
concise phrase how the Lord spent His earthly life.
How did he spend it? It is in the book of Acts 10:38:
“...who went through life doing good and healing
those
who were oppressed by the devil.”
But Christ wants a basic prerequisite. Humanity, from the moment it
came to know Christ, must no longer sin. The peoples
- unfortunately the Christian peoples - should not sin.
Because they came to know Christ.
That is why apostasy - our distancing from Christ - is a grave sin. And that which Christ had said: “lest something worse befalls
you”: what else do you think the “something
worse” is, if not the acknowledgement of the Antichrist?
Is there anything worse than that? When you abandon
Christ and admit the Antichrist?
This also applies, my beloved, to each person personally. Each of us
may have been, in the short or long term, a paralytic
of sin; one who was paralyzed by sin. Now that he
has become healthy and now knows Christ, let him be
careful, because then - as the Lord Himself says in the
Gospel of Matthew 12:45 – “that man’s final state
will be worse than his previous state”'.
My beloved, whoever is truly intelligent according to Christ (as
we all want to be intelligent – a truly intelligent
person), will fill his soul with the fear of God - a
fear that if he loses Christ, he will lose himself...."
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FOR THE GLORY OF THE HOLY TRIUNE GOD -
and with immeasurable gratitude to our spiritual guide, the reposed
Elder Athanasios Mitilineos,
Digital processing and editing of the transcript of the homily: Eleni
Linardaki, philologist
SOURCES:
•Greek article:
https://www.impantokratoros.gr/C1FCB0EB.el.aspx
•Transcript of a speech by the hand of the honorable Mr. Athanasios K.
•https://www.arnion.gr/
Translation: A.N.
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