Spiritual Paralysis

Week of the Paralytic

Of old an angel came down to the Sheep’s Pool and healed one person every year; but now Christ cleanses endless multitudes by divine Baptism. (Canon of the Sunday of the Paralytic, fourth troparion of the first ode)

On the Sunday of the Paralytic, we hear the following Gospel passage:

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. (John 5:1–8)

What a horribly familiar scene! Countless sick and disabled people flock to the pool, seeking healing. It reminds me of many a visit of a holy relic or miracle-working icon to a church, or of a famous site of pilgrimage. Thousands may come together for what appears to be a religious motive, but each person comes for himself, seeking not a more intimate experience of God but a cure for whatever physical illness ails him. And the moment one has an opportunity to be healed, he rushes forward without a care for anyone else. For thirty-eight years, this paralytic found no one, not a single “religious” person to help him; not one who even considered loving his neighbor as himself! All these sick people were ailing with a terrible spiritual illness: selfishness.

The story of the paralytic is above all a cautionary taleof spiritual paralysis. Our souls are paralyzed by self-love, unable to lift a finger to help another at our own expense. Certainly most of us show concern for others, and many of us may do “a good deed for the day,” but when it is a matter of “him or me,” more often than not, the choice is “me.” This is the sickness of which all of us are in need of healing, a healing for which we must all cry out to Christ in repentance.

“Do you want to be made well?” the Church asks us every Pascha. And let us not say, as did the paralytic, “I have no one.” The paralytic thought he had no one to help him, no one who loved him, but he had the Lord Himself, as do all of us. He loves us with a pure, selfless love. Even if all others in the Church care only for themselves and their own, we have not been abandoned. For God is the guardian of orphans and widows, of the meek and defenseless, of the oppressed and forlorn (Ex. 22:22–23; Ps. 11[12]:5).

The Sheep’s Pool was the site of a miracle of healing that took place once a year. But now comes One greater than the angel who descended into the pool to cure physical sickness: here is One who offers healing of the soul to all people, in all places, at all times. He offers us baptism in “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11), a purifying fire that burns up all our sins and illumines the heart; a baptism of “water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) that washes away our iniquities and cleanses the soul.

Do we want to be made well? Do we wish to be cured of incurable selfishness? Do we desire to love our neighbor as ourselves? Do we long to become worthy of Christ’s baptism? If so, let us bring forth the fruits of repentance, let us renew our baptism with tears, and let us heed the hymn:

O barren and unfruitful soul, bring forth good works, that bearing comely fruits, you may cry: My heart is established; there is none holy and there is none righteous but You, O Lord. (Canon of the Sunday of the Paralytic, third ode, hirmos of the Paralytic)^[1]

^[1] Papavassiliou, Vassilios. Meditations for Pascha: Reflections on the Pentecostarion. Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2014. Print.