Health and Healing - Mercy from God
Sunday of the Paralytic
Acts of the Holy Apostles 9:32-42; John 5:1-15
In certain places on earth, especially in the mountains, in the foothills, there are mineral springs whose waters have healing properties. Mineral waters contain various salts, minerals, gases and other organic components that have therapeutic qualities.
Some waters people drink in certain doses, treating the internal organs of the human body (stomach, liver, kidneys, etc.); some waters are recommended for bathing: they help with rheumatism, arthritis, can have a calming effect on the nervous system and various physiological functions of the human body.
In Canada, there are well-known areas with mineral waters, such as Watrous, in Saskatchewan, and Banff in Alberta. In Ukraine, there are mineral springs: in Transcarpathia, and in various other locations, such as: the city of Khmilnyk, Vinnytsia region; Myronivka, Kyiv region; Truskavtsi, Lviv region; Myrhorod, Poltava region. There are many private mineral waters in the foothills of the Caucasus, in Czechoslovakia and other countries of the world.
The Bath of Bethsaida in Jerusalem was famous not for its mineral waters, nor for its chemical composition: at a certain time the water in this pond would begin to move and the first person to enter or get into the water, after the stirring of the water, "became healthy, no matter what disease he had." (John 6.4)
The Lord Jesus Christ came to this font... There, as the evangelist John recounts, "were lying many weak, blind, crooked, dry, waiting for the water to be broken."
Apparently, the water in the font was rarely disturbed... But Jesus Christ approached the weakened-paralyzed man who had been waiting in a helpless state for 38 years. There were no fit people nearby who could help him get into the water first when it was disturbed.
Christ did not help him climb into the water when it was disturbed, but healed the paralytic who had been paralyzed for 38 years. From that it is clear to us that the healing power was not in the water of Bethsaida, but in the grace of God. And he understood this when he recovered.
Where did he go first? - To the temple, to thank God. And Jesus saw him there.
Let's ask ourselves the question: do we, after recovering from some illness, seek to thank God first? Do we want to thank God in the temple for His kindness to us, for the fact that He makes us healthy or keeps us healthy?
We can hear commentary such as the following: "It was not God, but the doctor who healed me." (Some are very willing to say that the pills cured them, that even garlic cured them, but not God...) "If I too lay paralyzed for 38 years, and God healed me, I would go to church every Sunday to thank God."
A doctor is still a human being, and he heals with the means of God's creation, and he is also under God and depends on God for his abilities.
We who have not been paralyzed for 38, 40, 50 or 60 years, but healthy, have more reason to thank God every Sunday in the temple of God, to thank God daily for His mercy to us, than that man who was paralyzed for 38 years. And if we don't do that, if we are ready to thank God only for recovery from a serious illness, then we invite those illnesses upon ourselves...
It is important for all of us to remember this evangelical example also because a person was for many years, 38 years, infirm, but did not lose hope for God's mercy. Keeping faith and hope brought healing to the paralytic, brought Christ closer to him.
Let us not forget the instruction, the warning of Christ:
"Now you have recovered. - Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you." (John 5:14) – From that it is clear that ailments and diseases can overtake us as a result of our sins. And that could be worse than long-term paralysis.
There can be lifelong paralysis - lifelong spiritual death, when a person is in sinfulness, and dies without repenting. That is even worse than physical paralysis.
The following case is memorable:
I had recently been visiting a woman in the hospital. We were conversing...
- Are you really Orthodox, as registered on the card?
- Yes, Orthodox. Except that my husband and I rarely go to church; we used to go more... But even now we support our Church: when there is a dance, we go, and sometimes carollers come, then we also give a couple of dollars. After all, one must support one's own, be it the Church or business.
And I gained from that a conviction that that woman was spiritually paralyzed. Not only was she no longer conscious of God, she was not able to distinguish that which is God's from that which is human. She had completely lost Christian spirituality. That is then spiritual paralysis, spiritual deadness.
Such people are spiritually insensible, who walk in darkness, are accustomed to darkness and do not even want to see the light anymore. They are those who, according to the words of Christ, have eyes and do not see, have ears and do not hear. Apostle Paul’s entreaty should refer to them:
"Arise, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light!" (Ephesians 5:14)
We, believers in Christ, must see to it that such spiritually dead are resurrected in Christ. That Jesus Christ, who "rose from the dead, overcame death with death," that through us He might approach those spiritually dead, weakened-paralyzed ones, and heal them.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.