"Your Sins Are Forgiven"
6th Sunday after Pentecost
Romans 12:6-14; Matthew 9:1-18
This is how Jesus spoke to the paralytic when He saw the faith of those who brought him (Matthew 9:2). Thus, the Lord showed mercy when He saw the presence of faith either in the patient himself or in his neighbours, in the people caring for him. Faith is the means of our unity with God, and therefore through the manifestation of faith we can receive God's mercy. People who do not possess faith (either through not receiving it in their upbringing or having lost it), do not find the way to unity with the Creator.
Here is an example from a forensic (court) investigation:
A young man bit a woman, then chopped off her hands, legs, head... The cruelty is simply indescribable. Why he did all that - no explanation has been found. That young man did not even know the woman before the murder. Was he acting under the influence of the so-called LSD? - It is not known, those are only speculations.
The defense lawyer argued for the acquittal of that murderer and torturer on the basis of a "scientific" theory: man comes from a beast - an ape having human-like form, so sometimes man manifests atavistic animal instincts and can commit such or similar crimes.
Yet, a person's link to an animal origin cannot justify such a crime. Predatory animals kill others not for pleasure, but to find food for themselves. Predatory animals such as, for example, a wolf, a lion or a tiger have no other means of obtaining food.
However, a human being was created by a discrete act, a unique action of God. The tragedy of humanity lies not in a single serious crime, which lawyers try to justify by the animal origin of man, but in the fact that countless thousands of young people are crippled spiritually and morally, because they are taught in schools that they are nominally of animal origin, although in reality no one has ever been able to confirm that statement - all that exists is that it is one of the hypotheses. The animal origin of people is taught in schools under the dictate of the godless, and in countries where the majority of those in power and in the government are believers.
Due to the acceptance of that unproven hypothesis in schools, in life for several generations, murders, crimes caused to people cease to be a sin and a crime against God, a violation of the Commandment of God, but only a violation of a certain article of the criminal law of this state. And as a result, there can be such an amazing defence presented on behalf of criminal killers - atavistic animal instincts. Such arguments can be presented in countries where the majority are Christians.
In those jurisdictions where the godless are in power, it is easy to put such articles or paragraphs into the penal laws, which cruelly punish people who show mercy, who try to fulfill the commandments of Christ, who try to do good - to help their neighbours. For example, when someone helped the derelict “kurkuli”, gave them shelter, such people were disgraced and treated as criminals, punished according to the godless codes of law.
And those who showed cruelty, those who tortured, persecuted good people - those were rewarded with privileges, medals, etc. Because of this, we are witnesses of a great moral decline in countries where the godless rule.
The measure of morality and accepted standard of relations among our people for centuries was regulated not by the state laws of various occupiers (Tatars, Poland, Russia, Austria, Hungary, Romania), but by the constant Commandments of God - laws given by God. Consequently, such an environment was created that for murderers, thieves, and debauchers --when they were not punished by the law of the state-- they were punished by the traditional law of our believing people. Unrepentant sinners were called wretched and they could not find support, shelter among our people. For instance, Svyatopolk, who killed his brothers, wandered through different lands, seeking refuge (circa 980-1019).
Such an orientation towards unrepentant sinners and criminals was the result of the supremacy of the steadfast belief that man is a special creation of God, that man is created in the image of God, and when he destroys that image of God, he commits a great sin both against God and against people, and against his own conscience from which one cannot escape.
Christ clearly affirmed that when someone does good, shows mercy towards his neighbour, he performs those good actions for Him as well. Similarly, when someone shows indifference to one’s neighbour, does not want to help him, visit him, then he shows that indifference to Christ.
"'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" (Matthew 25:40)
Therefore, our Christian consciousness also perceives that those crimes against the "least of our brothers", against our neighbours are also crimes against Christ, a sin against God. A criminal in our environment is also and first of all a sinner before God who needs repentance.
As the Church, as Christians who truly confess God, we should never be satisfied with punishing the criminal, but we should always strive to do everything possible to move the criminal to repentance and unity with God the Creator.
Our example should be the Lord Jesus Christ, who, when a paralytic was brought to Him, first ensured that he was healed spiritually, and thus he said to the paralytic: "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven." (Matthew 9:2).
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.