[Music] [Music] i wish to thank abuna peter for inviting me to give me the blessing of to be here with you i wish to thank also abuna bulas i pray with the bunabulas in the archdiocese it is a blessing to see him it is a blessing to be with you all this morning so today we continue our journey throughout great lent we see that now there the church through the holy spirit has arranged some beautiful stories through the sunday gospels we had a couple weeks ago the story of the prodigal son last week we had the story of the samaritan woman and today we have the story of this man who was sick he was paralyzed for 38 years this is a very well known story we all know it starts off the story it says after this there was a feast of the jews that feast of the jews where the people were going to jerusalem is our modern day feast of pentecost so during this feast the angel used to come down and stir the waters and by the way this was a symbolism of the incarnation of god who came down and actually the stirring could be a symbol of his suffering when he was here and we also see a description in the story that this pool was closed off and there were five porches the five porches symbolize in the old testament the five books of moses so through the old testament there was still some gift but the gift was very limited only one person can enter the water and one person could be healed saint john chrysostom was speaking about the old testament way of healing it's kind of like when you put somebody who's sick or has a physical sickness and you wash him with water the water itself becomes soiled the water becomes dirty and nobody else can wash in that water but in the new testament the more we wash and the more people that wash the more that the water is cleansed and the more the water can continue to cleanse that's in the new testament and the whole world can enter into this water and the whole world can be saved not just one person because even in the old testament we were all under the shadow of death so we look at this man and maybe we can get a better description of this man we see he's paralyzed for 38 years so he had a physical problem but the bible also speaks about a spiritual problem because at the end of the gospel our lord jesus christ to him to whom be the glory says sin no more lest something worse come upon you so we know he had physical problems for 38 years we know he had spiritual problems for 38 years i think he even had social problems and family problems he said i have nobody to help me he had no friends no family of course he had nothing to do in terms of a career or work so he was in this very depressed sad almost hopeless state and he's surrounded by a great multitude of sick people the bible mentions there's a great multitude of sick people and then it mentions three types it mentions blind lame and paralyzed but those three are just mentioned as examples why blindness because some people could be blind it's a symbol of them not seeing god or not opening their guides their eyes to god lame could be a person who is maimed one arm or dismembered for certain part but the paralyzed is almost completely immobile the actual definition of paralysis is a loss of the ability to move in either part of your body or in your whole body and it's a state of what would be called powerlessness the paralyzed man is trying to move but he cannot move he starts to move a little bit but once he starts to move he can't make it to the pool and somebody beats him to the pool so this person was very much disabled physically by the way the opposite of paralysis like an antonym for paralysis is success or progress so very often we work for success in our personal lives we work to progress in our personal lives we work to do really well and we focus a lot on school we want to do well in school we study very hard we want to do well at work we want to excel we want to prosper we want to have success at work we're not it's not enough for us to just do the work that we have in front of us at the task in front of us but we also want to maybe get a promotion do better earn earn a better living we all struggle actually in egypt the coptic people had this beautiful culture a culture of excellence and that's what we work for we work for success in our personal lives we work for success with our friends and we work to progress and have those relationships whatever it is even materials sometimes we want to acquire a home or a bigger home or a car or a better car whatever it may be but we do put a big focus on those material things today's gospel is asking us are we putting any focus on our spirituality or are we spiritually paralyzed that's the point of the gospel are we really putting a focus to succeed in our spiritual lives and to progress in our spiritual lives or is everything really focused elsewhere is all our time and effort and energy focused elsewhere saint paul says in the first epistle to timothy chapter 4 let no one despise your youth but be an example to the believers in word in conduct in love in spirit in faith in purity and then he continues by saying meditate on these things and give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all so saint paul is is reminding us that we should be pushing and and focusing on our spiritual life that the evident and our progress may be evident to all people if we focus on good conduct good words love spirit faith and purity or are we paralyzed now this paralyzed man was paralyzed for 38 years and jesus came and jesus said to him that he already knew that he was in that state for a long time so if we suffer from a spiritual paralysis for 10 20 30 40 years today christ comes to visit us and he says to us do not fall into despair the lord will never leave you and the prayer of thanksgiving that we read earlier we see um we read from the gospel of saint luke where the gospel says behold christ says behold i give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harm you or hurt you we have such power to defeat satan and to defeat these sins that maybe paralyzed us spiritually i remember i was with a group about a few weeks ago and they were talking about satan and how satan works and this and this and this but i recall one time abuna tadrus asking us where is satan where is satan in our life and he said satan is underneath my feet because the verse in the bible says i give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions so do not fall into despair even if you feel that you don't have the spiritual progress you continue to fall into the sin and fall into the sin and fall into the sin do not despair the verse from proverbs chapter 24 16 is for a righteous man may fall seven times but he shall rise up again it says he shall rise again and that's why in this gospel our lord jesus christ the first the first word of healing to the paralytic was rise rise take up your bed and walk take up your bed and walk was not really to heal him but it was to prove the miracle so witnesses around him can say yes this man who can barely make it into the pool and couldn't move now has the strength and the power to stand up take his bed carry his bed and walk because christ wanted people to behold the miracle he wanted witnesses we have another example of this in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand it wasn't enough that they ate but when our lord performed this miracle he wanted to make sure that there were many fragments left over that it filled 12 different baskets so there can be 12 at least 12 witnesses in the apostles who were assisting our lord jesus christ in the miracle he wanted witnesses even if you recall the story of when our lord jesus christ changed the water into wine he said take the wine and then he took the wine that was just made and give it to the master of the feast the master of the feast when he tasted the wine he it says he didn't know where it came from and he said this is this is this is the best wine and then he called in the bridegroom and had a question so the master of the feast didn't even witness the miracle but tasted the miracle it was a blind tasting test kind of a thing so christ wanted people to witness his miracle but the healing came in the first word rise rise take up your bed and walk the word of the lord is is the point of the psalm today it speaks about the power of his word to establish and to make the heavens so today our lord jesus christ if he sees you or if you feel you are spiritually paralyzed all he says to you today is rise rise take up your bed and walk and with that we have healing in the epistle today the catholic epistle from the second chapter of saint peter there's the verse that says with the lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day so even if you were in sin for a thousand years to god that's like one day that you were away from him if you rise up and walk so do not fall into despair and our church during this fast gives us some beautiful examples of people that rose up and were healed even when they were in spiritual paralysis for example today we we read the doxology we pray the doxology and in the doxology we refer to the right hand thief the right hand thief who says remember me o lord when you come into the kingdom the right hand thief we pray a beautiful prayer in the sixth hour of basra called the confession of the thief and in this prayer we say to the thief all your years you lived as a criminal in the forests of jerusalem all your years but with one word at the last second you gained the kingdom of heaven actually we say that the thief in this prayer he stole this thief even managed to steal the kingdom of heaven and that's why there's the verse that the that the the kingdom of heaven suffers violence because we can steal we can steal the kingdom of heaven just like the thief did but our time to repent and our time to rise is now i re i recall the reading of the prodigal son the prodigal son it says that he came to himself which means he came to his senses and he said you know the servants even the servants that worked for my father they had so much to eat and they had enough to give away here i am i'm about to perish i'm about to die because of hunger so he he said i'm gonna rise up i'm going to rise up and i'm going to go to my father and i'm going to say father i have sinned against you and i have sinned against heaven please make me like one of your servants at the very least but that wasn't enough to come up with the plan was not enough so then the next verse says then he rose up and he went to his father so today we have to rise up we can't just come up with a good plan but we have to rise up so we can come to christ another great example of a great saint who lived this life where i would say he was spiritually paralyzed was saint augustine we know saint augustine focused on success in his educational life and work but he did live a life far away from god he actually even lived with a woman he was not married to for 13 years and he even had a child with this woman and he never married her to the point where the woman herself said if you're not going to marry marry me then you're living in a sin she herself witnessed to the sin she got up and she repented and she left him and she left saint augustine with the baby when we know the story about saint monica how many years his mother prayed for him until finally he repented he changed he accepted christ so he was in the spiritual paralysis for so many years until maybe he was like third in his mid-30s and then later on he had changed so even if we live for many years in a sin do not despair there is always an opportunity to repent but the time is now so our lord jesus christ is coming today uh to heal you today if you are in any type of spiritual paralysis by telling you rise up and walk now by the way our lord when he heals he heals in his way he's not going to heal in the typical way that you think may be healed with the samaritan woman the samaritan woman was asking our lord jesus christ well where should i worship should i worship on this mountain here in samaria or should i go to jerusalem and worship because she was bogged down by many of the different customs and the jewish customs but she was a foreigner but our lord jesus christ said no neither there neither here but or neither there or in this mountain but here you worship god in spirit and truth he found a different way this paralyzed man was like i don't have anybody to bring me to the pool but our lord jesus christ a different way i'm not going to use that same way i have a different way to heal you so our lord jesus christ can speak to us in a different way he may heal us in a way that you don't expect so in our prayer we may be asking the prayer can you heal me o lord in this fashion but he has a different plan on how he wants to heal us saint cyril of jerusalem teaches us that the word the name jesus in hebrew it does mean savior but in greek it means healer he is the healer he is the true physician and in every liturgy of saint basil we pray the litany of the sick where our fathers the priests would say oh you the true physician of our souls and bodies the bishop of all flesh visit us with your salvation that's the point please oh lord come and visit us he came to this to this man he came to him twice and the story of the prodigal son the prodigal son goes to the father and then the father meets him in the story of the samaritan woman our lord jesus christ goes to her to give her salvation in this story he comes to this paralyzed man two times he comes to him to bring him salvation and heal him and then after our lord jesus christ withdrew he came to him again and found him in the temple our lord we ask him as the true physician of our souls and bodies to visit us to come to us and visit us with his salvation so today the question is what will we do because we do have free will and our lord jesus christ will not force us the gift is here but we have to do our part the first epistle of saint john chapter 1 it says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we have to confess our sins we have to live a life with the sacraments and during great lent all of the priests and all of our fathers open up their homes their time for us so we can repent and we can confess a beautiful story about confession and somebody that was spiritually paralyzed for many years was saint moses the ethiopian the strong saint moses saint moses it says that when saint macarius the great was hearing his confessions he saw a tablet that was entirely black but as saint moses confessed every sin it started to be erased and angels started to erase to a race to erase all the sins until it was a blank clean slate so we have to do our part which is at the very least which is to confess and even if the entire board is filled with sins we have through the sacrament of confession and through the sacrament of the eucharist we have a way to be forgiven of our sins but we have to do our part it's not easy but sometimes we want a quick turnaround and sometimes we want spiritual progress that's very very fast saint moses the strong suffered with this and he was um it says that he became discouraged and so saint isidor took him one time and said come rise up with me very early i want to show you something and he took saint moses before the sun was rising and as the sun rose he showed him he said do you see how the sun is rising slowly and how the light covers and destroys and pushes back the darkness that's the spiritual growth it's a gradual spiritual growth so don't be discouraged if you don't get an automatic return of you can't become perfect but through a gradual spiritual growth we will grow together so the point of today's gospel i pray is that if any of us feel that there's a sin whether it's small or something great in our lives and if whether we've been in this sin for many many years and it's become a habit we have an opportunity do not despair christ is coming to us today to visit us in his way to grant us health grant us healing may we all have this spiritual progress may we have this focus on the spiritual success during these few days that remain of lent please pray for me glory be to god forever [Music] [Music] you