On the Healing of the Paralytic in Capernaum, as Narrated by the Evangelist Matthew;

It Also Speaks of Sorrow for God’s Sake

From Matthew. Reading 29.

We learn from many things to compare the words of the Gospel to honeycombs. The throat of the spiritual Bridegroom of souls, adorned with beauty beyond the sons of men, as written in the Song of Songs, is “sweetness and wholly desirable” (Song 5:16). To the soul betrothed to Him through wisdom and a pure spirit, the same writer says: “Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue” (Song 4:11). The Evangelists are entirely like this, their words forming a narrative akin to honeycombs filled with honey and milk, offering clear moral teaching suitable not only for the perfect but also for the imperfect, like spiritual milk. The text says “drop” rather than “pour forth abundantly” from the lips of the spiritual bride, pointing to the boundless depth of the wisdom and power of the Heavenly Bridegroom and the many expressions of His wisdom and strength. For, as the most theological Evangelist writes, “the things which Jesus did, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). For us, this single drop is an abyss, an immeasurable depth.

Thus, when we previously discussed the miracle of the paralytic as Mark proclaimed it to the Church, we nourished your souls with its grace. Today, carefully examining the same miracle as told by Matthew, we will again find abundant spiritual nourishment. Or rather, from the wealth stored within it, we will uncover something small today, and this small portion will suffice for all and overflow, like the loaves with which the Lord fed thousands in the wilderness, multiplying them as He shared them. Before, I offered you honey in the comb, explaining both the moral sense and the history of this miracle. Now, drawing out the honey, I will, as time allows, graciously serve it to those gathered today for this spiritual feast.

“At that time, Jesus entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed” (Matt. 9:1-2). We previously showed that this paralytic is not the one healed in Jerusalem, as narrated by John, and explained why Capernaum, alone among all cities, is called “His” city. Offering you, as spiritual co-diners, a taste of the honey within the comb, and using this Gospel story as an example to guide toward virtue, we showed that Jesus’ “own city” is this world. For, as the Evangelist says, “He came unto His own” (John 1:11). We also said that the paralytic represents every soul, and when it comes to its senses, it is brought to the Lord by four means: self-denial, confession of sins, the resolve to abstain from evil, and prayer to God.

Hearing Matthew say that Christ, entering a boat, crossed over and came to His own city, we draw from this a meaning different, yet harmonious, with Mark’s account. The Savior of all, having taken on our nature, crossed the sea of this life and came to His city—His supernal throne and dwelling place, above every principality, power, name, and dignity known in this age or the age to come. This is truly “His place,” accessible only to Him. The Psalmist Prophet reveals this, saying: “The heaven of heavens is the Lord’s” (Ps. 113:24), showing that heaven is His true home. Since the Lord, having come to His own place, did not divest Himself of our human nature, the Evangelist, saying that Jesus entered a boat and crossed over, does not add “disembarking from the boat.” Thus, He crossed to His city, entering the boat—meaning, in our body, He resides in the supernal realms.

When He came to the higher city, entered the Holy of Holies, and sat at the right hand of the Father in the human nature He assumed, “having obtained eternal redemption for us,” as the Apostle says, then from among the Gentiles who received the preaching of truth, were troubled in conscience, and humbled, yet still lying on the bed of sensual pleasure, enfeebled and paralyzed, unable to receive healing for spiritual illnesses—that is, forgiveness of sins—and thus immobile in doing good, the Apostles, selecting them from those who rejected repentance and piety, bring them to Christ. This is done especially by the four who wrote the Gospels. The Lord, seeing their faith—that is, the faith of the bringing Apostles—for the sake of their perfect faith (as they are our teachers and mediators in petitions to God), grants adoption even to the imperfect, saying to each: “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matt. 9:2). Leave fear of sins, He says, for they are forgiven; leave terror before what threatened you, for by receiving what is proclaimed, you are My son, My heir. This is accomplished through divine Baptism, in which we are reborn by the spirit of adoption, receiving forgiveness of former sins, and, as promised, becoming heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

But the scribes, Pharisees, Gentiles, and Jews do not believe in the power and grace of divine Baptism as we do, saying: “Who can forgive sins?” Yet we, once paralyzed in soul and body by delights and passions, immobile in doing good, each hear: “Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house” (Matt. 9:6), as did that paralytic. Strengthened by divine grace and the power of Baptism, we become strong and mobile for doing virtue. The faculties of soul and body, and the material things subject to them, which we once served and were paralyzed by, we now direct to please God and ourselves, making eternal and heavenly mansions truly our home. Thus, distinguished by our God-pleasing conduct, we inspire wonder in those who see, glorifying God, who gave such power to those who believe in Him, so that even on earth, we have our citizenship in heaven. Yet, though the grace and power of Baptism abide in us by the Giver’s grace, even if we sin after Baptism, the soul’s health and purity are not preserved.

Thus, when we sin, we need sorrow for our sins, shame, and penitential contrition, that each may hear in the soul: “Son, be of good cheer!” and, receiving mercy, turn sorrow into joy. This sorrow is spiritual honey, drawn from the solid rock, as it is written: “They sucked honey out of the rock” (Deut. 32:13); “and that rock was Christ,” as Paul says (1 Cor. 10:4). Do not marvel that I call sorrow “honey,” for it is what Paul describes: “Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of” (2 Cor. 7:10). As honey seems bitter to a wounded tongue but sweet when healed, so the fear of God, born from Gospel preaching in attentive souls, causes grief when sins’ wounds cover the soul. When these wounds are healed by repentance, souls receive evangelical joy, as the Savior said: “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). What sorrow? That which the Disciples felt at the loss of their Lord and Teacher; which Peter felt at his denial; which every pious person feels, repenting of sins and omissions due to negligence of virtue. When we fall into this, let us blame only ourselves, not others; for Adam gained nothing by blaming Eve for his transgression, nor she by blaming the serpent. For we, created by God as self-ruling and given autocratic power over passions—that is, the soul’s inner governing principle—are not ruled or compelled by force.

This, then, is salvific sorrow for God’s sake: to blame ourselves, not others, for our sinful deeds, to grieve over them, and through confession and heavy contrition to propitiate God. Ancient Lamech began this self-reproach, openly confessing his sin, judging and condemning himself more than Cain, saying: “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold” (Gen. 4:24). Lamenting himself as guilty, through painful contrition, he escaped God’s condemnation, as the Prophet later said: “Declare thou thine iniquities first, that thou mayest be justified” (Isa. 43:26). The Apostle also says: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31). Thus, Lamech was the first to escape punishment through repentance and sorrow for sins. After him, the Ninevites, whole cities, and countless others followed. Having sinned and received God’s sentence of condemnation, they dared to annul it through repentance and bitter contrition. They heard Jonah and believed his divine proclamation: “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jon. 3:4). Believing, they did not fall into despair’s abyss or harden their hearts with insensibility, but said to themselves and each other: “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?” (Jon. 3:9). Each turned from his evil way and the violence in his hands, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the least to the greatest. Even the king sat in sackcloth upon ashes, repenting; infants were not fed, for mothers, in intense weeping, forgot their suckling babes, as the Psalmist says: “I forgot to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning” (Ps. 101:5–6); cattle did not graze, as shepherds left them locked in pens, bound by great sorrow. United in salvific emulation of godly sorrow, they changed God’s sentence, stayed His wrath, and turned it into His good pleasure toward them.

Since nearly our entire life is spent in sins, we, brothers, must acquire this salvific sorrow and live our lives in repentance. For if we do not, as the Lord said, the Ninevites will condemn us at the resurrection, for they repented at Jonah’s preaching, while we have not repented at the preaching of Christ, who is both God and greater than Jonah. Jonah did not preach repentance but, as we said, proclaimed a sentence of condemnation, destruction, catastrophe, death, and utter annihilation. Christ, however, came that we might have life, and moreover, divine adoption and the heavenly kingdom. Jonah, proclaiming destruction, offered neither repentance nor the promise of the heavenly kingdom; Christ, preaching repentance and promising the kingdom, also foretold a general and inevitable destruction. For, He says, as in the days of Noah, when people indulged in fleshly passions without fear or restraint, and the flood came suddenly and destroyed them all, so it will be at the end of this age; for the fashion of this world passes away. Jonah threatened the Ninevites only with the loss of visible things here, not with the fearful judgment, the impartial tribunal, the unquenchable fire, the sleepless worm, the outer darkness, the gnashing of teeth, or inconsolable weeping. But the Lord forewarned of destruction and revealed that both are prepared for those who insensibly wallow in passions, to come after the world’s end. Yet this time will not come after three days, as Jonah proclaimed to the Ninevites, but after much time, due to the Lord’s longsuffering. Thus, God’s longsuffering leads you to repentance, but beware, lest through your stubbornness, insensibility, and unrepentant heart, you store up wrath for the day of righteous judgment and God’s revelation; for the Lord will render to each according to his deeds. To those who, with perseverance through works of repentance and a contrite heart, seek forgiveness of sins, He will grant forgiveness, joy, eternal life, and the ineffable kingdom. But for those who insensibly and unrepentantly indulge in sins, there will be sorrow, anguish, and unbearable, unending torment.

After the Ninevites, David became a herald of godly sorrow, a living example proclaiming the work of salvific and bitter contrition for God’s sake. For he recorded the sin he committed and showed God the depth of his sorrow and repentance, and the great mercy he received. He says: “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my heart” (Ps. 31:5), calling iniquity the root of evil—the passion dwelling in the soul; and transgression, the sin committed in deed, which he overcame entirely, and for which he grieved and wept. He not only found forgiveness but received inner healing. Hear how he persisted in sorrow: “I have been smitten all the day, and my chastening was every morning” (Ps. 72:14); and: “As mourning and lamenting, so was I humbled” (Ps. 34:12); and: “I will wash my bed every night; I will water my couch with my tears” (Ps. 6:7); and: “I am become as a raven of the night in the desert. I have watched, and am as a sparrow that sitteth alone upon the housetop” (Ps. 101:7–8); “I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping” (Ps. 101:10); and: “My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh is changed for want of oil” (Ps. 108:24); and: “I humbled myself, and the Lord saved me” (Ps. 114:5). With such words he cried to the Lord: “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord” (Ps. 6:1); and: “For mine iniquities are known unto me, and my sin is ever before me” (Ps. 50:5); and: “Lord, hear my prayer, and enter not into judgment with Thy servant” (Ps. 142:1–2). Therefore, brothers, let us come, worship, and fall down, and weep, as David himself says, before the Lord who made us and calls us to repentance, to this salvific sorrow, weeping, and contrition. For he who lacks this has not heeded the Caller, will not be numbered among God’s chosen saints, and will not receive the blessedness proclaimed in the Gospel or the promised divine consolation, for it is said: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).

But if someone claims to be sinless and need not weep? This is difficult, exceedingly rare, and perhaps impossible. For it is already a great thing if one can temper their passions. Yet the word also shows us another cause for this salvific weeping: the Disciples grieved, having lost the truly good Teacher, Christ, whom we also lose now. And not only Him, but also the delight of paradise, for we have lost it, and instead of a place without sorrow, we have received this place full of suffering and toil; we have lost converse with God face to face, fellowship with His angels, and eternal life. Who, aware of this loss, will not weep? One who does not perceive this is not among the faithful. But we, through divinely inspired teaching, knowing this loss, let us weep for ourselves, brothers, and with godly weeping wash away the stains of sin, that we may find mercy, return to paradise, and partake of eternal life and consolation. May this be granted to us all by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs all glory, dominion, honor, and worship, with His Father without beginning and the All-Holy, Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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