Homily for the 6th Sunday After Pentecost. -Met. Korniliy (Titov)
During today’s Divine Liturgy, we hear the Gospel account of the Savior’s healing of the paralytic in the city of Capernaum. Attentive Christians may recall that this Gospel reading is presented to the faithful twice a year. This fact alone underscores how instructive this Gospel is for us. At the beginning of the reading, it is said that Jesus came to His own city. Last Sunday, we read that the people of the Gadarenes did not accept Jesus Christ, fearing that if He remained with them, their possessions would perish and the order of their earthly life, so familiar to them yet rooted in corruption and decay, would be disrupted. They found God’s law, which overcomes evil and frees the afflicted from sin and evil forces, unpleasant. At their request, the Lord departed from the region of the Gadarenes.
In today’s Gospel, it is written that Jesus Christ came to His city, Capernaum. From this city, He would go out to pray in the wilderness or to preach in neighboring towns, only to return again. For this reason, the Apostle Matthew calls Capernaum “His city.” And so, compassionate people brought a paralytic, lying on a bed, to His feet. Seeing their fervent and heartfelt faith, the Savior said to the paralytic, “Take courage, child, your sins are forgiven. Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And immediately, the afflicted man was healed, took up his bed, and went to his home (Matt. 9:2–7).
The Lord granted the sick man a twofold mercy: He forgave his sins and healed him. To understand the significance of the first gift—forgiveness of sins—we must recognize how great a misfortune it is for a person to remain in sin and how destructive it is, for our bodily ailments are more tangible and understandable to us, while the calamity of sin is less obvious, especially to a proud and faithless soul blinded by disbelief. Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4), that is, the violation of God’s law given to humanity—above all, the commandment to love God and neighbor. Sin is agreement with the devil, the source of all evil, which separates us from God, the Source of life. It is the loss of the soul’s quiet refuge amid the storm of demonic confusion and hellish chaos. Sin is a voluntary affliction and disease of the soul, leading to temporal and eternal death.
In the beginning, our first parents, Adam and Eve, had no diseases and lived happily in paradise. But when, at the devil’s instigation, they transgressed God’s commandment, a destructive disorder occurred not only within them but also in all of surrounding nature. Because of their unrepentant sin, the righteous God expelled them from paradise and condemned them to diseases, exhausting labors, and death. Thus, the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, became the root cause of all diseases and evils in the human race. The Apostle Paul confirms this, saying, “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death” (Rom. 5:12), along with all the afflictions that precede it.
Sin subjects us to diseases and calamities not only because evil has natural consequences but also because it separates us from God, the Source of our life and all good. By turning away from Him, everything becomes disordered, dies, and returns to dust (Ps. 103). Moreover, our sin provokes God’s righteous anger, prompting Him to punish us according to His law of justice. God sends us illness or other misfortunes so that through such punishment we might repent of our sins. Thus, the wise man says, “Fire and hail, famine and death—all these were created for vengeance upon sinners” (Sir. 39:36). Similarly, the Apostle exclaims, “Tribulation and anguish upon every soul that does evil” (Rom. 2:9).
Therefore, the paralytic was healed immediately when the Savior forgave his sins. The illness of this man, it seems, stemmed from the primary source of our afflictions—sin, with which we are all born. As the prophet says, “In sins did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 50)—in sins that we later multiply by our own will. Thus, when the Son of God removed the root cause of the paralytic’s illness by forgiving his sins, the illness ceased, and the man was healed. As the psalmist exclaims, “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered; blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them!” (Ps. 31). In healing the paralytic, the Lord first heals the soul afflicted by sin and then the body. “Child,” He says to the paralytic, “your sins are forgiven.” With these words, He teaches us to humbly and deeply acknowledge our sins during illnesses, to sincerely repent of them, and to seek forgiveness from the Lord with the resolve to sin no more. Yet our spiritual strength is often not directed toward fulfilling God’s commandments, as we follow the desires of our passions and thus need Christ’s gracious help.
Today’s Gospel is highly instructive for us because we, too, are paralyzed by sin. This is characteristic of the spirit of our time, when most people are softened and incapable of spiritual struggle. There are hardly any ascetics left; our land has grown barren of Christian feats. Yet Christianity is sustained by such feats. To live righteously, we must not let sin rule over us; we must strive with all our strength toward virtue, constantly endeavoring to perform feats. It is no coincidence that the saints are called ascetics. The time of our life is a time for deeds and feats—feats of overcoming the many temptations that fill the world and feats of preserving the Orthodox faith.
In today’s Gospel, we are given the example of a paralyzed man who could neither pray fervently, nor attend church, nor visit holy places, but could only believe, that is, continually strive toward the Kingdom of God. When this man, in humility and faith, endured the path appointed to him by God and bore all its trials, the Lord, seeing this, raised him from his bed of illness. This Gospel instills in us the hope that our efforts, even small steps toward God, are not in vain. The Lord sees our striving, as St. John Chrysostom says, “The Lord even kisses our intentions,” meaning He welcomes them. For these intentions, for our small acts of love and mercy, for our patience, the Lord raises us from spiritual weakness and paralysis if we live faithfully to God, bearing our cross with humility and patience.
St. Gregory Palamas writes, “The one who is spiritually paralyzed yet falls to the Lord with faith immediately hears from Him, ‘Child,’ that is, ‘son,’ and receives both forgiveness of sins and healing—not only this, but also the strength to take up the bed on which he lay, bound to it, and carry it. By ‘bed,’ understand the body, in which the mind, following carnal desires, rests, and which, weighed down by the body, clings to sinful deeds. But after healing, our mind becomes the leader, carrying the body as its subject, manifesting the fruits and deeds of repentance.” He further writes that our mind, healed by the Lord, does not merely carry but elevates our body to our true home—the heavenly realm where Christ our God now reigns.
Whoever desires good for themselves and others must first fight against sin, making it a rule to flee from sin, vigilantly and thoughtfully guarding their moral ascent. For the life of those who have not been cleansed through repentance and have not received the blessing of forgiveness and God’s mercy is heavy. All the sins and iniquities of an unrepentant sinner weigh upon them, causing endless spiritual suffering. But through repentance and faith in the redemptive sufferings of our Savior, the Lord grants us forgiveness of sins, along with the forgetting of our sinful past, relief of conscience, vigor, and a surge of spiritual strength for moral ascent to our true home. Our soul, freed from the bondage of sin through repentance, is filled with God’s grace and moral strength, which enabled the Apostle to say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Phil. 4:13).
Yet it is no coincidence that, after the miracle of healing, Christ adds, “Behold, you are healed; sin no more.” It is not enough to cast out the demons of sin—they may return if the house, that is, our soul where they dwelt, remains merely swept clean but empty and unoccupied. The soul must be filled with pious thoughts and feelings, maintained in constant vigilance, and directed toward spiritual growth. The fruits of repentance are needed—striving toward God and good deeds—that will expel sin from the soul and leave no room for the return of demonic, sinful thoughts and actions.
In today’s Gospel, we see the blessed power of human unity, the boldness of their faith, and their love for their afflicted friend. The Lord saw their faith and, through their faith, healed the paralytic brought by his friends to the Savior’s feet. The actions of the sick man’s friends are a living prayer, wordlessly testifying to their faith in the Lord and their love for their friend. St. Ephrem the Syrian says, “Do not confine your prayer to words alone; let every action of yours be an act of worship.” By this, he shows that everything we do for our neighbors has spiritual significance. Our prayer must be supported by acts of mercy, not be empty words, but become actions that testify before God that our hearts have been touched by compassion for another’s suffering, calling out to Him with the prophet Isaiah, “Lord, if You wish to send me and work Your mercy through me—send me, Your servant!” (Isa. 6:8).
Such should be our prayer of love, our intercession, and our care for one another. The Apostle urges us to this, saying, “Let love be genuine; be devoted to one another in brotherly love; outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10). It is no coincidence that the Lord commands us, “Take courage,” so that our faith may not be formal or cold, but a matter of living prayer and living love. Thus, the Apostle instructs, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord; rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12).
The entire Gospel is filled with accounts of the wondrous deeds of mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ toward us, afflicted and wayward people. Likewise, throughout Holy Scripture, it is proclaimed that the primary cause of all troubles and misfortunes is sin—the greatest evil, the root of all evils, and the cause of death.
Brothers and sisters! The Lord, in healing the paralytic through the faith of his friends, first heals the soul afflicted by sin, and then the body. Our soul, created in the image of God as rational, free, and immortal, is afflicted by sin. Therefore, Christ redeemed us from the slavery of sin and death with His blood, offering Himself as a voluntary sacrifice to God the Father for us. In this, His boundless love and mercy for the fallen human race are revealed. Let us, above all, fear sin, strive with all our strength for our salvation, diligently fulfill the Lord’s commandments, carefully avoid sin, and fear provoking the Lord’s anger and bringing misfortune upon ourselves. And if, through the devil’s temptation, our weakness, or carelessness, we do sin, let us not despair or remain in sin, but turn to the Savior with repentance and earnestly, with faith and hope in His mercy, beseech Him for the forgiveness of our sins. And the Lord, seeing our faith and the faith of those who pray for us, will say to us, as He said to the paralytic, strengthening and giving us courage and strength: “Take courage, child!”—and with the forgiveness of sins, He will heal us of our bodily ailments by His great mercy.