Homily for the 2nd Sunday of the Great Fast #
For the past two weeks of Great Lent, and even during the preparation leading up to it, the Holy Church has called upon us to examine our souls more deeply, to understand where repentance is needed, and to reflect on our lives to determine what must be changed. Through the Gospel, the Lord calls us: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). The Kingdom of God is not only near—it must enter within us: “For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), says the Lord. The Heavenly Kingdom must take root within us, filling us with the grace of the Holy Spirit, uprooting all power and influence of the adversary, and overcoming sinful inclinations in those who strive to live according to God’s law.
Saint Gregory Palamas, in his homily for the second week of Great Lent, writes:
“Since the Kingdom of God is near, let us make ourselves worthy of it through deeds of repentance; let us exert ourselves, rejecting evil desires and habits, for ’the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.’ Let us imitate the patience, humility, and faith of the God-bearing Fathers; let us mortify our members which are upon the earth—fornication, uncleanness, passions, evil desires, and greed—especially in these sacred days of Lent.”
As we approach fasting and prayer, let us be filled with love for one another. And if we have held anything against our brother, let us forgive, and restore peace and concord through good deeds and kind words, so that we may boldly repeat the words of the prayer: “Our Father, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).
Let us strive, brethren, that our fasting and prayer may not be in vain. Let us not succumb to the deceit of the evil one, who tempts us to pray negligently and with Pharisaic vainglory. The Lord therefore teaches us: “Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:6).
The Lord says this not to turn us away from communal prayer in the Church—otherwise, He would not have spoken through the prophet: “I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee” (Ps. 21:22). The Lord exhorts us to both private prayer and prayer in the Church.
Let our prayer and fasting not be for the praise of men, who glorify us as those who pray and fast, thereby depriving us of the heavenly reward for our labors and steadfastness in the fast. The Lord calls us not to seek the approval of men for our abstinence, as the Pharisees did, but rather to anoint our heads and wash our faces, not appearing gloomy or despondent. Saint Gregory Palamas speaks exaltedly on this command: “Here, ‘head’ should be understood as the head of the soul, that is, our mind—making it merciful; and ‘face’—that is, our imagination—should be cleansed from shameful and impure thoughts, from anger, and all evil inclinations.”
By calling us to solitude and reflection during the days of the fast, the Lord directs us toward recognizing the extent of our sinfulness and readiness for repentance. To this end, we must avoid idle distractions that agitate the soul, clouding it with sinful images and passions. In particular, during these days of fasting, we must abstain from watching television and all things that bring disturbance and temptation into our souls, drawing them away from prayer and contemplation of God.
One holy ascetic, reflecting on the importance of solitude, illustrated it with the following example. If one pours water into a vessel and then stirs it, upon looking into the water, one will not see a reflection. But if the water settles, then by gazing into the vessel, one will see their face as in a mirror. The same happens with a person—when he is among others, it is more difficult for him to see his sins because of the constant distractions of communication. But when he withdraws into solitude, he begins to perceive his transgressions. Trusting in the mercy of the Lord, let us go to Him in repentance, asking for forgiveness, with a sincere and firm resolve in our hearts to restrain ourselves from sin with all our strength in the future and to amend our lives. Without such intention, our repentance will not be genuine, for in forgiving sinners, the Lord requires of them an inner transformation. In the Gospel, when Christ forgave the sins of the paralytic and healed his affliction, He said: “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14), meaning that he should not fall into an even worse condition than before.
The Apostle, instructing us on the path of salvation, calls us to order our souls so that we, like him, may say: “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). The “world” spoken of by the Apostle refers to all that is sinful, passionate, and opposed to God—all external things where the adversary of mankind holds sway. “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). Every sin has two sides: one consists of sinful deeds, and the other of sinful thoughts, attachments, and inclinations, which serve as the source and cause of many sinful actions. When we abandon sinful deeds, the world with its passions and temptations is crucified to us. And when we quench and uproot sinful thoughts and habits within ourselves, then we crucify sin itself.
Sometimes, we may refrain from sinful acts, yet our hearts still incline toward sinful habits. In such a case, we remain lovers of sin before God, for He looks not only at our actions but at our hearts. If we correct our sinful behavior, we must not stop there; we must go deeper into ourselves, correct our hearts, and extinguish evil inclinations and passions within them. Then, God, who sees our hearts, will strengthen and justify us. When, with God’s help, we reach a state where not only do we refrain from sinful deeds, but even our inclination toward them is extinguished, then we may truly say: “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Today’s Gospel recounts how four men came to the house where Jesus was preaching, carrying a paralytic on a bed. Unable to reach Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was and, having broken through, let down the bed upon which the paralytic lay. Seeing this, the Lord healed the paralytic, saying to him: “Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house” (Mark 2:11). It is possible that all of this was accomplished by the Lord due to the help of the paralytic’s four friends. These friends brought the man to Christ because they loved and had compassion for him, and their faith and desire made the miracle of healing possible. Out of love for their sick friend, they brought him to where Christ was, undeterred by the crowd or any obstacles. In this act, we see an image of love for our neighbor and faith in God’s help, to which we are also called.
We often say to one another, “Pray for me,” and it may seem like an easy thing to do. But we must remember that when someone asks for our prayers, they are, in essence, asking us to stand between them and God, to become their intercessor and advocate, to bear their burdens. This obliges us to much more than mere words. Christ, who entered a world where many, dwelling in sin, were against Him, took upon Himself all the hatred of the world, all its sin, and died on the Cross out of love for us, for the redemption of our estrangement from God. Through His sacrifice, He reconciled God and man, placing His hand upon the shoulder of the lost and repentant servant, leading him into the Father’s house as His brother. The Lord commands us to do likewise. When we pray for someone, we intercede on their behalf, offering the labor and effort of our prayer in imitation of Christ, who gave Himself as a sacrifice for mankind.
Today’s Gospel teaches us that our faith must be that uniting force which, through love and effort, brings our loved ones into the Kingdom of God.
Let us now turn our attention to the paralytic himself. Although his body was weak, he still possessed his reason, and it appears that the miracle of healing occurred because of his hopeful faith. Perhaps his illness itself led him to turn to the Lord and seek salvation, for often, when we are in good health, we do not seek the path to an encounter with God. At times, illness serves as a means of salvation, weakening a person’s inclination toward sin and evil. In enduring the sufferings associated with sickness, a person, in a way, repays the debt of their sins, cleansing and healing their soul—only then does their body also receive healing. When the paralytic was lowered at Christ’s feet, the Lord said to him: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5). By forgiving the paralytic’s sins, He thereby healed his soul. Notice how the Lord calls the paralytic “son,” thereby making him a child of the Heavenly Father and uniting him to the sinless God. The Lord showed that sin is the cause of illness, and therefore, it is necessary first to remove the cause of disease—sin—from the soul; then the illness itself ceases, and the destructive effects of sin upon the body are overcome.
To perceive the destructive power of sin, we must understand what sin truly is. Sin is a snare by which the devil captures our will, for Holy Scripture says: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning” (1 John 3:8). It was by this snare that he ensnared and deceived the first man, Adam. The devil extended the power of this snare over all of humanity, luring it with the sweetness of sin. The soul, caught in sin, is like a bird trapped in a net—it cannot escape while the net remains strong. The only means of salvation is repentance: confession of sins, breaking free from sinful attachments, and turning to God. When this happens, the devil’s power is broken, and our soul, freed from captivity, is received into the mercy and love of God. Sin is a barrier that separates us from God, sometimes a high and impenetrable one. This barrier is erected by our own sins, forming a prison in which we have imprisoned ourselves. But if, during fasting and prayer, we cry out to the Lord with all our heart: “Bring my soul out of prison” (Ps. 141:7), then the Lord will open the gates of this prison, releasing the repentant captive through the grace of His sacrifice on the Cross.
The scribes, upon hearing the Lord’s words of forgiveness to the paralytic, reasoned in their hearts: “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7). Indeed, no human being has the power to forgive sins. But the Pharisees were mistaken in that they saw Christ as merely a man and did not recognize in Him the Almighty God. The Lord intentionally spoke of the forgiveness of sins in connection with healing so that it would be made known to all that His word was not without effect, and that He, possessing divine authority, could both heal affliction and grant the remission of sins. Thus, people beheld His marvelous and glorious works, saying: “We never saw it on this fashion” (Mark 2:12), and they glorified the Lord.
We, however, can see and know far more than those who witnessed that miracle. We know that Christ’s disciples performed healings simply by invoking His name. Therefore, let us also seek healing through repentance and the pursuit of divine virtue. Saint Gregory Palamas writes:
“For everyone who gives himself over to pleasures is paralyzed in soul, lying on the bed of sensuality with a corresponding bodily laxity. But when, through repentance, he triumphs over his sin and the spiritual paralysis that sin has caused, then he is brought to the Lord by these four: self-condemnation, confession of sins, a firm resolve to abstain from evil in the future, and prayer to God.”
These, then, are our four friends on the salvific path of Lent: the recognition of our sinfulness, repentance in confession, the desire to never commit that sin again, and prayer. Saint Gregory continues: “But these four friends cannot approach God unless they first uncover the roof, breaking through the tiles, clay, and other material. The ‘roof’ within us is the rational part of our soul, which covers all things within us, yet it contains within itself an accumulation of materials related to passions and worldly concerns.”
It is this roof of worldly attachments and passions that must be removed so that our soul may draw near to the Lord, humbly falling at His feet in repentance, seeking healing.
By diligently examining ourselves, we may see the impurity and corruption of our souls, the stench and uncleanness of our hearts. Then we will understand that our sins separate us from the Lord, for the prophet Isaiah says: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you” (Isa. 59:2). Let us turn in repentance to the One from whom we have strayed, whom we have offended and angered by our sins, and bowing with tears of contrition at His feet, let us cry out: “I have sinned against Thee, O Lord, have mercy upon me according to Thy great mercy; forgive me according to Thy grace and compassion.” And if our repentance comes from a pure heart, we may hope that God will accept it, forgive us, and blot out our sins and iniquities by His grace, for He is long-suffering and full of mercy, and no sin can overcome His boundless love for mankind (Exod. 14:6).
Brothers and sisters!
Let us ask the Lord for help in our resolve to resist sin in the future, for victory over sin can only be achieved through prolonged struggle and constant opposition to it. Let us cultivate within ourselves the good intention—the struggle against sin—through the reading of Holy Scripture, fasting, prayer, and attendance at the house of God. Let us not return to the sins from which we have repented, lest we become like Lot’s wife, who looked back at the city of sin she had left behind and was turned into a pillar of salt as punishment for her longing glance. Let us fear God’s judgment for returning to sinful temptations; let us stand before Him with reverence, praying to Him with all our strength, restraining our flesh with its passions and desires, bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance, and changing our way of life for the better. Then the Lord, seeing our efforts and striving upon the path of repentance, will grant us the great grace of partaking of His Holy Mysteries—His Body and Blood—granting us healing of both soul and body, and making us worthy to enter our true Home—the Heavenly Abode—where our Heir and Giver of all blessings, our Lord Jesus Christ, awaits us.