The path towards Christ with the help of friends (Sermon on the 6th Sunday after Pentecost)

Friends of the paralyzed man in Capernaum

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit:

Todays Gospel reading talks about the forgiveness of sins and about healing. After being rejected in the land of Gergesenes, Christ comes to another place, to His city. Evangelist Mathew calls Capernaum ‘His city’ because the Lord lived there. He was born in Bethlehem, and brought up in Nazareth, but Capernaum was His permanent residence, where He spent much time.

Today, we find ourselves in His house, in which Christ is always found, in His temple, which after a fresh coat of paint, has again become clean and wonderful. The walls again resemble a person who came to Confession and whom the Lord forgave all his sins. Our soul becomes as clean as our temple is today, after it has repented.

Christ has come into our world, which happens to be ‘His city’, in order to do good. If He is rejected in one place, He hurries to other people. There are people who do not wish to hear anything about Him, and there are people who very much wish to know something about Him and to touch the edge of His garment.

Christ heals a paralyzed man in Capernaum, V.S. Kriukov. Lithography. Paper, graphics. St. Petersburg, 1876

One can come to Christ in different ways. In today’s Gospel we heard about one unique and recently more travelled path to Christ. This is the path of the person who is weakened by his sinful past life and illness, and is paralised by sin. He could not move on his own, yet on his path to Christ he passed many healthy people. Real friends of the paralytic brought him into the house, where the Lord was, lowering him through the roof. What was so unusual about their deed? Not having access to Christ, because of the multitude of people, they broke down the side door of the house and passed through the roof carrying their friend. They used a brave and desperate way to get their friend close to Christ. Their legs became his legs. Their faith became his faith. The friendship of kind people helped the miracle happening! The difficult effort of friends, while sweting from the weight of carrying the paralytic on a stretcher, bore fruit and brought their friend back to normal life.

When a person is unable to come to Christ, on his own, then other people can bring him to Him. The Lord does not reject this kind of conversion to Him. For many contemporary faithful the encounter with Christ often happens on a hospital bed. It is often the faith of relatives or friends who call a priest to the bedside of the person who is ill. Infants also cannot, on their own, come to Christ. The Lord accepts and blesses the parents who bring their children to the temple for them to be in communion with Christ.

Today the Lord mercifully tells each one of us: «Dare, my child, your sins are forgiven on account of your friends faith, whom you befriend in your prayers — The Theotokos and Saints; rise from the bed in which your sins have laid you; take your already not needed bedding and go home to begin a new life!». Amen!

July 8, 2018. St, Barbara’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Edmonton