At the middle point of the Bright Season, we are reminded of the story of our Lord’s healing of the Paralytic…this man who spent 38 years at the pool of Bethsaida, waiting for the waters to be stirred by the angels so that he could be cured. Despite those years of agony, he says that he has “no man” to put him into the pool. Today, we are edified by this text after hearing that not just any man, but THE man came and made the paralytic whole.
Before this incredible miracle, we hear a rather strange question escape our Savior’s lips. It is one that should leave us all a little puzzled. Christ goes up to this man, who has spent 38 years at this miracle working pool, trying to persuade a passer-by to help him into the waters when they are stirred by the angels, and asks: “Do you want to be healed?”
At first glance this is such a foolish question! What sick person doesn’t want to be healed!? He has spent his life in pain and agony unable to do so many things in life. If he was made well, he would have the ability to walk through the fields again, to see the sights of the city, and to smell the fresh picked flowers at the market. What person wouldn’t want to be able to do these things which non-paralytics take for granted!?
Nevertheless, our Lord asks the question: “Do you want to be healed?”
There is a deeper meaning to this question than meets the eye. Could it be that the paralytic might not have wanted to get well? He may have become invalid in spirit as well as body, finding satisfaction when others catered to him. He may have just wanted to settle for the existence and the way of life that he had become accustomed to.
We do this in our own lives too don’t we? Look at prayer as an example. There are those who go through life without dedicated times throughout the day where they walk away from the world and enter into prayer. There are those who go through life without having a single thought to picking up a chapter of scripture and feeding their soul. There are those who choose not to attend a Divine Liturgy on Sunday. Despite their faith, they choose not to come and receive the Divine Mysteries because they either came last week, or worse yet, decided that there were better things to do on a Sunday Morning. If any of us fall into this category, again, our Lord asks us all this today: “Do you want to be made well?”
For those that do come faithfully to the Divine Services and who dedicate time to prayer every day and open up a chapter of scripture every time the sun rises, there is also a level of comfort and complacency that stops us from doing even more. We just went through a long period of time where our efforts were doubled as we tried to purify ourselves through Great Lent. We spent that time learning about Christian Ascent to Christ. Then when we got a small taste of it at Pascha (whether we began at the beginning of Lent or came at the 11th hour, all of us got a taste of the feast according to St. John Chrysostom). Then, as is probably the number one confession of many Orthodox Christians during the Paschal Season, that ascent towards the Kingdom in our lives ceases to move forward…and in some cases takes a step back. To all of us who might have found some complacency in our lives, especially in our spiritual lives during this period after Pascha, our Lord comes up to us today and asks that question: “Do you want to be made well?”
There is a life greater than that which you tasted at Holy Pascha…a life without fear, without misery, and without death. There is a life where there is a constant ascent, and where (as C.S. Lewis so famously finishes his Chronicles of Narnia series) …”each new moment is more great and beautiful than the last…where this chapter of our lives is only the beginning of a Great story which goes on forever, and in which every chapter is better than the one before.” How badly do we yearn for this life? Do we want to be made well brothers and sisters?
If the answer is no, then we truly need to begin the difficult process of questioning ourselves and our true purpose in life. What is holding us back from accepting this new life that is being offered to us by the Church?What earthly comforts, or illogical doubts, or anger, or malice, or passion is holding my arms back from taking the outstretched hand of God?
If the answer is yes, then the Church has given us the answers for how to be made well. She has laid examples for us through the lives and wisdom of the saints. She offers us the words of our Lord through the Divine Services and the Holy Scriptures. She nourishes us with the Grace of the Sacraments…urging us on as we shed this old life and resurrect into eternal life.
“Do you want to be healed?”
Then let us all stand up, and prayerfully come to receive Christ within us from the Holy Chalice, as we continue our Ascent towards New and Eternal Life.