We hear about two strikingly different types of people in the Gospel lesson this morning. We are first confronted with the friends of the paralytic, who carried the dead weight of their brother on a bed, in order to bring him to Christ. These were of course, men of tremendous faith and cheerful mercy (as St. Paul says in the epistle today), who had one focus in that moment: To have our Lord make their friend and brother well.
In contrast to that, we have the Scribes, who were in the background watching. These Scribes (along with the Pharisees) were the preachers and teachers of the time. These were men who were very well respected. People would bow reverently when they passed them in the streets. They were constantly in the temple and carried themselves with an aura of perceived holiness that had been built up in the Jewish culture for centuries.
When the paralytic was brought before Christ, no-where in the Gospels does it say that a verbal request was made of our Lord for healing. In all of the Gospels, it simply says: “Jesus saw their faith” and raised him from his bed.
The well-respected scribes also didn’t utter a word. They simply stood there, not saying anything in protest! Our Lord looked up at them and revealed something that I think we all forget from time to time: God is omnipotent. He can peer into our hearts and uncover our innermost feelings! So rather than replying to words, Jesus responded to the scribe’s state of mind by saying: “Why do you think evil in your hearts?!”
One of the truly frightening reminders that we get from this gospel, is that in each and every one of us, there are two distinct sides, that sometimes do not work in conjunction with each other. The first one is our public side, this positive outward perception that we try to show others. There are times when we as Christians act differently in public (or maybe even at Church) than we are truly feeling or thinking on the inside!
I remember this past year as we were preparing for Holy Unction, my young Noah was having a bit of a rough day, and began to question why we had to fast and prepare for Church that evening. “I don’t want to fast! I’m tired of fasting! I’m tired…there has been Church all week!” He went back to his activities outside and a few of us looked at each other and admitted that Noah had just verbalized how we all are feeling towards the end of Great Lent…we just don’t want to admit or allow to be seen what is on the inside!
For those of us who are making the spiritual attempt to “know ourselves”, the fact that Christ was able to read the hearts and minds of the Scribes, presents an extremely scary proposition for us doesn’t it? We tend to focus so much of our attention to our public image, because we think that this is the only part of us that can be seen, but we forget about the All-Seeing Eye of our Lord, Who intimately knows the depths and hearts of men!
There is a famous life-saving story from the life of St. Ephraim about a woman who was selling herself on the streets of a major city to the men who were passing by. In the middle of the day, she happened to see St. Ephraim passing by in the midst of the city. Seeing a challenge in front of her, she went up to the ascetic and began to tempt him…and in turn, the holy monk negotiated a price and pretended to acquiesce to her advances.
“I require one thing” he said. “Let us sin together at noon in the central square of the city.”
The woman was appalled and protested: “No, we can’t do that!”
“Why?” St. Ephraim asked.
“Because people will see us.”
“But, woman, wherever we go, even if we shut ourselves in the darkest cave, God sees us. We’re ashamed to be seen by people, yet we are not ashamed to be seen by God?” To this, the sinful woman’s life was transformed, as she repented and was saved by the words of this Holy Ascetic.
I bring this simple story to remind all of us that God is omniscient. He sees not only our outward actions, but also our innermost thoughts. What a fearful truth that is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures! If people believed and thought about it constantly, this truth alone, that the Lord sees and knows even our innermost thoughts, would be sufficient to prevent people from committing every evil!
As we enter into the Dormition Fast this week, let us be mindful of both the inward and outward parts of our being. Through prayer, the sacraments, and through practice, may we strive to be more like the friends of the Paralytic, who just like the scribes on that day, were silent. But it was the omnipotent God who saw the faith and love that is necessary in them to truly experience the Grace that all mankind was meant to have in the beginning.