In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen. In the wake
of Pascha, the Church, in the life of the Holy
Spirit, opens to us the Gospel of John. By Christ's
resurrection, our eyes have been opened by the
resurrection, our Pascha, Christ himself. And
we, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus,
have had our own eyes opened, unveiled, and transfigured
to encounter the realities in the scriptures
about Christ and ourselves. Through our own personal
Pascha, our own death and resurrection, our own
baptism and illumination, we find ourselves lying
with this man. Or perhaps, more properly speaking,
as this man, by this pool, Bethesda, Beit Chesda,
at the house of mercy. The gospel before us re
-situates us into creation. On Pascha, we hear
John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. All
things became through him. And apart from him
did not anything become that became. And this
word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And
we have beheld his glory. We hear this text on
Pascha in order to make the realities of creation
and the resurrection converge for us. The entrance
of the word, Christ himself, into every aspect
of the life in the flesh. His becoming human
in order to show us his glory. and glorify us
with him, so that we too might be with God, and
we too might move with Christ toward God, the
true and living God, his Father and our Father,
his God and our God. Into the life of the Spirit
we might become whole and complete. When we meet
this paralytic man, or again, more specifically,
this anthropos, this human, this paralytic and
crippled human being, unable to get up. We are
taken back to creation, but in the key of Pascha,
the resurrection, where we must remember the
goal of all humanity, the anthropos, created
by God, to flourish, to be fruitful, to have
life in God, and to move toward God in freedom,
to reflect God, as a mirror, as an image, to
become like God. Let us make anthropos in our
image and after our likeness. And yet, we meet
this human, along with many others, blind, lame,
paralyzed, crippled. This human, paralytic for
38 years. trying to get into this pool, which
of course mystically signifies the waters of
baptism, that can bring not simply angelic healing,
but even divine healing. Jesus sees the paralytic
human, knowing that he lay there for a long time,
and he walks up to him and asks a question that
echoes creation. Do you want to be well? Sometimes
it's rendered, do you want to be healed? Do you
want to become whole? It echoes creation in that
upon making all things, God declares them well.
He declares them good. And the human, even very
good. Tov. That is to say, complete. Whole, not
fragmented. Everything is integrated and working
the way it's supposed to. Not being pulled apart
in different directions by competing in different
forces. In the logic of the Paschal season, we
hear the question, as those already baptized,
slightly different from this man, as those having
already entered, the house of mercy, our own
ecclesial Bethesda, as those having entered the
divine waters of baptism and come up. And yet,
we find ourselves with this man, like him, lying
and questioning this fact that we might have
been for 38 years, perhaps, blind, Lame, paralyzed,
unable to move, crippled by our sin, weighed
down by the difficulties of our life, our past,
our own failures, past failures, present failures,
afraid of future failures. What we and others
might have done to ourselves, to us, to bring
us to this predicament. this point in our life
of fear and immobility, of the lack of freedom
to move, a life restricted by our own prison.
Jesus comes to us and asks, do you want to become
whole? Do you want to be well again? Do you want
to be healed? Do you want to walk in freedom?
Do you want to walk in the newness of life? Do
you want to walk in the power of my resurrection?
Do we want that? Or do we want to keep lying
there? That's really the question. And I realize
that some of us have been walking with Christ
for a long time. But this question, brothers
and sisters, comes not only to those newly baptized
and illumined, nor is the question held out only
to catechumens or visitors, newcomers. No, Christ
asks all of us this question. I've been here
long enough now where I've heard the question,
how do we integrate catechumens and new people
into the life of the church? We have so many
new people, thank God, but how do we make them
belong? That is, how do we contextualize opportunities
for them to become well, whole, and healed? That's
great. We should ask those questions. And we
should provide that kind of context for such
healing and wholeness to be carried out. But
what about ourselves? We have to keep asking
ourselves that same question. How do we make
ourselves well? Do we want to be well? Do we
want to be made whole? Do we want to become integrated
human beings free from our own baggage, sin,
failures, and fear? That's a very... different
angle on the question because sometimes we can
hide in the midst of our service or we can hide
in the midst of extending a helping hand to others
or making others feel like they belong or asking
others a bunch of questions so no one has to
ask us any questions. As a priest, I know all
about this, frankly. We have to turn that question
and ask ourselves, or rather let Christ ask us,
do we really want the life that Christ opens
for us as the resurrection and the life? Do we
want to become well? Do we want to be made whole?
Or do we respond like this guy? Sir, I have no
one, literally no human, to put me into the pool.
where we don't really answer Christ's own question,
or we sort of sidestep or evade the question,
as he's literally staring at God become human.
But that's beside the point. The Lord doesn't
ask us whether we have the means. He asks us
something much more straightforward, and thus
much more difficult, right between the eyes he
hits us. Do you want to become well? Which is
a harder question to sit with entirely. Do we
really want to become well? If we answer yes,
he can do it. For all things are possible through
him. We can do all things through Christ who
strengthens us. And apart from him, we can do
nothing. Rise. Get up. Take up your bed and walk.
Notice, the guy never goes into the water. As
the resurrection himself, Christ's words themselves
provide the power and life to get this guy up,
to rise, to change. They provide the power to
get up, to rise, to change one's life and reorient
towards God. But for us, again, we have already
entered into that water. And time in and time
out, Christ's Christ meets us lying, somewhat
crippled by our own discouragement, by the baggage
of our lives, by our own confusion, by our own
returning towards delusion, by the brokenness
of this world. And he tells us, rise, rise, get
up, wake up, you sleeper, and live. Leap, you
lame, for joy. Stop chattering. Stop talking.
Stop making excuses. Maybe for 38 years, stop
listening to the noise in your own heart and
in this world because I have come and I have
overcome the world and I hold the keys of death
and Hades. I have come into this world for your
salvation, for your healing. for your wholeness,
to give you a new life, to shatter old patterns,
to heal you, to make you well, to make you whole,
to make you complete, to save you from your sins,
to save you from yourself. Christ opens to us
a life of freedom, a life of mercy, a life of
compassion, free from anxiety and turmoil, a
life free from fretting, a life unencumbered
by the cares of this world and our own failures,
a life healed from our spiritual sicknesses and
maladies such that we don't have to make excuses
anymore. We can come to him as we are. We don't
have to be afraid of salvation. We don't have
to be afraid of being saved, of really changing.
We don't have to be afraid of what a changed
and redeemed life might actually look like for
us. What he's actually holding out for us, we
don't have to keep him at arm's length. And what
does Christ tell this guy in the temple? Look!
Look at yourself! Behold! See! You are well.
I can just imagine him taking him by the shoulders
and shaking him and smiling in his face. You
are whole. You have been healed. You are well.
You are integrated. Your life is no longer out
of whack. You've been re -centered. You've been
reoriented. Now sin no more, so that nothing
worse might befall you. Of course, we should
feel the full force of what Christ says. Stop
sinning. And yet, we must remember the words
of St. John elsewhere. My little children, I'm
writing to you so that you do not sin. But when
you do sin, that is, when you miss the mark,
when you stumble, when you fall flat on your
face, when you fall before the glory of God,
no! that you have an advocate with God the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one. But the idea
behind the Lord's words is that we must no longer
practice a life of sin. When we stumble, when
we fall, we must always reorient our life toward,
that is, we must always turn it toward the east.
toward the Orient. We must always move toward
the life of God, of course united to Christ and
in the power of the Holy Spirit who helps us
and guides us into the truth, Christ himself,
so that we don't become crippled again, so that
we don't disintegrate, so that we don't backslide,
so that we don't believe those lies that the
world would tell us, that our own hearts would
tell us. the passions would tell us, that the
demons would tell us, that the noise which is
going on so much in this world, so much in our
minds, we don't move toward nothingness and death
and fear, but we move toward God. It's like that
fresco of St. Anthony right over there. I always
remember these words. I no longer fear God, but
I love him. I am not afraid of what Christ can
do in my life. I am not running from him. I am
not lying there crippled, unable to do anything
because Christ has taken me. Christ has raised
me. Christ has lifted me. Christ has empowered
me by his love. I too can love now. I can love
God freely. just like I did in paradise. Brothers
and sisters, sit with this question in your prayers.
Sit with this question this week in your hearts.
Let Christ's words penetrate and seep into our
hearts. Do you want to become well? Do you want
to become whole? Do you want to be healed? Christ
is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.