Forgive me the sinner.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Great and Holy Lent is very much a theological season, meaning that each Sunday in Lent – even those leading up to this spiritually rigorous season – are governed more by theological themes than by the Biblical themes that may arise from the Gospels and Epistles assigned for each. For example, the pre-Lenten Sundays are designed to soften up the hard soil of our hearts so that we might better hear and receive the Word of God which alone has the power to save all who believe (Rm. 1:16). Thus, in those Sundays leading us to the threshold of Lent, we hear the parable of the publican and Pharisee calling us to humility, the parable of the prodigal son summoning us to repentance, and that of the Last Judgment when we all will stand stark naked before the dread Judgment of Jesus Christ. On the fourth pre-Lenten Sunday, the Church bids us to recall the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. In order for us to properly enter into this most holy season of the Great Fast, we must fully comprehend that from which we have all fallen as sons and daughters of dust, and the dire consequences of our common predicament which is death. That is the point at which we begin our Lenten journey and the reality of our earthly existence: we are exiled and estranged from God, heirs of sin and death, broken in body and soul.
On the First Sunday of Great and Holy Lent, called the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Church commemorates a significant historical victory in the restoration of the holy icons to their proper place for veneration – a seemingly odd commemoration for the season of Lent, that is, until we understand that that Sunday is about the restoration of the fallen icon of man in whom the divine image abides from creation. God Who created matter saves matter, ultimately, by matter! Jesus Christ Who is Himself the Icon of God became Man so that, as the Fathers say, man might become god or like God fulfilling our destiny (2 Cr. 4:4; Co. 1:15; Hb. 1:3). Through the divinized flesh of the Son of God, God saves, God restores, God makes whole once again, God renews and God regenerates.
Which leads us to today: the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas. Now, again, this might seem odd until we understand that St. Gregory Palamas was the great champion of the divine, that is, of man’s capacity to experience, not the essence of God, which would ultimately incinerate us, but God’s energies, thus allowing us to be deified or, as St. Peter phrases it, to “be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pe. 1:4). “Partakers of the divine nature.” This is precisely what our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ promises so often, especially in St. John’s writings (1 Jn. 2:25). We were created to share in God’s immortality, made to be an image of God’s own eternity, which we lost because of the devil’s envy who brought death to bear (WS 2:23-24). Jesus Christ, however, came to reverse the devil’s stranglehold over us. He came to give us Life and to give it more abundantly (Jn. 10:10). Indeed, Jesus calls this Eternal Life. “’I give them Eternal Life,’” He declares, “’and they shall never perish’” (Jn. 10:28). And, again, in His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus acknowledges that He has been given power [authority] from the Father to “’give Eternal Life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is Life Eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent’” (Jn. 17:2-3). And, of course, the Theologian reminds us that the very reason he penned his Gospel was to inculcate faith in our hearts, “and that believing [we] might have Life in [Jesus’] Name’” (Jn. 20:31). “’For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting [Eternal] Life’” (Jn. 3:15, 16).
Eternal Life, then, beloved, is more than merely getting to live forever. God has already granted us immortality. So, what more is Eternal Life? Eternal Life is no less than God’s Life, God’s own divine Life, living in us, the Life of the Eternal One dwelling in us, flowing through us, healing us of sin and death. This is the very Life we receive when we eat and drink of the Lord’s own Body and Blood, just as He Himself has promised us. “’Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have no Life in you. Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath Eternal Life, . . . .’” (Jn. 6:22-69).
The healing of soul and body is the dominant theme in Orthodoxy’s understanding of salvation. We use the term theosis which is the healing of the divine image and the restoration of the divine likeness in us. We were created in God’s image to be like Him. The image was tarnished, distorted, and corrupted in the Fall and the divine likeness was lost to us, that is, until the Son of God Who came to save us sinners. With all due respect, this notion made popular in certain circles that Jesus was punished for our sins by a God Who demands such, is, quite honestly, a late bloomer on the historical scene. It is really a foreign concept foisted upon the Cross which the Church will lift up next Sunday as “precious” and “Life-giving” as the means of God’s salvation, that is, of the healing of soul and body. Even the Mystery of Repentance and Confession – as scary and as painful as it may seem (a form of crucifixion and of dying to self) – is really about healing: of coming to the place of the Physician for healing but leaving unhealed because we were afraid to divulge our sinfulness, despite the fact that we all know just how sinful we all are (unless, of course, we are deluded by the devil to think otherwise). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:8-10).
The paralytic in today’s Gospel is brought to the Church, if you will, by his brethren where Jesus Christ is, and the first thing our Lord heals is the broken man’s soul. The second thing He does is He solidifies in the minds of those gathered His power to forgive sins, by healing the broken man’s body which bears Him true witness that He is, in fact, God. The healing of the man’s body, then, confirms the absolution of his soul.
This is the work, beloved, of the good God Who loves mankind, the merciful God Who loves mankind, and His Church is a hospital – a place of healing – and not of judgment. For God does not sit as Judge right now. That will come later when we must stand before Him at His dread Judgment Seat. For now, He is the divine and merciful Physician Who uses the Great and Holy Fast of Lent to diagnose what ails us sinners and to lay bare our manifold weaknesses so that we might know our great need for His interventions. He, then, applies the balm of His Word to what ails us, and bids us upon our healing to pick up our bed and to go home restored, renewed, healed. Having received the Great Physician’s healing, we must heed His command, thus demonstrating our reception of His utter and terrible goodness toward us, exercising our faith, hope, and love in the pursuit of virtues and in the doing of good works to glorify Him.
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, especially those of St. Gregory Palamas, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
PROPERS:
Hb. 1:10-2:3
Mk. 2:1-12