Homily on the Sunday of the Paralytic
By Metropolitan Nikodemos of Patras
By Metropolitan Nikodemos of Patras
“Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up” (John 5:78).
In the lives of individuals and societies, there are many necessities and problems. In order to overcome and solve them, after God, many factors contribute. And first among them is the human agent, as we shall see.
The paralytic, about whom today’s Holy Gospel speaks, hopes in God. And he awaits the miracle of his healing, for 38 consecutive years, lying on a bed, near the miraculous pool of Bethesda. He awaits the joyful hour of healing and his release from his long-term immobility and confinement to the bed of pain.
But he experiences countless disappointments. While “an angel descended from time to time into the pool and stirred up the water, (and each time) “the first one who stepped in after the stirring of the water was made well,” he was left with the complaint that “another one steps in before him” and is healed.
Years pass and he continues to stay again and again, with new expectation and renewed hope for another opportunity.
It was partly a matter of priority. But also of support. Because only one was healed “after the stirring of the water” of the pool by the angel. Only “the first one who stepped in.” The other sick people were mobile, because they were not paralyzed, or were helped by another person, and it followed they would pass him by and benefit from the miraculous bath, without him ever being able to have the priority and the immediate healing associated with it.
And by the good pleasure and grace of God, the time of miraculous healing also came for him. God himself came to him as a man, precisely “in the person of Jesus Christ,” in order to justify his hope and patience. Behold, he has Christ before him. And without knowing to whom he is speaking, he expresses his unsolved problem, “Sir, I have no man,” to help me with this. If I had a man to put me in the miraculous pool once, I would also receive the gift of God, the miracle of my healing would happen to me too.
"“I have no man…" This is my great deprivation. If this gap is filled, my healing will be certain.
Indeed, in his case there was no question of material means. And, moreover, he did not expect his salvation from what was non-existent at that time – within Science. Only a few steps separated him from contact with the immediacy of the moment of God’s gift, so that the miracle of healing could happen to him too. Oh! if he had a man at that moment! He would be on time for the stirring of the water by the angel, who gave health to the first sharer of God's mercy.
The sacred hymnographer of our Church animates his dialogue with Christ. Upon hearing the phrase of the paralytic "I have no man," he presents Christ answering him warmly and decisively: "For your sake I became a man, and you say I have no man?" And (in confirmation that he speaks to him as the God-man, very compassionate, but also as the Almighty) he said to him authoritatively: "Take up your bed and walk, proclaiming my power and great mercy."
The paralyzed man rises, lifts his bed with strength, and walks steadily and impressively as if completely healthy.
Nevertheless, the echo of his bitter phrase remains, and reaches us today, “I have no man.” These two words always have their relevance and social message, that there is a need for people. A lack of people of love, people with goodness and kindness.”
The supreme value in the world is man. The crown of the Universe. The completion and crowning of Creation.
In a most poetic hymn of Creation, the Psalmist David admires the majesty of the Universe and praises the Creator God. But when he reflects and compares man to the Universe, he wonders, “When I look at the heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have established” (I think, what comparison does man have with these), “what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you visit him?” But immediately he himself answers with the illumination of the Holy Spirit: “You have made him a little lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, and have set him over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:1-7).
Man is almost an angel. He was created to be useful to God and to his fellow man.
This is the high dignity and value of man before God. How many realize it? And how many hold human value, the moral value of the human personality, so highly?
It is very common to find it sad to realize, “I have no man.” Because people of such high dignity and moral value are rare, to the point that the situation that the word of God foretold is often a disturbing reality: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside” (Psalm 13:1-3 and Psalm 52:4).
And another prophetic divine word that pities the fall of man says: “A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish” (Ps. 49:20).
But there is – glory to God – another pool, superior to that of Bethesda, the seven-crown pool, the Church of Christ and its sanctifying mysteries. From this pool emerged “in due time” “holy men of God, equipped for every good work,” and worthy citizens of the kingdom of God. The destination and mission of the Church is the “equipping of the saints” (Eph. 4:12) and the “building up of the Body of Christ” (ibid.) – “which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
For the sanctification of the members of the Church, “which is His Body,” there is always a need for leaders, i.e., people called “to the work of the ministry.” And the Lord has always given to His Church “some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints.” Christ came into the world not to bring a new religion, but to establish the Church on earth, as an ark for those saved from the world’s flood of sin.
He is the Head of the Church. “And He gave Himself for her (to death on the cross), that He might sanctify her” (Eph. 5:25-26) and create a “community of saints,” thus directing people to His kingdom, forming them into living members of “the Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” (Heb. 12:23).
And this is the great offering of the Church to the world. A renewing offering for society, which society, if it possesses notable, like all others, advances and goods and culture, will only prosper when it primarily acquires people who think of Christ and live according to Christ. Then, and only then, will the great deficit expressed by these two words “I have no man” cease to exist.
Today, our Church has joyfully elevated to the cathedra of the Sacred Synthronon, to the Holy Bema, its new Archbishop and Primate.
The void left by the passing of Archbishop Seraphim has been filled.
We have a man at the helm of the Church.
We have a High Priest at the head of our Holy Synod and the entire Hierarchy. Blessed be God.
Most Blessed Brother and our fellow celebrant, Christodoulos,
The vote of the majority of the Hierarchy has upheld, according to the Holy Canons of the Church and the laws in force. Take up the high task to which the Lord, the great High Priest of our salvation, has called you through the Church and for His Church.
You have the prime and cheerfulness of middle age. You possess “hidden gifts” from above, bestowed upon you by the Father of Lights. And you have built upon their foundation all that you have acquired through your zeal and your rich education, with God always in view. “And fare Thee well” and strengthen and preside, for the sake of truth and meekness and justice and may the right hand of the Most High lead you wonderfully.
Many years, Master!
Source: Homily delivered on the Sunday of the Paralytic in 1998 at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens during the first Divine Liturgy of Christodoulos as the new Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.