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In the 4th Sunday after Pascha, we read the Gospel of the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda. Until now, everything was centered on the Resurrection and on those who witnessed it. Now, we will have three Sundays – of the paralytic, the Samaritan woman, and the man born blind – in which we can observe other instances of the Resurrection. Par excellence, resurrection is what happened with the Lord, when he raised all the creation with Himself, but this will happen with each of us. But this resurrection needs to occur also now in our life. And there are these forms of resurrection, because we suffer from various deaths. As one of the hymns for the paralytic says: “My bed is a grave. What worth is my life if I cannot rejoice?” But the Lord comes and raises him up from that death.

According to the Holy Fathers, the paralytic is the image of our soul which, due to sin, has become dead, petrified, or paralyzed. As the kontakion of this Sunday says: “My soul is paralyzed due to various sins and uncomely deeds… raise it by Thy power.” This paralysis is a type of death. There is also death through fornication, like with the Samaritan woman, or through another sin. There is also blindness, which can be from lack of knowledge, or faithlessness, or confusion in the darkness of this world. In any case, we suffer from various deaths. And from all these, the Lord can raise us.

We should know that oftentimes, a physical “death” (i.e., a sickness) hides a spiritual sickness. This is the reality of the world we live in. Just like at Bethesda: a multitude of lame, deaf, and blind people. But especially, there are many sick souls. Personally, especially since I’ve been here in America, I’ve seen many souls that are almost mutilated by the reality in which we live. Why?! Because we, especially us here in America, set for ourselves other goals than those that we should. We chose material things instead of comforting our brethren. We no longer think about the Lord’s commandment, to love our brother, to not harm our brother, but we only look at the target we’re aiming at and pursuing with all our strength. Especially in this competitive society in which we live. We concentrate only on the rules of this world. Well, these rules mutilate us. We all have scars due to these material pursuits. We’re all here as if at Bethesda. The perspective is disconcerting. We are engulfed by so many problems that we don’t even know where to start, which one to tackle first.

But the Lord enters this scene. And He shows us today, and always, that He can raise us up from any death. We need to learn this and apply it in our life. The Church presents us with these Sundays of the paralytic, the Samaritan woman, and the man born blind, whom the Lord heals beyond all expectations, in order to show us that we also can be healed and our souls can recover childlike purity. And the sign of spiritual healing is joy. Joy and peace are the signs of a healthy soul; until we attain these, we don’t stop. And the path is tears. Because Saint Silouan says: “in our day people are prideful, and their path to salvation passes through suffering and misfortunes.” If we would humble ourselves a little, life would be different, but otherwise… God brings us back via suffering. If something happens in our life that is seemingly inexplicable, let’s ask ourselves: perhaps God is trying to tell us something. And then we take a stance, because just as He lifted up the Samaritan woman from her position of a simple sinner unto great heights, likewise He lifts us up from our bed so that we can direct our eyes toward heaven. Unfortunately, it is through misfortunes, illnesses, and suffering that we can be healed. If there were other possible paths, then God would work differently with us, but we didn’t give Him other options.

The Lord tells us today that it is possible to be resurrected from any death. And after the Resurrection, He has the fullness of grace and can fix anything. The Apostle Peter could, the Apostles could, we also should be able. Yet, the attitude we adopt matters very much. When I tutored for math, I was most bothered when I gave students a problem and they approached it with superstition: “if I’m lucky, I’ll solve it, otherwise no.” “No! This is math, it has to have a solution.” Such an attitude is what I criticized the most. I told them: “Look, if I gave you the problem, first of all it has a solution, and if I gave it to you, then you can solve it. Try until you solve it.” A math professor from Bucharest would tell us that when you do research and need to solve problems, you need to be like a dog with its bone, “don’t let go until you solve it.” This is the attitude in spiritual things too. And with us, everything has a solution because Christ is omnipotent.

“Whatever man proposes, in that he succeeds!”, as Elder Aimilianos would say. We have various problems in our life, but they can all be healed and we need to heal them. And once we learn how and we gain courage, then we need to help those around us to do the same. Our Lord’s strength is the same, it is readily available and we each need to learn how to access it.

In conclusion, Saint John Maximovitch left some advice on a possible key to fixing our problems. “What is prayer? It is converse with God. It is worthy of high honors. We don’t pray with worldly motives. The highest prayer is that in which man forgets any personal motive, even the most noble, and burns with a single desire: to draw as near as possible to the Lord, to rest his head at the Lord’s feet, to devote his entire heart to the Lord. This is perfect love and perfect prayer. The Lord receives all human requests, no matter how small and insignificant they may be, if man’s heart rejoices and trembles before the Master.” Do you understand what is missing? It doesn’t matter what you tell Him. If your heart rejoices and trembles, then it is alive before the Lord. “Everything small becomes great when we stand before Him, everything imperfect becomes perfect. Don’t be troubled by the triviality of your requests, but seek before all else, not those things you desire to request, but Him Whom you want to entreat. Unworthy petitions are only those that come from people who love the Lord less than the things they are asking for from Him.”

We have problems, we suffer many deaths, and we need to be resurrected. And we cry out like from a snake’s mouth. But we cry out in the wrong way, as Saint John teaches us. Why? Because I love the thing that I’m asking for more than I love the Lord. So, the best strategy is to improve the quality of prayer. As Elder Ephraim of Arizona said, “prayer is truly very powerful, if you have the faith that it will be fulfilled.” Our problem burns us, this we know, but we should have a little faith that our God knows, too. Let’s briefly postpone the resolution of our problem and concentrate on how we can increase our familiarity with the Lord. Let me try to grow closer to Him from Whom I’m trying to obtain my desire. Then we start to fulfill Saint John’s advice. The sinful woman, the publicans, everyone showed us that it’s possible. We all can love God and grow familiar with Him. If I grow closer to God and love Him, I don’t need to ask too many things, because they fix themselves. This would be a key we can apply to all our experiences. And the Lord will reveal to us His grace.