Sunday of the Paralytic - I have no man
Dear beloved,
The contemporary man sees not anymore the need for human suffering. With modern medicine developing in a accelerated pace man thinks that anything can or will be cured sooner rather than later. This developing science is the answer to a profound question man is putting out to God: why me God, why should I suffer? Why should I and not the other one? Contemporary man does not look at himself in times of pain and suffering, dose not look for a cause in himself, but rather blames anybody else, including God.
In his egocentric way of seeing the world he forgets, that maybe, at least part of his suffering is caused by his own action, by his own choice of getting further from his Creator.
We see the paralytic today sitting on the side of the miracle well waiting for 18 years. 18 years of suffering, but also 18 years of hope, because he was coming every day in hope for a cure. He was patiently waiting for a miracle to cure his legs so he can walk again.
However Jesus Christ when he approaches him he does not ask him: do you want to walk again? But He asks him: Wilt thou be made whole? (Joh 5:6). This is a very important detail because if is giving us a hint on how we should see our selves in the great scheme of things.
. Man is not only his body, as contemporary people believe, but man is also not only his soul, trapped in the earthly body as some other people believe. Man is a whole, body and soul together, bond for eternity in this unity we call a Man. There is no moment when the body existed and the soul was not. Man is Man as his Creator made Him at the beginning of time, body from the earth and soul form the breath of life coming from God. Therefore everything we do in our bodies will reflect on the soul and everything we do with our souls will be reflected in our bodies.
The original men were made to reach perfection, to use their bodies and souls to reach to the true source of life which is God their Creator. Life was flowing from God onto them through the grace of the Holy Spirit that was surrounding them.
But through sin the link between them and God was broken, and consequently they have broke from the source of life. Their bodies who could have become immortal were penetrated by decay and death, pain and suffering came into our lives.
But suffering and death was not a penalty from God, He only wishes us what is good for us, but death was a voluntary choice from our side, to break the link with the very source of life.
In the original Greek language to sin is called hamartano, which mean to miss the target, but also not to partake in something. Sin is the only reason why we miss on a daily basis our target, which is to get closer to God , to be united with Him for eternity. Through sin we get away from God and we cannot partake to His Kingdom. Sin is therefore an action but in the same time a consequence.
We understand now better why, coming back to today's Gospel, through sin we are not whole, and we sit for so many years near the fountain of miracle and we have no Man, as the paralytic answered today to Jesus . Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man,.
We have no Man because through sin we became like the paralytic, paralyzed in our daily sin and we cannot make one step to enter in the fountain of life. We are all spiritually paralyzed and we need Somebody to carry us in the fountain.
We have no Man because through sin we have broken the link between us and the only true Man, Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the only Man that can take us in His arms and heal us in the fountain of His miracle, His Church.
Christ is the only one that can make us whole again; He can wipe our sins and reunite us with Him so we can be whole again; because we are not whole if we do not have Christ in us. If Christ is missing from our lives we are not whole, but empty, our lives have no meaning, because the true meaning, the logos of things is missing from it. Our lives are whole and have a purpose only in Jesus Christ. Without Him our earthly struggle is meaningless.
Pain and suffering does not come from God, but is a consequence of what we do with our lives. If we sin we choose the pain and suffering, and God doesn't like it, but sometimes through suffering one can be turned again to God. This is the educational meaning of suffering. If we accept it like this, and we turn to ourselves to find the real source of evil in our lives, we understand, if we continue to blame others and try to find another meaning of it, we have missed the target again.
Let us therefore turn to Christ our Hope and our God to be for us again the true Man, that can lift us from the paralysis of our sin and make us walk again on the path of salvation. Amin.