Sunday of the Paralytic 2014

The perseverance of the paralytic was astonishing. He was thirty-eight years old, and each year he hoped to be freed from his disease. He lay there waiting, never giving up. If he had not persevered as much as he did, wouldn’t his future prospects, let alone the past, have been enough to discourage him from staying around that place? Consider how alert the other sick people there would be, since no one knew for sure when the waters would be troubled. The lame and the limping could observe it, but how would a blind man? Maybe he learned it from the clamor that arose.
Let us be ashamed then, beloved, let us be ashamed and groan over our excessive laziness. That man had been waiting thirty-eight years without obtaining what he desired, and he still did not withdraw. And he failed, not through any carelessness of his own but through being oppressed and suffering violence from others. And still he did not give up. We might persist in prayer for something for ten days or so, and if we have not obtained it, we are too lazy afterwards to employ the same energy [as he did].
And yet, we will wait forever on our fellow human beings, fighting and enduring hardships, performing menial labor, all for the chance of something that in the end fails to meet our expectations.
But when it comes to our Master, from whom we are sure to obtain a reward greater than our labors we exercise no such diligence in waiting on Him… . For even if we receive nothing from Him, isn’t the very fact that we are able to converse with Him continually often the cause of a thousand blessings?
St. John Chrysostom

Comments are closed.