Bishop Nicholas (Berdyuhyn)

Glory to Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters!

I congratulate you with this Sunday, with the Holy Communion of Body and Blood Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And I also congratulate you with that spiritual bread, which God gives us through the reading of the Holy Gospel for our spiritual growth.

Today we have heard an interesting Gospel (Mark ІІ:1-12 ) about the fact of miracle healing of the Paralytic made by God. It means that He healed paralyzed man, which was lying and couldn’t stand up and do something.

We remember how we read on the beginning of the Gospel about the start of God’s serving in that Capernaum. It was said that people, who sat in the darkness, saw the great Light. And we see that saw that light, remembered it and came again to Jesus. There were so many people that they couldn’t all come inside the house or come closer to it. And people, who brought Paralytic, couldn’t push through all people. That is why they decided to try another way. They decided to get into the house through the roof, so they removed it and let down the bed on which Paralytic laid. What a strong faith they had! What a great desire that God would heal that man! At that time God’s words and the deeds became extremely popular, so people were following Him with a huge stream.

When the Lord said to the Paralytic: “Son, your sins are forgiven.” What had happened in that very moment? God forgave his sins, which he made and the Holy Spirit settled down upon that man. And the evil spirits, which were near him and paralyzed him, left the man. The person was purified from all bad, from all evil spirits. Our Great God, who created this world, saw all problems of that man, He helped and the healing happened immediately. At that moment Jesus read the thoughts of the scribes, who did not believe Him. They said: “He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” So He decided to show the power of God and said: “ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?” And at that very moment the miracle of healing happened. God made that miracle. And now we understand that all bad powers were fought back, the man was healed and that Paralytic stood up and walked.

And if we understand that all, while we are reading the Gospel, we will accept it as our spiritual bread for our soul, for its purification and strengthening. Now we understand how great the God’s power is. We understand that when we are with God, when we fulfill the commandments –we are healthy, strong and happy. But when we make mistakes, when we don’t listen to God and listen to evil powers, we should be ready to get ill, or our car could be broken, or some other bad things could happen.

People do not think why bad things happen to them. They happen because we break God’s laws, do not listen to God in our hearts, do not pray. All bad things which happen with us are because of our sins and mistakes.

In order to fix everything you should appeal to God. You should pray and purify. Every week we come to the church and ask God to purify us. And because of this the evil power, which turns us from the right path, leaves us. Then God’s powers comes closer to us, strengthening us, gives us happy life, save us and all our family through our prayer.

Let the Lord save You!

About the healing of the Paralytic and about the chances of healing today