May 3rd, 2026: Sunday of the Paralytic: Fr Daniel York

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen. In the wake

of Pascha, the Church, in the life of the Holy

Spirit, opens to us the Gospel of John. By Christ's

resurrection, our eyes have been opened by the

resurrection, our Pascha, Christ himself. And

we, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus,

have had our own eyes opened, unveiled, and transfigured

to encounter the realities in the scriptures

about Christ and ourselves. Through our own personal

Pascha, our own death and resurrection, our own

baptism and illumination, we find ourselves lying

with this man. Or perhaps, more properly speaking,

as this man, by this pool, Bethesda, Beit Chesda,

at the house of mercy. The gospel before us re

-situates us into creation. On Pascha, we hear

John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God. All

things became through him. And apart from him

did not anything become that became. And this

word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And

we have beheld his glory. We hear this text on

Pascha in order to make the realities of creation

and the resurrection converge for us. The entrance

of the word, Christ himself, into every aspect

of the life in the flesh. His becoming human

in order to show us his glory. and glorify us

with him, so that we too might be with God, and

we too might move with Christ toward God, the

true and living God, his Father and our Father,

his God and our God. Into the life of the Spirit

we might become whole and complete. When we meet

this paralytic man, or again, more specifically,

this anthropos, this human, this paralytic and

crippled human being, unable to get up. We are

taken back to creation, but in the key of Pascha,

the resurrection, where we must remember the

goal of all humanity, the anthropos, created

by God, to flourish, to be fruitful, to have

life in God, and to move toward God in freedom,

to reflect God, as a mirror, as an image, to

become like God. Let us make anthropos in our

image and after our likeness. And yet, we meet

this human, along with many others, blind, lame,

paralyzed, crippled. This human, paralytic for

38 years. trying to get into this pool, which

of course mystically signifies the waters of

baptism, that can bring not simply angelic healing,

but even divine healing. Jesus sees the paralytic

human, knowing that he lay there for a long time,

and he walks up to him and asks a question that

echoes creation. Do you want to be well? Sometimes

it's rendered, do you want to be healed? Do you

want to become whole? It echoes creation in that

upon making all things, God declares them well.

He declares them good. And the human, even very

good. Tov. That is to say, complete. Whole, not

fragmented. Everything is integrated and working

the way it's supposed to. Not being pulled apart

in different directions by competing in different

forces. In the logic of the Paschal season, we

hear the question, as those already baptized,

slightly different from this man, as those having

already entered, the house of mercy, our own

ecclesial Bethesda, as those having entered the

divine waters of baptism and come up. And yet,

we find ourselves with this man, like him, lying

and questioning this fact that we might have

been for 38 years, perhaps, blind, Lame, paralyzed,

unable to move, crippled by our sin, weighed

down by the difficulties of our life, our past,

our own failures, past failures, present failures,

afraid of future failures. What we and others

might have done to ourselves, to us, to bring

us to this predicament. this point in our life

of fear and immobility, of the lack of freedom

to move, a life restricted by our own prison.

Jesus comes to us and asks, do you want to become

whole? Do you want to be well again? Do you want

to be healed? Do you want to walk in freedom?

Do you want to walk in the newness of life? Do

you want to walk in the power of my resurrection?

Do we want that? Or do we want to keep lying

there? That's really the question. And I realize

that some of us have been walking with Christ

for a long time. But this question, brothers

and sisters, comes not only to those newly baptized

and illumined, nor is the question held out only

to catechumens or visitors, newcomers. No, Christ

asks all of us this question. I've been here

long enough now where I've heard the question,

how do we integrate catechumens and new people

into the life of the church? We have so many

new people, thank God, but how do we make them

belong? That is, how do we contextualize opportunities

for them to become well, whole, and healed? That's

great. We should ask those questions. And we

should provide that kind of context for such

healing and wholeness to be carried out. But

what about ourselves? We have to keep asking

ourselves that same question. How do we make

ourselves well? Do we want to be well? Do we

want to be made whole? Do we want to become integrated

human beings free from our own baggage, sin,

failures, and fear? That's a very... different

angle on the question because sometimes we can

hide in the midst of our service or we can hide

in the midst of extending a helping hand to others

or making others feel like they belong or asking

others a bunch of questions so no one has to

ask us any questions. As a priest, I know all

about this, frankly. We have to turn that question

and ask ourselves, or rather let Christ ask us,

do we really want the life that Christ opens

for us as the resurrection and the life? Do we

want to become well? Do we want to be made whole?

Or do we respond like this guy? Sir, I have no

one, literally no human, to put me into the pool.

where we don't really answer Christ's own question,

or we sort of sidestep or evade the question,

as he's literally staring at God become human.

But that's beside the point. The Lord doesn't

ask us whether we have the means. He asks us

something much more straightforward, and thus

much more difficult, right between the eyes he

hits us. Do you want to become well? Which is

a harder question to sit with entirely. Do we

really want to become well? If we answer yes,

he can do it. For all things are possible through

him. We can do all things through Christ who

strengthens us. And apart from him, we can do

nothing. Rise. Get up. Take up your bed and walk.

Notice, the guy never goes into the water. As

the resurrection himself, Christ's words themselves

provide the power and life to get this guy up,

to rise, to change. They provide the power to

get up, to rise, to change one's life and reorient

towards God. But for us, again, we have already

entered into that water. And time in and time

out, Christ's Christ meets us lying, somewhat

crippled by our own discouragement, by the baggage

of our lives, by our own confusion, by our own

returning towards delusion, by the brokenness

of this world. And he tells us, rise, rise, get

up, wake up, you sleeper, and live. Leap, you

lame, for joy. Stop chattering. Stop talking.

Stop making excuses. Maybe for 38 years, stop

listening to the noise in your own heart and

in this world because I have come and I have

overcome the world and I hold the keys of death

and Hades. I have come into this world for your

salvation, for your healing. for your wholeness,

to give you a new life, to shatter old patterns,

to heal you, to make you well, to make you whole,

to make you complete, to save you from your sins,

to save you from yourself. Christ opens to us

a life of freedom, a life of mercy, a life of

compassion, free from anxiety and turmoil, a

life free from fretting, a life unencumbered

by the cares of this world and our own failures,

a life healed from our spiritual sicknesses and

maladies such that we don't have to make excuses

anymore. We can come to him as we are. We don't

have to be afraid of salvation. We don't have

to be afraid of being saved, of really changing.

We don't have to be afraid of what a changed

and redeemed life might actually look like for

us. What he's actually holding out for us, we

don't have to keep him at arm's length. And what

does Christ tell this guy in the temple? Look!

Look at yourself! Behold! See! You are well.

I can just imagine him taking him by the shoulders

and shaking him and smiling in his face. You

are whole. You have been healed. You are well.

You are integrated. Your life is no longer out

of whack. You've been re -centered. You've been

reoriented. Now sin no more, so that nothing

worse might befall you. Of course, we should

feel the full force of what Christ says. Stop

sinning. And yet, we must remember the words

of St. John elsewhere. My little children, I'm

writing to you so that you do not sin. But when

you do sin, that is, when you miss the mark,

when you stumble, when you fall flat on your

face, when you fall before the glory of God,

no! that you have an advocate with God the Father,

Jesus Christ, the righteous one. But the idea

behind the Lord's words is that we must no longer

practice a life of sin. When we stumble, when

we fall, we must always reorient our life toward,

that is, we must always turn it toward the east.

toward the Orient. We must always move toward

the life of God, of course united to Christ and

in the power of the Holy Spirit who helps us

and guides us into the truth, Christ himself,

so that we don't become crippled again, so that

we don't disintegrate, so that we don't backslide,

so that we don't believe those lies that the

world would tell us, that our own hearts would

tell us. the passions would tell us, that the

demons would tell us, that the noise which is

going on so much in this world, so much in our

minds, we don't move toward nothingness and death

and fear, but we move toward God. It's like that

fresco of St. Anthony right over there. I always

remember these words. I no longer fear God, but

I love him. I am not afraid of what Christ can

do in my life. I am not running from him. I am

not lying there crippled, unable to do anything

because Christ has taken me. Christ has raised

me. Christ has lifted me. Christ has empowered

me by his love. I too can love now. I can love

God freely. just like I did in paradise. Brothers

and sisters, sit with this question in your prayers.

Sit with this question this week in your hearts.

Let Christ's words penetrate and seep into our

hearts. Do you want to become well? Do you want

to become whole? Do you want to be healed? Christ

is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.