Homily on the Paralytic at the Pool (complete)

[1.] … For if he sees a tax collector sitting at the tax office, [he makes him an apostle] …; and if he is laid in the grave with the dead, he raises the dead. To the blind he grants sight, to the deaf hearing; and he goes round the pools, not seeking out the buildings but healing the sick.

[2.] For in Jerusalem there was a sheep pool with five porticoes, four running round it and the fifth in the middle, in which lay a multitude of the sick; and great was the unbelief of the Jews. But the physician and healer of souls and bodies granted healing in due measure, healing first the one who had been ill longest, so that he might be released from his pains the sooner. For it was not one day that he had lain there, nor two, nor the first month or year, but thirty-eight years. Lying in a long illness, he was known to those who saw him, and so displayed the working of the one who healed him; for the paralytic was known to all because of the length of time. The chief physician showed his power, but was rejected by those who took it ill. [3.] Going round the pool, "he saw": he did not learn by questioning, but supplied what was lacking by divine working. "Seeing," not asking how long he had been lying there; but seeing, he knew, he who knew even before he saw. For if in matters of the heart "he had no need that anyone should ask him about man, for he himself knew what was in man," much more about diseases whose onset is from outside. [4.] He saw a man lying there, weighed down by a very grievous illness; for he had a heavy load of sins and the long-lasting pain of disease. To him he says, in the form of a question, what he longed for: "Do you want to be healed?" And he said nothing else, but left it at the midpoint of the question; for the question was twofold. For since he was sick not only in body but also in soul (as he said later, "See, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you"), he asked him, "Do you want to be healed?" O great power of the physician, who makes help depend on willing! For since salvation is from faith, he heard "Do you want?", so that his willing might bring on the working. This word belongs to Jesus alone; it is not for the chief physicians of things perceived by the senses. For those who heal the diseases of the senses cannot say to all, "Do you want to be healed?" But Jesus both grants the willing and accepts the believing, and bestows the gift freely.

[5.] Once the Saviour was passing along the road, and two blind men were sitting there, sightless in body but enlightened in mind. For the one whom the scribes did not know, the blind men pointed out by crying aloud. The Pharisees, who had learned the law and studied it from childhood to old age, and had grown old in ignorance, said, "As for this man, we do not know where he is from" (for "he came to his own, and his own did not receive him"); but the blind men kept crying out, saying, "Son of David, have mercy on us." And the one whom those who had learned the law did not know, the blind knew, having knowledge. Coming to them, the Saviour said, "Do you believe that I can do this?" and "What do you want me to do for you?" He did not say, "What do you want me to say to you?" but "What do you want me to do for you?" For he was a maker and giver of life, not beginning to make now (for his Father is always working, and he works together with the Father); and he was the maker of all things at the Father's nod. He alone, begotten of the Alone without intermediary, asks the blind men, "What do you want me to do for you?", not because he did not know what they wanted (for the matter was plain), but bringing on the gift from their own words, so that they might be justified by their own words. For surely he who knows hearts is not ignorant of what is said; but he waited for the word, so that the question might draw out the working. [6.] So too the physician, standing beside this man, came of his own accord to the one worn out (and it is no wonder that he came to the man lying by the pool, since he came of his own accord from heaven to us), and asked him, "Do you want to be healed?", by the question drawing him to knowledge and rousing him to ask. A gift of great grace, for it was free; that is why he had the healer come to him of his own accord. He said to him: "Yes, Lord. For the length of my illnesses makes me long for health; I long for it, but I have no man." Do not lose heart, man, because you have no man: you have God standing beside you, in one respect man, in another God; for both must be confessed. For the confession of the humanity, without the confession of the divinity with it, is not profitable, but rather brings a curse; for "cursed is he who has his hope in man." If, then, we too, hoping in Jesus, hope in a man, and do not weave the divinity also into our hope, we are heirs of a curse. But now [we confess him] both God and man: [God truly], begotten of the true Father, and man not in appearance but in truth born … [7.] "I want to be healed, but I have no man." See whether it was not where salvation was lacking that he gave his working. For most of the sick had houses, and acquaintances besides, and some others too; but this man, truly afflicted in every poverty, having no means of help from outside, left utterly alone, had as his helper the only-begotten Son of God. "Do you want to be healed?" "Yes, Lord, but I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled." You have the spring: "For with you is the spring of life," a spring that makes springs. "Whoever drinks of this water, rivers will flow from his belly": not of water flowing downward, but of water (for the water of Jesus makes one leap not from above downward, but from earthly things to heavenly), of water "springing up to eternal life"; for Jesus is the spring of good things. [8.] And why do you wait for a pool? You have him who walks on the waters, who rebukes the winds, who drives the sea like a charioteer; who not only had the sea spread beneath himself like a pavement, but also granted Peter the like power of walking. For when it was a moonless night, and the Light was present but not recognized (for Jesus walking on the waters was unknown as far as his features could be seen, but the peculiar quality of his voice made known who was present), they thought him a phantom and were afraid. Jesus said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to him, "If it is you, whom I know, or rather whom the Father revealed to me, command me to come to you on the waters." And he, with most generous sharing, says to him: ["Come."]

[9.] There stood, then, by the waters of the pool the charioteer and maker of the waters; and the paralytic says to him: "I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled." The Saviour says to him: "Why do you wait for the troubling of the waters? Be healed without trouble. Why do you wait for a visible movement? By a word the command is done, swifter than thought. Only look into the working of the spring, and discern God appearing in the flesh; and do not look at the one who appears, but at the one who works through the one who appears." "I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled." And he to him: "Why do you wait for small things? Why do you seek a healing from waters? Arise": the Resurrection has said it to you. For everywhere the Saviour becomes all things to all: bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, resurrection to the dead, physician to the sick, redemption to sinners. [10.] "Arise, take up your bed, and walk": but first arise, first throw off the disease, then take up the sinew of faith. First gain strength against the bed that carried you, and learn to carry, with a wooden vessel, the things long revered. And he who commanded him to carry the wooden litter was the Saviour, of whom it is said: "The king made himself a litter from the woods of Lebanon … its [seat] of purple, its interior paved." These are symbols of the passion, in the Songs, the bridal, sober and chaste Songs. For do not, following the opinion of the many, [think] the Songs to be of passion and lust; rather the words are bridal, full of chastity. And if you do not understand the Songs, come to the Proverbs: "[Wisdom] built herself a house" (the word is as of a woman), "and sent out her servants." And again elsewhere it says: "Love her, and she will keep you." Not love of a woman, but of wisdom, which banishes passionate love. For where wisdom is acquired, there passionate love is banished. For the passions are not according to wisdom, but the thoughts are wise. "They became horses mad for mares": the impulse is irrational. If, then, you hear in the Songs things said as of a bridegroom and bride, do not fall to the ground, nor hear these things with passion; [but] from the passionless … [11.] Study, then, the divine words of the Songs, full of chastity, revealing the passion of Christ. For in narrating the things concerning the Saviour's passion it speaks of the place too: "He went into a garden," because of the one buried there. And it mentioned the spices: "my myrrh, full"; for the dispensation was fulfilled. And after the resurrection he said: "I ate my bread with my honey"; for they gave him a honeycomb. And again it spoke of the wine mixed with myrrh … And of the ointment poured on his head it spoke elsewhere: "While the king …" For as he reclined in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came in and broke an alabaster jar of [ointment and poured it on his] head. So too of the cross: "A litter" (the wood of the cross, which carries him); "its pillars he made of silver." The beginning of the cross was silver, the betrayal. For as a fine house has a golden roof laid on above, but the pillars raise up the whole structure, so the beginning of Christ's being crucified and rising again was silver. For if Judas had not betrayed him, he would not have been crucified; therefore, as the beginning of the renowned passion, "its pillars he made of silver." [12.] "Its seat purple." That is why they also clothed him in purple, mocking indeed, but acting prophetically; for he was a king. Even if they did it chiefly in mockery, still they did it, and it became the symbol of royal dignity. And if the crown was of thorns, still it was a crown, and bound on by soldiers; for kings [are crowned] by soldiers … "paved." Those zealous for the church know the Pavement, called Gabbatha, which is in Pilate's [praetorium].

[13.] These things I have said in a digression, from the bed to the litter. "[Take up your bed] and walk." The illness was of long standing, but the plaster most swift; the paralysis was of many years, but the bracing of the sinews most swift. For it was the maker of sinews, who supplies various cures to the blind, who by an anointing with clay wonderfully gave the plaster. For if clay is spread on one who sees, it [destroys] sight; but Jesus by clay gave sight to those who did not see. And again his power works on others by other means. To this man he said: "Arise, take up your bed, and walk." How great an amazement do you think seized those who saw? But what was seen was wonderful, and the unbelief was terrible. The disease of many years was healed, but the long-standing unbelief was not healed; the Jews persisted in their sufferings and did not wish to be healed. [14.] If what happened ought to have amazed them, they ought to have worshipped the physician of souls and bodies. But they murmured; for they were descendants of murmurers, who turn good things into evil, "who call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter." But Jesus worked on the sabbath with all wise management, doing on the sabbath things above the sabbath, so that the work might persuade. For since word fights with word, but a deed admits no contest, he healed on the sabbath while teaching, so that the word might not become contentious, but the work might persuade those who saw.

[15.] They said: "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to take up your bed." The lawgiver was present, and did another say, "It is not lawful for you"? "Appoint, Lord, a lawgiver over them" is said of the Saviour. But he, just now healed in both soul and body, having [received] from Wisdom a wise [word] … and making his answer briefly: "You all know," he says, "my long illness, the many years I have lain here, the helplessness of my misery. None of you ever showed any care for me, taking me and putting me first into the pool … You who showed no [kindness], how have you now taken up the role of lawgiver: 'It is not lawful for you to take up your bed'? [Hear] my answer: He who made me well, he told me. If you despise me, let the deed amaze you: he did not apply a plaster, he did not … he spoke, and the work followed; he commanded, and I carry out the command. I have become obedient to the command of him who healed me by commands. For if he who commanded had been powerless by his commands to heal me, I ought not to obey them; but since by words a long-standing suffering was commanded, and visibly, to cease, I most justly listen to him at whose word even the disease, hearing, departed. He who made me well, he told me: [Take up] your bed …"

[16.] The one who had been healed did not know who it was who healed him. Great is the freedom from vainglory of our Saviour shown here: having healed, he withdrew, so that he might not be made known for the healing. But we do quite the opposite. If we ever happen to see dreams, or to help someone with our hands, or to drive out a demon by invocation, we are so far from hiding the achievement that we boast of it even when not asked. But Jesus, teaching us by his works not to speak of ourselves, granted the healing and at once withdrew, so as not to be recognized: withdrawing at the right time, and present at the right time. For when the praise of the achievement had to be shut off, then he withdraws; but when the crowds had withdrawn, so that along with the bodily healing he might bring on also the healing of the soul, then he was present and said: "See, you have been made well; sin no more." [17.] He is a physician of many ways, sometimes healing the soul first and then the body, sometimes the reverse. "Sin no more, lest something worse happen to you." The word is [not] to that man only, but to all of us. For if we ever fall into sufferings or griefs or hardships, let no one blame God. For "God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one"; but each of us [is held] by the cords of [his own] sins … "lest something worse happen to you." Hear the saying, every man: let him who formerly committed sexual immorality put away the passion; and you who were formerly greedy, become merciful. Let the robber hear: "Sin no more." Great is God's forgetfulness of wrongs, abundant his grace; but do not take the excess of his forbearance as provision for contempt; nor sin because God is long-suffering; but have your fleshly passions healed from now on, and you too say what was fittingly read: "For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members." When the apostle says, "when we were in the flesh," he did not mean this flesh with which we are clothed, but fleshly deeds; for he was still wearing flesh when he said, "when we were in the flesh." But in the same way as, when the flood was about to be brought, God said, "My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh," since the spirit had changed into a fleshly choice, so here too the apostle says, "when we were in the flesh." [18.] Let no one, then, be in the flesh; but being in the flesh, let him not walk according to the flesh. For the apostle does not wish us to take ourselves wholly out of the world so as not to do evil, but, being in the flesh, to enslave the flesh and not to be ruled by it. Let us not be enslaved, but rule; let us use moderate food, not carried away by gluttony, but bridling the belly, so that we may also rule what is below the belly. Let the body be ruled by the soul, and let not the soul be dragged along by fleshly pleasures. "Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you." The word proclaims it to all; may all ears hear. For not every hearing of the flesh that receives the word already receives it into the understanding; therefore the Saviour said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," to those who have ears of flesh … [19.] Let everyone, then, hear Jesus and sin no more; let us run to the forgiver of sins. If we are sick, let us take refuge [in him]; if we are pained in soul, let us follow the physician of knowledge; if we hunger, let us receive the bread; if we have been put to death, let us receive the resurrection; if we have grown old in ignorance, [let us receive] wisdom from Wisdom …

[20.] But the word has drawn us out to a long discourse, and perhaps we have become a hindrance to the father's teaching. The time calls us to listen to greater words, so that, helped by greater works, we may send up glory to God through those works; to whom be glory now and always and for ages of ages. Amen.