De Christi divinitate

On the Paralytic, the One Who Had Thirty-Eight Years in His Sickness, and on the Saying, "My Father Works Until Now, and I Work." Twelfth Homily. 1. Blessed be God. At each gathering I see the field increasing, the crops flourishing, the threshing floor filled, the sheaves multiplying. And yet it is not many days since we cast this seed, and behold, the ear of obedience has immediately sprouted richly for us. Hence it is clear that it is not human power, but divine grace that cultivates this Church. For such is the nature of spiritual seed: it does not wait for time, it does not await a multitude of days, it does not expect the cycles of months, nor hours and seasons and years; but it is possible, having cast the seeds in a single day, to reap this harvest with a full and laden arm. For those who till this sensible earth require much labor and long delay. For they are compelled to bring oxen under the yoke, to cut a deep furrow, to cast the seeds abundantly, to level the surface of the earth, to cover all that has been cast, to await moderate rains, and to labor at many other things, and to wait a long time, and then to attain the end. But here, both in summer and in winter, it is possible both to sow and to reap, and often both have occurred on the same day, especially when the soul being cultivated happens to be rich and fertile. This indeed is to be seen in your case; therefore we also run to you with greater eagerness.

For just as a farmer works that field which is suitable, from which he has often filled the threshing floor, so since you, from little labor, provide us with much revenue, we approach this farming with great attention, and we have come bringing you the remnants of what was previously said. Then, from the Old Testament, we wove the discourse concerning the glory of the only-begotten Son of God; now, from the same source, we will do the same. Then we said that Christ said, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me"; now we say that Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers like me; you will listen to him." For just as Christ refers to Moses, so that through him he might draw them to himself, so Moses hands over the disciples to the teacher, commanding them to obey him in all things. Let us therefore obey whatever he does and says, in all other matters, and in this sign read to us today. What is this? It says, "There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem there is a sheep pool, called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes; into which, it is said, an angel comes at a certain time and descends, and this is known by the movement of the water; then the first to enter after the disturbance in the water becomes healthy, whatever disease he had. In these porticoes, then, lay a multitude of the sick: blind, lame, withered, waiting for the movement of the water.

Why then does Christ continually go to Jerusalem and frequent the Jews during their festivals? Because at that time the multitude was gathered, and he watched for that place and that season, so as to take hold of those who were sick. For the sick did not have as great a desire to be freed from their diseases as the physician had zeal to free them from their illness. So when their assembly was full and the theater was complete, then coming into their midst he displayed what pertained to the salvation of their souls. Now a multitude of sick lay waiting for the stirring of the water, and the first one descending was healed after the stirring of the water, but the second one no longer; rather, the remedy was used up, the healing of the grace was expended, and the waters remained empty thereafter, the illness of the first one descending having absorbed it all. And this was quite reasonable; for the grace was servile. But when the Master came, it was not so, nor was only the first one descending into the pool of the waters of baptism healed, but also the first, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and the tenth, and the twentieth; and if you should say ten thousand, or twice that many, or thrice, or countless in number, or if you should cast the whole world into the pool of waters, the grace is not diminished even a little, but remains the same, cleansing all of them. So great is the difference between servile power and masterly authority. That one healed one, this one the whole world.

That one, once a year; this one, every day, if you wish, can cast in ten thousand and return them all healthy. That one, descending and disturbing the water; this one, not so, but it suffices merely to invoke his name over the waters, and to deposit in them the entire basis for healing. And that one healed the maiming of bodies; this one corrects the wickedness of the soul. Do you see how through all things the great and infinite difference appears? 2. A multitude of the sick lay there, awaiting the stirring of the water; for the place was a spiritual infirmary. Just as in an infirmary one may see many with eyes gouged out, with crippled legs, with some other ailing limb, and then all sitting together, awaiting the physician; so too in that place one could see the multitude of those who had gathered. In these porticoes there was a man who had been in his sickness for thirty-eight years. Jesus, seeing him lying there, and knowing that he had already been there a long time, says to him: Do you wish to become healthy? The sick man answered him and said, Yes, Lord; but I have no one to cast me into the pool when the water is disturbed; for while I am coming, another descends before me. Why did Jesus, passing by all the others, come to this one? In order to display both his power and his philanthropy: his power, because the disease had by now become incurable and the condition of his sickness had fallen into hopelessness.

er to the philanthropy, that he who was most worthy of mercy and benefaction was the one whom the guardian and philanthropist saw before the others. Let us not simply pass over the passage, nor the number of thirty-eight years which he spent in his infirmity. Let all those who struggle with perpetual poverty, all those who live with chronic illness, all those who endure the vicissitudes of worldly affairs, all those who have suffered a storm and surge of unexpected evils, listen. This paralytic lies as a common harbor for human misfortunes. For no one is so foolish, no one so wretched and miserable, that, looking to him, they would not bear all that befalls them nobly and with complete readiness. For if it were twenty years, if it were ten, if it were only five, would these not have been sufficient to break the tension of his soul? Yet he remains for thirty-eight years, and does not give up, and displays great endurance. Perhaps the length of time seems remarkable to you, but if you hear the very words themselves, then especially

you will know his philosophy and his entire endurance. Jesus came up and says to him: Do you wish to become healthy? And who could have been ignorant of this, that he wished to become healthy? For what reason, then, does he ask? Not because he is ignorant; for he who knows the hidden things of the mind would much more know the obvious and clear things to all. For what reason did he ask? Just as then he says to the centurion: I will come and heal him, not being ignorant of what he was about to say, but foreseeing and knowing very precisely, and wishing to give him a beginning and a pretext, so that he might uncover to all the reverence in shadow, and say: No, Lord; for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; so also in the case of this paralytic, knowing what he was about to say, he asks if he wishes to be healed, not because he was ignorant of this, but in order to provide him with some pretext and occasion to dramatize his own misfortune, and to become a teacher of endurance. For if he had healed the man in silence, we would have suffered the greatest loss, not learning the steadfastness of his soul. But Christ not only corrects present things, but also deems future things worthy of much care. Therefore, having made him a teacher of endurance and patience to all who inhabit the world, he exposed him through the question, forcing him into an answer: Do you wish to become healthy? What then did he do? He did not become annoyed, he did not become indignant, he did not say to the questioner: You see me paralyzed, you know the long time of my illness, and you ask if I wish to become healthy? Have you come to mock my misfortunes and to make a comedy of another's evils?

You know that the sick are faint-hearted, even if they have lain on a bed for only a year. But when the disease has been prolonged for thirty-eight years, how is it not likely that all philosophy has been consumed, having been spent over a long time? Yet that man neither said nor thought anything of the sort, but with great gentleness he makes his answer, and says: Yes, Lord; but I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed. See how many things came together at once and besieged the man: disease, poverty, and lack of anyone to support him. And while I am coming, another goes down before me. This is the most pitiable of all, enough to bend even a stone. For I seem to see the man crawling each year, reaching the very mouth of the pool, and hanging on to the very end of that good hope each year; and what is more, that he endured this not for two or three or ten years, but for thirty-eight. And he showed all zeal, but fell short of the fruit; and the race was run, but the prize of that race went to another, after all those years; and what is even more difficult, he saw others being released. For you know this, that we perceive our own misfortunes more keenly when we see others who have fallen into the same troubles and have been released. For this reason, the poor man, when he sees another becoming rich, then feels his own poverty more.

And the sick person suffers more when he sees many of those who are ill having put aside their sickness, while he himself has no good hope. For in the successes of others we see our own misfortunes more clearly; this indeed was what happened to him then. But nevertheless, struggling as he was with both disease and poverty and isolation for so long a time, and seeing others being released, and himself always attempting but never prevailing, and not even hoping thereafter to be freed from the evil, still he did not desist, but year after year he kept running. But we, if we pray to God once about anything and do not receive it, immediately we are distressed and fall into utter despondency; we give up the request, we slacken our zeal. Is it possible, then, to praise the paralytic as he deserves, or to censure our own indolence as it deserves? For what apology would we be worthy of, what forgiveness, when, after he endured thirty-eight years, we so quickly lose heart? 3. What then did Christ do? When he had shown that the man was worthy of healing, and that he had justly come to him before the others, he says to him: "Arise, take up your bed, and walk." Do you see how he was in no way harmed by the thirty-eight years, because he bore the calamity with patience? For his soul became more philosophical in that long time, being tested in the crucible of misfortune, and he received his cure with greater glory. For it was not an angel, but the Lord of the angels himself who healed him. And why did he also bid him take up his bed?

First and most importantly, to finally free the Jews from their observance of the law. For when the sun shines, one no longer needs to attend to the lamp; when the truth has been shown, one no longer needs to cling to the type. For this reason, whenever he dissolved the Sabbath, he performed a very great sign in it, so that the magnitude of the miracle, astounding the beholders, might gradually undermine and remove the observance of idleness. Secondly, to stop their shameless mouths. For since they were malicious concerning the judgment of the miracles and attempted to disparage the glory of what was happening, he ordered the carrying of the bed to be displayed, like a trophy and indisputable proof of health, so that they might not say about this man what they said about the blind man. And what did they say about that one? "This is he, this is not he, it is he himself." So that they might not say such things about this man as well, the bed becomes the accuser of their shamelessness, carried aloft. There is also a third thing to say, no less than those already mentioned. So that you might learn that it was not human skill but divine power that accomplished the whole thing, he ordered him to carry the bed, providing the greatest and clearest proof of true and genuine health, so that none of those blasphemers might say that the paralytic, pretending and gratifying Christ, feigned mere walking. For this reason he also orders him to carry a burden on his shoulders. For if his limbs had not been firmly set and his joints tightened, he would not have been able to bear such a weight on his shoulders.

And in addition to all this, that other point was also demonstrated: that everything happens in a single moment when Christ commands—both the removal of disease and the restoration of health. For physicians, even if they rid someone of illnesses, cannot restore the sick person to health in a single moment; rather, they require another long period, that of convalescence, so that the remnants of the illness may be gradually scraped away from the body and expelled. But Christ does not act in this way; rather, in a single instant of time, he both removed the illness and restored health, and no intermediate time elapsed. Instead, at the same moment that that sacred voice leaped forth from his holy tongue, the disease of the body fled, the word became deed, and the entire illness was healed from every side. And just as a maidservant who is rebellious, when she sees her own master, composes herself and returns to proper order, so too the nature of the body, like a maidservant that had then rebelled and produced paralysis, when it saw its own Master present, returned to its proper order and assumed its fitting adornment. And all this was accomplished by the voice; for these were not mere words, but words of God, concerning which it is said, "Mighty are the works of his words." For if he made a man who did not exist, much more did he restore one who had been corrupted and dissolved. Here I would gladly ask those who pry into the essence of God: how did those limbs come together? how were they tightened?

the bones? How was the relaxed tone of the stomach strengthened? How were the loosened sinews stretched again, and the prostrated strength raised up and set upright? But they would not be able to say how. Therefore, marvel only at what happened, do not busy yourself with the manner. Since, then, he did what was commanded and took the bed, the Jews, seeing him, say: It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up the bed on the Sabbath. They ought to have worshipped the one who performed the deed, they ought to have marveled at what happened, but they talk about the Sabbath, truly straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel. What then did that man say? The one who made me healthy, that one told me: Take up your bed and walk. Do you see the man's gratitude? He acknowledges the physician, and says that the giver of the command is trustworthy; and just as the blind man reasoned with them, so also does this man. And how did that one reason? They said to him: This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath. What then did that man say? We know, he says, that God does not hear sinners; but this man opened my eyes. What he says is this: If he transgressed the law, he sinned; but if he sinned, he would not have had such power; for where there is sin, there is no demonstration of power; but he did have power, therefore he did not sin by transgressing the law. So also this man reasons. For saying, The one who made me healthy, he hinted at this: that if this is the one who demonstrated power, he would not rightly be liable to charges of lawbreaking. What then do these men do?

Where is the man who said to you, "Take up your stretcher and walk"? See the ingratitude and the insensibility, see a soul full of arrogance. For the eyes of the envious see nothing sound, but only where they can find a handle. So also these men, when the healed man confessed both—that he healed and that he commanded him to take up the bed—they concealed one thing and reported the other: they concealed the miracle, but they put forward the paralysis of the Sabbath. For they did not say, "Where is the one who made you well?" but, having kept silent about that, they said, "Where is the one who said to you, 'Take up your stretcher and go'?" But this man did not know; for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd in the place. This is the man's greatest defense, this is proof of Christ's solicitude: so that, when you hear that when he came he did not receive him in the same way as the centurion, nor did he say, "Say a word, and my child will be healed," you may not accuse him of faithlessness, since he did not know him; for he did not know who he was at all. For how could he, having never seen him before, know him? For this reason he said, "I have no man to put me into the pool"; as if, had he known him, he would not have mentioned a pool or the descent there, but would have asked to be healed in the same way as he was healed. But he thought him to be one of the many, a mere man, and for this reason he recalled the former healing. And proof of Christ's solicitude is again that he left the healed man and did not reveal himself to him.

So that the Jews might not suspect that this witness was a substitute, and that he said this while Christ was present and persuading him, ignorance and his not being present removed that suspicion; for the evangelist said that he did not know who he was. 4. For this reason alone he sends the healed man by himself, so that they might take him alone, as they wished, and examine what had happened, and having received sufficient proof of the matter, cease their untimely madness. For this reason he himself says nothing, but provides them proof through the facts themselves, everywhere uttering a most clear voice, louder than any trumpet. For thus the testimony was also free from suspicion: "The one who made me healthy told me, 'Take up your stretcher and go.'" The paralytic becomes an evangelist, a teacher of the unbelievers, a physician and herald to their shame and condemnation—a physician not by voice, but by deeds, not by words, but by the facts themselves. For he bore clear and indisputable proof, and what he said he demonstrated through his body. After this, Jesus finds him and says to him, "See, you have become healthy; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you." Do you see the physician's wisdom? Do you see his care? He not only freed him from the present illness, but also secured him for the future—and very opportunely. For when he was on his bed, he said nothing of the sort, did not remind him of his sins; for the soul of the sick is somehow discontented and wretched.

But when he drove away the illness, when he led him back to health, when he provided in deed the demonstration of his power and care, then he makes the counsel and exhortation timely, appearing henceforth credible through the works themselves. So then, did that man, after departing, make him clearly known to the Jews? He wanted to make them partners in the true teaching. But they hated him for this, it is said, and persecuted him. Pay attention to me here; for here is the whole struggle. They persecuted him because he did these things on the Sabbath. Let us see, then, how he defends himself; for the manner of the defense shows us whether he is among the subordinate or the free, among those who serve or those who command. The act seemed to be a great transgression; for once a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath was stoned for this, because he carried burdens on the Sabbath. This great sin was charged against Christ, that he broke the Sabbath. Let us see, then, whether he first asks for forgiveness as a slave and subordinate, or shows himself as having authority and power, as Master, and as standing above the law, and as having given the commandments himself. How, then, does he defend himself? He says: "My Father works until now, and I work." Do you see the authority? Yet if he were inferior and lesser than the Father, what is said is not a defense, but a greater accusation and a more severe charge.

For when someone does what only the greater is permitted to do, and then, being caught and accused, says, "Because the greater did it, therefore I also did it," not only does he not free himself from the charges by this manner of defense, but he renders himself liable to even greater blame and accusation. For it is a mark of arrogance and presumption to attempt deeds that belong to those of higher rank. And so if Christ were inferior, this statement would not be a defense, but a greater accusation; but since he was equal to him, for this reason it is not an accusation. And if you wish, I will make what I say clear by an example. It is permitted only to the king to wear a purple robe and to have a diadem on his head, and to no one else. Therefore, if one of the common people is found wearing this attire, and then, being dragged into court, says, "Because the king wears this attire, therefore I also wear it," not only does he not free himself from the accusation, but he renders himself liable to even greater punishment and penalty by this manner of defense. Again, releasing the worst offenders from punishment and penalty—such as murderers, bandits, tomb-robbers, and those who have dared other such things—belongs to royal prerogative alone. And so if some judge, releasing a condemned man without the king's consent, is accused, and says likewise, "Because the king also releases, I also release," not only does he not escape by this manner, but he kindles even greater anger against himself. And rightly so.

Nor is it just for inferiors, in their acts of insolence, to ascend to the authority of their superiors and procure a defense for themselves from that source, since this is a greater insult to those who entrusted them with their office. For this reason, if someone is inferior, he will never defend himself in this manner; but if he is a king and of the same rank, he will say this with confidence. For just as there is one preeminence of authority, so too would there reasonably be one power. Therefore, if someone is found defending himself in this way, it is absolutely necessary that he be of the same rank as the one whose authority he puts forward on his own behalf. Consequently, since Christ also defended himself in this way before the Jews, he has indisputably shown us that he is of the same rank as the Father. And let us, if you please, transfer the example to the words of Christ and the work which he performed. Let it be, then, that which is done with authority: to break the Sabbath, just as the purple robe and the diadem and the pardoning of those who are liable. Just as those things are permitted only to the king, and to no other of his subjects, and if someone is found doing them, and doing them justly, it is necessary that he too be a king; so too here, since Christ is seen doing these things with authority, and then, when accused, puts forward the Father, saying, "My Father works until now," it is absolutely necessary that he also be equal to that one who acts with authority. For he would not, unless he were equal to him, have used this manner of defense. And that you may learn more clearly what is being said: the disciples once broke the Sabbath by plucking ears of grain and eating on the Sabbath; and he himself now breaks it.

The Jews brought charges against those others, and they brought charges against him as well. Let us see how he defends them, and how he defends himself—so that from the difference you may learn his superiority and his defense. How then does he defend them? "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry?" For when he defends the servants, he takes refuge in their fellow servant David; but when he defends himself, he refers the argument to the Father: "My Father works, and I work." And what work does he mean? Someone might perhaps say: "For in six days God ceased from all his works"—the daily providence. For he did not only bring creation into being, but after it was brought forth, he also sustains it; whether you speak of angels, archangels, the powers above, or simply all things visible and invisible, they all enjoy his providence; and if they were deprived of that activity, they would perish, dissolve, and be destroyed. Therefore, wishing to show that Christ is among those who exercise providence, and not among those who are provided for, among those who act, and not among those who are acted upon, he said, "My Father works, and I work," desiring to demonstrate his equality with the Father. 5. Remember these things and guard them with all precision, and weave together the philosophy from your way of life with the correctness of doctrines—which I urged before, and now urge, and will not cease urging; and nothing so produces this way of life and philosophy as the present gathering.

Just as fallow land, having no one to irrigate it, is full of thorns and thistles, while land that enjoys the hands of farmers flourishes and teems and abounds in fruit, so also the soul: the one that enjoys the irrigation of the divine oracles flourishes and teems and abounds in the fruit of the Spirit; while the one that is in drought and neglect and scarcity of such irrigation becomes desolate and runs wild and puts forth many thorns, the nature of sin. And where there are thorns, there are dragons and snakes and scorpions and the whole host of the devil. And if you disbelieve the word, come, let us compare those who have fallen away and ourselves, and you will then see the great difference; or rather, let us examine ourselves, what sort we are who enjoy divine teaching, and what sort we are who are deprived of this benefit to a greater degree. Let us not, then, betray so great a gain. For the time spent here is the foundation of all good things; departing from here, even a man will appear to a woman

more precious, and a wife more desirable to her husband. For what makes a woman lovely is not physical beauty, but virtue of soul—not cosmetics and paints, not gold and costly garments, but chastity, gentleness, and fear anchored in God. And this intelligible beauty cannot be cultivated with precision anywhere else but in this wondrous and divine place, where apostles and prophets polish, adorn, and scrape away the old age of sin, introducing the bloom of youth, casting out every stain, every wrinkle, every blemish from our soul. Therefore, let us, both men and women, strive to establish this beauty within ourselves. For bodily beauty is withered by disease, destroyed by the passage of time, extinguished by old age, and utterly annihilated by the onset of death; but the beauty of the soul—neither time, nor disease, nor old age, nor death, nor anything else of that kind can mar it, but it remains perpetually in bloom. And while bodily beauty often incites those who behold it to licentiousness, the beauty of the soul draws God Himself to love it in a fitting manner—just as the Prophet says, speaking to the Church: "Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty." Therefore, beloved, in order that we may become friends of God, let us practice this beauty every day, polishing away every stain by the reading of the Scriptures, by prayers, by almsgiving, by harmony with one another.

so that the King, having fallen in love with the beauty of our soul, may deem us worthy of the kingdom of heaven; may it be granted to all of us to attain this, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom glory is due to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.