Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

(Matthew 9:1-8)

In the Gospel reading for today we hear the account of the healing of the paralytic. Our Lord Jesus Christ had just returned to Capernaum from the country of the Gergesenes, where he had healed the men possessed by demons. A small crowd awaited Him upon His return and brought to Him this man who was sick and paralyzed by his illness. The sick man’s friends cared for him and had faith that Jesus Christ could heal him.

It is interesting and important to note that the Gospel indicates that when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven thee’. Whose faith was Christ responding to? Our Lord was recognizing and honoring the faith not just of the man who was sick, but primarily of those who loved him and brought him before the Lord. Their faith and their supplications mattered… God recognized and responded to the love and faith of those who brought the sick man before Him.

This is an incredibly important lesson for us! It is sometimes the case that we get discouraged in our spiritual life: what does it matter if I fast, what does it matter if I skip my prayers?

Well, as today’s Gospel reading helps to illustrate… your faith and your supplications before God matter! Your faith has implications and influence upon the rest of the world. Our Lord healed the paralytic in response to the love and faith of those friends who brought him before the Lord.

I think that this recognition of the impact of our prayer life, the impact of our spiritual life upon the world around us and upon our brothers and sisters in the faith is profound.

There is much that is sick and paralyzed in today’s world. I’m sure we all feel it. From wars and rumors of wars to all manners of problems both foreign and domestic, it is clear that our world is suffering and in trouble. What can we do about it? How can we be effective Orthodox Christians in times such as these?

I think that today’s Gospel has much to say about this… about the power of intercessory prayer when two or more are gathered together.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we gather together to pray, and especially when we gather to serve the Divine Liturgy, we are participating in something of deep significance.

Several times during the divine services, the deacon will call out to us: ‘Let us attend!’ This is a wake up call for us to be attentive to what is happening, to what is being said, to what is being revealed to us.

When we pray the Great Litanies we pray for the peace from above and the salvation of our souls; we pray for peace in the whole world, the welfare of the Holy Church, and for the union of all men; we pray for our Orthodox hierarchs, for our civil authorities, for our country and city; we pray for seasonable weather, the abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times; we pray for those who are traveling, for the sick and for the suffering.

My fellow Christians! Let us be attentive to these prayers! You ask yourself, what can you do in the face of all the troubles impacting the world today? Stand attentively in the midst of your brothers and sisters in Christ and PRAY these prayers – pray them with all of your heart… calling upon God’s mercy.

And just as our Lord Jesus Christ heard and honored the supplicatory prayers of the friends of the paralytic, so too will He hear and honor our prayers as we intercede for one another and as we join our voices together in prayers of thanksgiving and praise and for God’s mercy upon us all.

Never allow the evil one to suggest to you that you are alone or that your prayers are impotent. Your voice of prayer is just as important and just as desperately needed as the voice of any of the rest of us! And it is by the collective prayers of those who share the same faith, who have the same Blood of Christ flowing through their veins, that Christ’s promise is fulfilled that: ‘whenever two or more are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them.’

When each of us extend our hearts in prayer to the Lord, that voice is the voice of the Body of Christ. No matter where you are, no matter what your circumstances… when we unite ourselves in prayer, we stand firm as the Body of Christ. And this connection which we have with one another unites us and stands as a testament of the otherworldly and unbreakable bond of brothers and sisters in Christ. The evil one is playing a terrible game of ‘divide and conquer’ with the world right now. Let us stand against it as the Body of Christ!

God grant us the awareness and wisdom to remember who we are and who we are called to be. We may profitably think of the world as the paralytic in today’s Gospel. I think we can agree it is an apt analogy. We, as Christians must rally together in prayer and intercession for our sick friend, the world, who is deeply paralyzed and of whom we are all a part. Let us bring the world before Christ in prayer and compassion. The key is for us to build and to retain an Orthodox Christian worldview which understands our connection to one another and our connection to God.

Let us be intercessors for one another. Let us be people of prayer. May God grant us to know and realize our life together in Christ. And may we leverage that unity to pray for one another and for the good of the whole world.