Dr Augustin Sokolovski
In the Orthodox Church, the fourth Sunday of Eastertide is dedicated to the healing of the paralytic by the Lord Jesus. In English, this day is known as “Sunday of the Paralytic.” This event is described in chapter 5 of the Gospel according to John, verses 1–15. It is already the fourth Sunday after Easter, with the count beginning on Easter Sunday itself.
The Orthodox calendar is remarkable for its clarity, logic, and thoughtfulness. For example, there must be five Sundays between Easter and the Ascension. Here they are in order: 1. Sunday of the Apostle Thomas; 2. Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers; 3. Sunday of the Paralytic; 4. Sunday of the Samaritan Woman; 5. Sunday of the Man Born Blind. Before this comes Easter, and after this comes the Ascension.
It turns out that the first, third, and fifth Sundays are “dedicated” to men. These are Thomas, the paralytic, and the man born blind. Thomas, though an Apostle, does not believe in Jesus’ Resurrection; the paralytic has lain for years in one of the most public places in Jerusalem and knows nothing of Jesus; finally, the blind man, like the paralytic, remains in Jerusalem but knows nothing of the Messiah. In contrast, the myrrh-bearers remain faithful to Jesus even at the moment of His ultimate defeat on the Cross and in the Crucifixion; they are the first to hear the news of the Resurrection. And the Samaritan woman, though she lives far from Jerusalem, awaits the Messiah, listens eagerly to His words, and, moreover, immediately tells her fellow villagers about Him.
And this is very important. In the Old Testament, women were not considered independent or fully-fledged individuals; therefore, this arrangement of the Paschal season—and, of course, the very content of the Gospel—emphasizes the change and the revolution that the Lord Jesus and the New Testament brought into our world.
The Apostle Paul and the Church Fathers—among whom the ancient Gallic author, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (130–200), stands out in a special way—referred to this as the universal restoration, the recapitulation of all creation in Christ Jesus. The Church must be the icon of this restoration, unification, and unity on earth. If this does not happen, it means that Orthodox Christians have ceased to fulfill their calling, because they themselves have introduced divisions into their community.
In the Gospel reading about the paralytic, the Lord Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be healed?” (5:6). In response, he hears: “Yes, Lord; but I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am coming, another steps down before me” (5:7). Here we see a double sorrow, a double catastrophe, a double tragedy unfolding. The paralytic has no one on earth who can help him. But as soon as he wants—or even is able—to help himself, these people, who were not there before, appear to block his path to salvation.
In this Gospel passage, everything takes place in the very heart of Jerusalem, near one of the holy sites. This means that the area is filled with deeply religious people. And yet these religious people display the utmost, hellish selfishness; not a single one of them is willing to help. Moreover, they stand in the way of a helpless man who needs help far more than they do. This detail in the Gospel is small, but it contains a great lesson. In the middle of the last century, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre declared: “Hell is other people.” “Hell is other people,” proclaims enlightened secularism. May this never be the case in the Church; may this never be the case among us.