At the Cathedral of St. George in Stockholm, Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday of the Sixth Week of Matthew, August 4, 2024.
The Metropolitan referred to the Gospel reading of the day, noting that “once again, we see that our Lord’s ministry was unceasing. In this way, He spread spiritual light to the darkened consciences.”
He also mentioned that “it has been demonstrated even today by medical science that the body is affected by the soul. Thus, whenever the moral illness of the soul, sin, takes on pathological dimensions, it gradually paralyzes the spiritual faculties as well. Following the paralysis of the soul, due to the interdependence of soul and body, the body’s power of resistance is diminished. Ultimately, the collapse of the body often follows.”
Read below the speech of Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden and All Scandinavia:
Beloved Brethren,
In today’s Gospel reading, we see once again that our Lord’s ministry was unceasing. In this way, He spread spiritual light to darkened consciences. First, He strengthened the faith of the sick in God, granting them spiritual cleansing and spiritual upliftment.
Subsequently, as a divine gift, came the healing of the body. Alongside the healing of the rational soul, He also provided the restoration of physical ailments.
One of the most severe diseases was the physical illness of the paralytic. Four faithful people brought a wretched paralytic on a stretcher before Jesus, and immediately, seeing the faith of both the paralytic and his four companions, the Lord said to the sick man: “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
As the omniscient God, the Lord, observing the paralytic, saw the saving transformation of his soul, the awareness of his sinfulness, which was a cry of repentance, a change, a new position of the spiritually and physically ill person before God.
The faith of the four and the repentance of the sick man brought about the restoration of both spiritual and physical health. The forgiveness of the paralytic’s sins was followed by physical healing. Thus, Christ’s command became the channel that conveyed the divine healing power.
He returned home, doubly healed and repentant for his previous life. After the Lord diagnosed the cause of his illness, the silent confession of the former paralytic regarding his sins is the most instructive lesson for those who exclude the moral factor from organic diseases.
It has been proven today by medical science that the body is affected by the soul. Thus, whenever the moral disease of the soul, sin, takes on pathological dimensions, it gradually paralyzes the spiritual faculties.
Following the paralysis of the soul, due to the interdependence of soul and body, the body’s power of resistance is diminished. Ultimately, the collapse of the body often follows.
Therefore, the faith of the four brought the repentant former paralytic before the Benefactor of souls and bodies. It was the active faith of the four and the paralytic that brought about the miracle of healing both the body and the soul. This happened because active faith besieges the love of God and directly attracts His mercy, as Saint James underscores: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).
Even if sin has ravaged the psychophysical being of a person, the efficacy of divine grace is healing and renewing to the ailing human organism.
Beloved brethren, in our times, many are spiritually paralyzed. The issue is to seek those who will guide us to the physician of our souls and bodies. To find ourselves repentant near Christ, to hear His healing voice.
