My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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THE SECOND SUNDAY OF HOLY AND GREAT LENT SUNDAY OF SAINT GREGORY PALAMAS
The gospel for the first Sunday of Holy and Great Lent ended with an allusion to the ministry of Angels. And Angels are also called to mind by the Epistle (Letter) of Saint Paul (Hebrews 1: 10-2. 3). The sacred text compares the ministry of Angels with that, which is so much greater, of the Savior Himself. If disobedience to the messages transmitted to us by the Angels is justly punished, how much greater will be the punishment of the man who neglects the salvation that is announced and brought by Christ? For 'to which of the Angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool'?
The gospel for this day (Saint Mark 2:1-12) tells of the healing of the man sick of the palsy at Capernaum. Jesus forgives him his sins, and, as the Scribes are astonished that anyone other than God can forgive sins, He answers: "Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins...I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house". The central theme of this episode is the power of both pardon and healing that the Lord Jesus possesses. Then there is the affirmation - even more, the demonstration - that healing and the forgiveness of sins cannot be separated. The man sick of the palsy, lying on his bed, has been put down at the feet of Christ. Now Jesus's first words are not: "Be healed", but: "thy sins be forgiven thee". In our physical illnesses, before imploring actual release, we must ask for inner purification and be absolved from our offences. Finally, Jesus tells the man who was sick of the palsy to take up his bed and to go to his house. On the one hand, the crowd will be more fully convinced of the reality of the miracle if this man is now seen to be strong enough to carry his litter; and, on the other, he who has been forgiven, and inwardly changed by Jesus must show those of his house, by some unmistakable sign (not only be carrying his litter, but by words, actions, behavior), that he is a new man resuming life in his own surroundings.
One notices that neither the Epistle (Letter) nor the gospel for this day has any bearing on Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, with whose name the calendar none the less associates the Second Sunday in Holy Lent. This is because the commemoration of Saint Gregory Palamas was only introduced in the 14th century when the liturgical structure for this Sunday had already become established along different lines. The memory of Saint Gregory Palamas is, however, evoked in the services for Vespers (Esperinos) and Orthros (Matins). Saint Gregory expounded and defended, in the course of the heated controversy, the theological doctrine relating to Divine 'Light'. The texts of the services do not go into detail or give explanations of the concepts attributed to Saint Gregory Palamas but speak in a general way of Light and of Him Who said: "I am the light of the world". In a considerably abridged form, one of the texts for Orthros (Matins) brings together three ideas: that of Christ who illumines sinners, that of Lenten abstinence, and that of the word "arise", which the Savior spoke to the man sick of the palsy, and which we now address to Him: "to those who live in the darkness of sin, thou has brought light, O Christ, at this time of abstinence. Show us therefore the glorious day of Thy Passion, so that we may cry to Thee: Arise, O God and have pity on us." (Source: The Year of Grace of the Lord)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George