OrthoAnalytika

Exultation of the Cross Behold the Man: The Cross and Our Shared Criminality Homily on the Passion and the Cross I Corinthians 1:18-24; St. John 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35 Christ was crucified among criminals, a mirror of our own sinfulness and complicity in His Passion.  Yet like the repentant theif, we are invited to turn to Him in humility, behold His mercy, and enter the Kingdom with the New Adam who reveals true humanity.  Enjoy the show! ++++++ Our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, was condemned and put on a cross to die in the midst of criminals.  Not just the obvious criminals, such as the thieves on his right and his left, but he was surrounded by them.  For the entire world had been given over to sin.  The religious authorities, the ones who knew the law and the prophets, and should have been the first to support him, were certainly criminal.  They “assembled together… unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him.” (Matthew 26:3-4).  They were jealous of Jesus, seeing how “the world is gone after him.” (John 12:9).  They did not want a trial; they wanted his death.  Remember that when the good and law-abiding man, Nicodemus, called them on this and suggested to them that Jesus be brought before the court for a hearing, saying, “Does our law judge any man, before it hears him, and know what he does?”  They mocked Nicodemus, saying, “Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.”  They were not interested in the Law or the Truth or even the facts; they were preserving their own comfort and power, and were willing to break the law and commit murder (deicide!) to protect it.  They were criminals. Nor were they the only criminals.  Think also of Judas, who participated in their perfidy by betraying his alleged friend and teacher for thirty pieces of silver.  And then there was the entire crowd who came out, and in their own criminality, chose the convicted criminal Barabbas over Christ.  As St. Nikolai Velimirovic puts it; “God or a criminal?  And the criminals choose the criminal.” Yes, Christ was surrounded by criminals.  But before we condemn them, let’s remember one of the first rules of biblical interpretation; when the scriptures speak of bad men, be they the scribes and pharisees, Judas, the Jewish people, or even common criminals, we are to think not just of them, but how it is that we are like them.  In our fallenness, it is easy to see the criminality of others, especially those with whom we disagree or are from other Babelic tribes than our own.  But so often their crimes are not obvious because they are so heinous, but because they have been magnified by the problems with our vision – we can only see darkness when our eyes are full of darkness and it is hard to see anything objectively when we have giant honking logs sticking out of our eye-sockets.  When tempted by such judgment, let us remember Christ, draw in the sand and say, “Let he who is without sin, throw the first stone.” Yes, we are all criminals of the sort that participated in the passion of our God; petty, jealous, riotous, scheming – it’s all there in our hearts and on our lives for everyone to see.  We are the criminals of this story.  All of us have sinned against God and against His Way. But there was one criminal who stepped out of his sin and the propaganda of the devil, and repented.  He accepted that he had earned his suffering.  Again, paraphrasing St. Nikolai; blessed is the criminal who, in the midst of his very real agony, does not lash out in condemnation of the other criminals but rather recognizes that he has earned his cross because of his sins.  The resulting clarity then allows him to see the God-man in his midst, repent, beg for God’s mercy, and then find himself in Paradise with his saviour.  We quote this saint every time we take communion: “Remember me, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom”.  We imitate his words, but do we imitate the deep transformation that allowed him, while feeling such pain, to say them? And now that we have looked at the crowds of the scene described in today’s Gospel, let us look to Christ.  Right before today's reading, Pilate had brought our Lord out before the people after he had been beaten and scourged and had a crown of thorns put on his head and had said, “Behold the man!”. Yes, let us behold the man.  For Jesus was both fully God and fully man.  And His humanity had brought Him immense agony.  Earlier, we saw Him as a man when He was an infant in a cave, and when He and his family fled to Egypt, and when He was hungry and thirsty and had no place to lay his head.  Of course we also saw Him as God, walking on water, quelling storms, healing the sick, and multiplying loaves.  But at no time was his humanity more on display than from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Cross.  First, sweat poured from his head like blood because of anguish, and then that blood was joined by more from the lashes and the crown and the nails.  Jesus in the Garden was tormented; as man he knew pain and was expecting more – and as God He had ordained this as the path to the salvation of the world.  St. Nikolai writes; “these two were in conflict and had to be brought into accord.”  And so the man-mind and will went from the tortured; “if Thou be willing remove this up from Me” to the submissive “nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done.”  And when He did this, He acquired a peace that could not be broken by unjust accusations, or blasphemies, or physical pain. Yes, “Behold the Man”!  Behold the sort of man that God had in mind when he first formed Adam.  A man obedient to God and willing to do everything so that some might be saved.  Think of His dignity as He went to His death.  Not only did He avoid grumbling and condemnations, “He worked for the good of all to His dying breath.” (SNV, 201)  He desired good even in the midst of the pain of crucifixion, even in the midst of the most supreme injustice, and even in the midst of those who reviled Him.  As St. Luke records, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Do we see the charity?  Do we see the love?  Are we not drawn to imitate Him in His magnanimity?  Rather than throwing their sins against their teeth and shouting it out to God for vengeance, He was merciful toward them.  For even if the criminals who assaulted Him used words to justify their blasphemy, they “knew not what they did.” “Behold the Man.” Are we men?  Are we willing to imitate the Ur-Man, the New Adam; the very definition of what it means to be a man?  Can we be charitable in our pain?  Can we look to the salvation or others from the depths of our despair? And if this is, at least for now, beyond our reach, let us then imitate the one at his side, and focus not on the sins of others, but on our own, and turn to God in repentance, crying; “Remember me, Lord, in Thy Kingdom.”

In this episode, Fr. Anthony examines the nature of ultimate reality—God, gods, and the arche’—through Scripture and the Fathers. With insights from Journey to Reality, he shows how God transcends all categories and draws us into worship and transformation.  Enjoy the show! ------ Ultimate Reality: God, gods, arche’ Fr. Anthony Perkins; 10 September 2025 Text: Zachery Porcu, PhD. 2025. “Chapter 2 – Ultimate Reality” in Journey to Reality; Sacramental Life in a Secular Age.  Ancient Faith Publishing. Verses to Frame the Discussion Exodus 24:10. And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. Exodus 33:11. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent. Isaiah 6:5. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” HE IS GREATER EVEN THAN THIS (SOME FUN WITH AN “INCONSISTENCY”  Exodus 33:17-20. And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “I pray thee, show me thy glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.” St. Ambrose: “Who shall see my face and live?” Scripture said, and rightly so. For our eyes cannot bear the sun’s rays, and whoever turns too long in its direction is generally blinded, so they say. Now if one creature cannot look upon another creature without loss and harm to himself, how can he see the dazzling face of his eternal Creator while covered with the clothing that is this body? St. Gregory of Nyssa: He would not have shown himself to his servant if the sight were such as to bring the desire of the beholder to an end, since the true sight of God consists in this, that the one who looks up to God never ceases in that desire. For he says, “You cannot see my face, for man cannot see me and live.” Scripture does not indicate that this causes the death of those who look, for how would the face of life ever be the cause of death to those who approach it? On the contrary, the divine is by its nature life-giving. Yet it is the characteristic of the divine nature to transcend all characteristics. Therefore he who thinks God is something to be known does not have life, because he has turned from true being to what he considers by sense perception to have being. Job 38:19-20.  “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,   that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? 1 Timothy 6:16. I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;  and this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,  who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. John 1:18. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. On the resulting religion: Revelation 9-11.  And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,  “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding[a] the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. St. John Chrysostom.  The Spirit is God, and we are raised to the level of the apostles, because we shall all behold him together with uncovered faces. As soon as we are baptized, the soul beams even more brightly than the sun because it is cleansed by the Spirit, and we not only behold God’s glory, we also receive from it a kind of splendor. Segue to the book chapter (theosis requires a repentant mind) Religion should be more than our consumer society would lead us to believe it is. “What is the nature of reality?”  What does it all mean? Mankind wants to know, and he has tried to provide answers.  Many involve a mysterious higher power we call God. The problem with the word “God.” [Psalm 94:3.  For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.] [Isaiah 45:5.. I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.] Zachary Porcu’s solution: Arche’ Other solutions? Capital “G” God.  “I AM”.  Unmoved Mover. Light.  True God. Tian, Brahman, Absolute. What is the Arche’ like? (P. 25; J) Life (essence).  Light (essence) Arche compared to gods, angels, men, and rocks. Last paragraph of chapter; So then, when we ask about whether there is a God in this sense, we are not asking whether there is some specific superhuman entity that orders or governs the universe.  That is thinking far too small.  We are asking about the arche’ of all being: the source, principle, the thing that is being itself.  This is the highest of all questions; there is nothing the answer does not affect.  NOTE: The question of whether the God of the Old Testament was the arche’ or a demiurge was settled decisively: God was, is, and always shall be perfect and uncreated.

Today we started our Fall Wednesday evening education series, during which we are working our way through Zachery Porcu's "Journey to Reality" from Ancient Faith Publishing.  Today, after framing our discussion with the "trees walking" account of the healing of the blind man from the Gospel according to St. Mark (8:22-38 - see below), we cover the main topics in chapter one.  Enjoy the show! ------ Trees Walking: the Problem of Discerning the Gospel Fr. Anthony Perkins; 03 September 2025 Text: Zachery Porcu, PhD. 2025. “Chapter 1 – What is Christianity” in Journey to Reality; Sacramental Life in a Secular Age.  Ancient Faith Publishing. St. Mark 8:22-38 (KJV) 22 And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. St. Ambrose; Through the font of the Lord and the preaching of the Lord’s passion, your eyes were then opened. You who seemed before to have been blind in heart began to see the light of the sacraments. 24 And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. Why would he see men as trees??? 25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. Note the progression. 26 And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. 27 And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? 28 And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. How could they not know? 29 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. But even using the right word, how much did he understand? 30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. 31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. And how much of this plain speaking were they able to hear? 33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. This is the warning: a poor understanding of the truth can lead us to condemnation.  (segue to text) So how can we know the Gospel in a way that saves? Intellectual knowledge.  Study the Bible!  [oops] More intellectual knowledge.  Study the Fathers. [oops] The Bible is not the source of the Gospel or of the Church or of Christianity.  All the written texts of Holy Tradition – to include the Bible - are not the source of Orthodoxy. How can I make this claim? It is not the way that the members of the early Church were saved and grew in holiness.  It was not a text that evangelized the Roman Empire.  It was a way of being; a way of thinking; a way of relating.  It was first called “The Way.” The metaphor of the family (p 13) Our way of relating to information is new.  Before, information was contextualized within relationships.  We still have some of this, but even people’s experience of Orthodoxy is increasingly a-contextual and un-Orthodox. The metaphor of sex (p. 15) Two types of Christianity          Text-based (re-enactment).  Ideas.  Dissolute community.          Sacramental participation.  A community with a life-energy (an angel!) Problems with using the Bible.  Genres: myth, song, prophecy, history, rules, authors, styles.  Needs interpretation! Need to avoid:  ignoring – forsaking both the culture AND the text (progressive/individualist).  Make the text and the culture what we want it to be. A paradigm shift to Sacramental Reality.

St. Matthew 19:16-26 (Rich Young Man) Hebrews 9:1-7 In this homily, Father Anthony reflects on the Gospel of the rich young man, reminding us that salvation is more than meeting a minimum standard—it is a lifelong journey toward holiness. He shows how Christ gently leads us beyond comfort, calling us to surrender our attachments, whether wealth, time, opinions, or fears, in order to live in love and trust before God. Through the practice of kenosis, or self-emptying, we learn to soften our hearts, grow in grace, and allow Christ to transform us into His likeness. NOTE: The prayer that Fr. Anthony references at the beginning of the homily is: "The Holy Spirt shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." It is from St. Luke 1:35, with the Archangel Gabriel pronouncing this blessing upon the Virgin Mary.  As Fr. Anthony notes, the Orthodox Church uses this blessing liturgically during the Divine Liturgy.

St. Matthew 18:23-35 (The Unforgiving Servant) I Corinthians 9:2-12 In this homily, Father Anthony explores the calling of Christians not only to pursue personal holiness, but also to help cultivate a culture of holiness that shapes the life of the parish and the wider world. Using the Divine Liturgy as our pattern, he explains how intentional practices—such as the placement of prayers, offerings, and the way we relate to one another—form habits that naturally move us toward mercy, patience, and love. Reflecting on the parable of the unforgiving servant and St. Paul’s guidance to the early Church, Father Anthony shows that true salvation is not simply release from debt, but the ongoing transformation of our hearts and relationships into the likeness of Christ.

I Corinthians 4:9-16 St. Matthew 17:14-23 Fr. Anthony reflects on St. Paul’s call to imitation, teaching that we are shaped by those around us and must guard our hearts and minds against sin while cultivating holiness. He explains the spiritual power of the Antiochian pre-communion prayers, showing how their repetition trains our minds, transforms our souls, and unites the faithful as one body in Christ.  Enjoy the show! --- Here is the Antiochian Orthodox Pre-Communion Prayer for the Divine Liturgy: I stand before the doors of thy temple, and yet I refrain not from my terrible thoughts. But do thou, O Christ God, who didst justify the publican and hadst mercy on the Canaanite woman and didst open the gates of paradise to the thief: open unto me the compassion of thy love toward mankind, and receive me as I approach and touch thee, like the harlot and the woman with the issue of blood; for the one, by but touching the hem of thy garment, received healing, and the other, by embracing thine immaculate feet, received the forgiveness of her sins. And I, who am pitiful, dare to partake of thy whole Body. Let me not be consumed, but receive me as thou didst receive them, and enlighten the senses of my soul, burning up the accusations of my sins, through the intercessions of her that without seed gave thee birth and of the heavenly powers; for thou art blessed unto ages of ages.  Amen.   I believe, O Lord, and I confess that thou art truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who didst come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first. And I believe that this is truly thine own immaculate Body and that this is truly thine own precious Blood. Wherefore I pray thee, have mercy upon me, and pardon my transgressions both voluntary and involuntary, of word and of deed, of knowledge and of ignorance; and make me worthy to partake without condemnation of thine immaculate mysteries, unto remission of my sins and unto life everlasting.  Amen.   Behold, I approach Divine Communion; O Maker, burn me not as I partake, for Fire art thou which burneth the unworthy. But purify thou me of every stain.   Of thy mystic supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant; for I will not speak of thy mystery to thine enemies, neither will I give thee a kiss as did Judas; but like the thief will I confess thee: Remember me, O Lord, in thy kingdom.   Tremble, O man, as thou beholdest the deifying Blood, for it is a burning coal consuming the unworthy. The body of God both deifieth and nourisheth me. It deifieth the spirit and wondrously nourisheth the mind.   Thou hast smitten me with yearning, O Christ, and by thy divine love hast thou changed me. But with thine immaterial fire, consume my sins and count me worthy to be filled with delight in thee, that leaping for joy, O Good One, I may magnify thy two comings.   Into the splendour of thy Saints how shall I, the unworthy one, enter? For should I dare to enter the bridal chamber, my vesture doth betray me, for it is not a wedding garment; and as one bound, I shall be cast out by the Angels. Cleanse, O Lord, the defilement of my soul, and save me, since thou art the Friend of man.   O man-befriending Master, Lord Jesus my God, let not these holy Gifts be unto me for judgment through mine unworthiness, but for purification and sanctification of both soul and body, and as an earnest of the life and the kingdom to come. For it is good for me to cleave unto God and to place in the Lord the hope of my salvation.   Of thy mystic supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant; for I will not speak of thy mystery to thine enemies, neither will I give thee a kiss as did Judas; but like the thief will I confess thee: Remember me, O Lord, in thy kingdom.   Not unto judgment nor unto condemnation be my partaking of thy holy mysteries, O Lord, but unto the healing of soul and body.

In this homily, we reflect on Christ’s miraculous feeding of the five thousand as a revelation of His abundant love and the Church’s calling to hospitality. Fr. Anthony explores how, through grace, even our limited offerings are multiplied to nourish the world, revealing a Kingdom where scarcity has no place.  Enjoy the show! ------ MATTHEW 14:14-22 At that time, Jesus saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. This is what he does.  He sees our suffering and heals us.  What a blessing to have such a compassionate and capable God. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."  Hospitality.  We are meant to do more than eat and learn; we are meant to feed and teach.  And more than that, we are meant to instruct others in the way of hospitality, so that they, too, may feed and teach (and teach others to feed and teach).  This system is scalable, through grace, towards perfection.  Scarcity is destroyed by the model of Christian hospitality. They said to him, "We have only five loaves here and two fish." The apostles did not have enough and Christ new that.  But He knew they had something He could build on and multiply; again destroying the limitations of scarcity and localism.  St. Hillary develops the spiritual version of this theme;  This means that up to then they depended on five loaves—that is, the five books of the law. And two fish nourished them—that is, the preaching of the prophets and of John. For in the works of the law there was life just as there is life from bread, but the preaching of John and the prophets restored hope to human life by virtue of water. Therefore the apostles offered these things first, because that was the level of their understanding at the time. From these modest beginnings the preaching of the gospel has proceeded from them, from these same apostles, until it has grown into an immense power. This is the way the Lord works.  He takes what we are and, through grace, transforms it into something better.  In sin, we are part of the problem.  Hunger, scarcity, selfishness; but He lifts us up and we become part of the solution.  Feeding people with His love from a source that never ends and, as for selfishness, not only moving us unto something better, but allowing us to be a healing balm to those who suffer from the same malady. And he said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the crowds. St. Jerome.  By the breaking of the bread, he makes it into a seedbed of food—for if the bread had been left intact and not pulled apart and broken into pieces, they would have been unable to feed the great crowds of men, women and children. The law with the prophets are therefore pulled apart and broken into pieces. Mysteries are made manifest, so that what did not feed the multitude of people in its original whole and unbroken state now feeds them in its divided state. And they all ate and were satisfied. The Church has always seen this as pointing toward the Eucharist.  God is the food that is “forever eaten but never consumed.”  Again, note how scarcity does not exist in the Kingdom.  And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. St. Hilary:  The loaves were given to the apostles, for through them the gifts of divine grace were to be administered. The crowds were then fed with the five loaves and two fish, and they were satisfied. The leftover fragments of bread and fish, after the people had their fill, amounted to twelve baskets. Thus, by the word of God coming from the teaching of the law and the prophets, the multitude was satisfied; and an abundance of divine power, reserved for the Gentiles from the ministry of the eternal food, was left over for the twelve apostles. And, following this metaphor, still eat from these baskets because our bishop is an inheritor of this meal, something we are blessed to share here so that we may be fed. Now we celebrate the presence of God in our midst, in this deserted place, healing our infirmities, feeding our hunger, and empowering us to do the same for others.  

This recording of the Divine Liturgy (Christ the Saviour, Anderson SC) starts with the Great Doxology.  The homily and reception of communion were cut from the recording.  The sound quality isn't great - it was done with a phone sitting on an analoy off to the side.  Of course, worship is always better in person; join us when you can!  orthodoxanderson.org

Title: Seeing Suffering Brightly: Faith, Discipline, and the Light of Christ Matthew 7:27-35; The Two Blind Men In this homily, Fr. Anthony shares Metropolitan Saba's teaching from the 2025 Convention that true spiritual vision begins not in denial of suffering, but in faithful endurance of it, transforming evil through thanksgiving and trust in God. Drawing on real martyrdom and lived faith in places like Damascus, he challenges us to see God’s love even in discipline and to witness to Christ with joy, courage, and unwavering hope. For a complete text of His Eminence, Metropolitan Saba's talk:   https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2526  

Everything is Awesome! James 5:10-20; St. Matthew 9:1-8 (Riffing on St. Peter Chrysologus) Over the last few homilies, I have tried to share an approach to living that looks for the good, and the beautiful, and the true in all things so that we might have joy in them and nurture them towards greater glory.  Today, I am going to continue this lesson by applying it to scripture.  Of course, in this case we are not nurturing scripture to greater glory, but we always grow in our appreciation of its goodness, beauty, and truth so that those virtues might grow within us. Let’s go through today’s Gospel reading. This story starts out so mundanely, with Christ entering the boat, crossing the sea, and coming to his town.  But even in, this there is something to learn, something that should leave us in awe. This is the God who has complete mastery over all the elements, over all of time and space.  Why does he cross the sea in this way – surely the hosts of heaven, at the very least, could have born him to his destination? As St. Peter Chrysologus teaches us the way that he juxtaposes the material with the spiritual and the mundane with the glorious; Christ came to take up our infirmities, and to confer his own power upon us; to experience human things, to bestow divine ones; to accept insults, to return honors; to endure what is irksome, and to restore health, because a doctor who does not bear infirmities does not know how to cure; and the one who has not been a fellow patient is unable to confer health. To summarize St. Gregory of Nazianzus; that part of humanity that God did not accept or assume, cannot be saved.  There were no shortcuts for our salvation.  God became man and lived according to our infirmity (in everything but sin). Therefore, he endured these limitations so that he would be shown to be true man by these human limitations. Do you see how much beauty here? We go on to read that he entered the boat. He entered a boat?  Sure you see where we are going with this!  We know these truths, but do we ever slow down and just bask in their glory? What is the boat but the Church?  Again, let’s listen to St. Peter Chrysologus; Christ always enters the boat of his Church to calm the waves of the world, so that he might lead those who believe in him tranquilly across to his heavenly homeland, and make citizens of his own city those whom he made sharers in his humanity. Therefore, Christ does not need the ship, but the ship needs Christ, because without a Pilot from heaven the ship of the Church is unable to pass through the sea of the world amid so many grave perils and reach heaven’s harbor. We have talked about the sea and the boat; what about his destination? How can we not be amazed that the Creator and Lord over all the cosmos, for the sake of our salvation; … began to have a human homeland, began to be a citizen of a Jewish town, and he himself the Parent of all parents began to have parents, in order that his love might invite, his charity attract, his affection bind, and his kindness persuade those whom his sovereign might had put to flight, dread had scattered, and the force of his power had made exiles. I cannot tell you how often I passed over these words as if they were filler between the really important things in the narrative.  How often do we do this not just with scripture, but with life?  Every moment, every detail of life is precious, brimming with meaning and potential.  But we skip over this invitation to joy, to glory, because we are looking or waiting for greater things.  My brothers and sisters, in a world that has been infused with the divine, everything is steeped in magnificence. And so, we finally get to the meat of the story; He came to his own town, and they brought him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, it says, he said to the paralytic: “Have confidence, son! Your sins are forgiven you” (vv. 1–2). While the point about God having the power to forgive sins, and Him choosing to exercise that power as man, as the new Adam, thus setting the scene for giving that power to us as the new humanity in Him; while all that may be obvious, or if not obvious, certainly provides the grist for most homilies on this passage…. There are details that we often pass over and that deserve our attention.  Jesus saw their faith… Their faith… not the faith of the paralytic.  St. Peter points out that the faith of the infirm is often unreliable – the mind of the infirm is often delirious – and so “he does not examine all the senseless desires of the infirm, but he comes to help thanks to someone else’s faith, so that he may grant through grace alone, and not deny, whatever is of the divine will.” What a beautiful thing is the love of the Lord for all of us in our delirium!  And, when we are thinking straight, and thus concerned more for the ill and infirm among us as ourselves – he brings his mercy and forgiveness to those we bring to him!  Do you see how great this is?  When we pray for others, it does not fall on deaf ears but on ears that are always ready to hear and respond.  And who is more ill among us than the spiritually or even physically injured or dead?  And yet He teaches us, through this example from His life and from the way His Spirit has guided our worship and prayer to pray for all, and most especially for those who cannot pray or act for themselves.  Lord hear our prayer! And, just to make sure you appreciate the goodness evident here, take a moment to appreciate the paralysis and incapacitation of our own minds and thus appreciate why it is that the prayers of the prayers of the righteous avail so much!  They bring our paralyzed souls into the presence of God and plead for our healing before Him. And to all this, the Pharisees responded: He blasphemes: for who can forgive sins except God alone? (v. 3) 6. And when Jesus had seen their thoughts, it says, he said to them: “Why do you think evil in your hearts? What is easier to say: your sins are forgiven you, or to say: stand up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic: “Stand up, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he stood up and went home (vv. 4–7). Pick up your bed, that is, “Carry what used to carry you, reverse the burden, so that what is a testimony to your infirmity may be a proof that you are healed; so that the bed of your pain may be evidence that I cured you; so that the amount of its weight may attest to the amount of strength you have regained.” Go home, to the place that you belong – our heart’s true home.  The place that is where we can grow in glory.  The place that is for the believer – every single place, because every single place, like every single moment, is connected with the divine source of all beautiful, good, and true.   Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons of Saint Peter Chrysologus, ed. Thomas P. Halton, trans. William B. Palardy, vol. 2, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2004), 193–197.