Oration on Mid-Pentecost

AMPHILOCHIUS, BISHOP OF ICONIUM ON THE MESOPENTECOST

^A On the Sabbath, the Lord said to the paralytic: “Arise, take up your bed, and go into your house.” And for this reason he said to the Jews: “My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me, the Father.” And that the Lord spoke these words to the Jews because of the authoritative healing of the paralytic, take the proof from what has just been read. For from this the Lord offered a clearer revelation of the immutability shared by Himself and the Father. For if the Lord had said, “My doctrine is not the Father's, but is mine,” He would have separated Himself from the Father, made Himself an alien to His substance, and rejected the economy of human salvation. But having said, “My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me, the Father,” He demonstrated that He is consubstantial with the Father, and that the doctrine of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one and the same. For the Word is the one Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the one Spirit of the Father. ^B Can it be, therefore, that the Word teaches one thing and the Holy Spirit another? By no means, by no means; for the blessed Apostle says: “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God which is in him.” And that the Lord spoke thus to the Jews on account of the authoritative healing of the paralytic, as I said before, you heard just now the Lord saying: “I did one work, and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man entirely whole on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” Now, because the Lord spoke thus on account of the healing of the paralyti^Cc

showing them to be transgressors of the law, He says to them, as you have heard, “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, and an infant is circumcised on the Sabbath ^A so that the law of the eighth day may not be annulled, are you subverting the law by using a law to subvert the law? And are you angry with Me because I made a man entirely whole on the Sabbath, not by laboring, but by working a miracle? On the Sabbath it is not permitted to work, but all must be idle. Why is it, O Jews, that among you a woman gives birth on the Sabbath, and a midwife is agitated, and swaddling clothes are shaken, and nature is cleansed, and the breast is prepared for lactation? A woman gives birth, and the nature of the law is surpassed, and yet God cannot work a miracle? Tell me, a man is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law may not be loosed, and are you angry with Me ^B because I made a man entirely whole on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. I submit to being judged by you, my enemies, so that in the judgment by which you judge, you yourselves shall be judged. Who looses the Sabbath? Is it you, who on the Sabbath circumcise, and sharpen a blade, and perform a cutting, and separate a limb, and prepare the place to bleed? Or am I, who used only a word and said, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house”? If the word had not been effective, then I would have loosed the Sabbath by speaking in vain; but if the work ran ahead of the word, why do you avenge the Sabbath and reject the Creator? Have you not been satisfied, O sons of the Jews, ^C after seeing for thirty-eight years the paralytic nailed to his bed, and the bed laboring—bearing the burden of the paralytic day and night? Did you feel no indignation? Did you feel no compassion? And are you indignant that for one hour the paralytic carries his bed and provides the recompense? Should he not also have cried out, “You have turned/inverted my bed in my sickness”? I know, O Pharisees, for what reason you are indignant: it is not that you are cut to the quick because the paralytic was healed, but because you were not able to hide the bed; for this reason, understanding your intent, I ordered him to carry his bed, so that even if you should be silent, the bed itself might proclaim the miracle. Why do you hesitate, O ^D Pharisees? The paralytic is not a secret arrival, he is not of recent infirmity; you all know him; for thirty-eight years he lingered at the pool among you. You do not have occasion to say, as in the case of the man blind from birth, “This is he,” or “Someone is like him,” or “This is not he.” If the blind man did not defeat your boldness, then seize this man, too, and drag him to the tribunal, so that in all things your shame may be filled. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

And, if it pleases you, let us review in few words the history of the paralytic, since the Lord Himself entrusted it to memory

^A For if the Lord remembered him, how should we fall into forgetfulness? Who, then, wonders when one recounts the miracles of the Lord? For the Lord is the author of this present festival, and the Lord is the mediator, and the festival is the middle; but that which is in the middle is always fortified by the extremities. For this reason, this present festival possesses the double grace of the Resurrection. For, being situated between the Resurrection and Pentecost, it points to the Resurrection, indicates Pentecost with its finger, and sounds the clarion for the Ascension. What, therefore, is the teaching concerning this paralytic? Learn this, you merchants of the divine word, so that you may gain the store of spiritual blessings. You surely retain the memory of the evangelist John crying out: *After this was the feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And there was in Jerusalem a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethsaida, having five porticoes. In these lay a great multitude of the sick, of blind, of lame, of withered; and there was a certain man there who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity.* Jesus seeing this man (He who knows all things before they come to pass), and realizing that he had suffered for a long time, says to him: *Wilt thou be made whole?* O the healing of the Lord, far removed from all vainglory! He does not wait to be invoked by the sick; He Himself hastens to present Himself to those who are laboring. For since He is the Sun of Righteousness, He spreads the rays of His benevolence widely upon all. *There was*, he says, *in Jerusalem, at the Sheep Gate, a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethsaida, having five porticoes. In these lay a great multitude of the sick, of blind, of lame, of withered.* ^B There is an allusion here to the spiritual infirmity of the Jews. There are five porticoes, as it were, filled with a multitude of the infirm; for the Jewish people suffer through the five senses—sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch. The children of the Jews had all these senses infirm. They did not have healthy sight, inasmuch as they saw miracles and yet disregarded them; they did not have a taste mindful of blessings, inasmuch as, while eating manna, they were possessed by a longing for cucumbers; they did not have a sincere sense of smell, inasmuch as they preferred the diabolical stench to the Lord’s ointment; they did not have a pure sense of hearing, inasmuch as they made themselves more teachable to the hisses of the infernal dragon than to the glorious voices of the prophets; they did not have a useful sense of touch, inasmuch as they worshipped idols as gods and despised the living God. ^C Nevertheless, Christ, the Maker of the senses and the Creator of all creatures, provided healing for both bodily and voluntary infirmities. For that paralytic who was set before Him was beaten by a double scourge: his body was dissolved by disease, and his soul was dislocated by sins. Therefore the Lord, as the physician of both, strengthens the body and illuminates the spirit, and commands him to lift up his bed for his body, and his yoke of virtue for his soul. For what is it? The Lord, seeing that paralytic, says to him that which you all know: *Wilt thou be made whole?* But here the children of the Jews speak against the Lord, ^D

saying: If Christ were God, how did He ask the paralytic, *Wilt thou be made whole?* He was held by the disease, he had thirty-eight years in his infirmity, he remained by the pool in order to cast off his suffering, and He asks him this: *Wilt thou be made whole?* What kind of God is the one asking? Here the Lord asks not as if ignorant, but as one wishing to bestow cure in every way. If it were that the infirmity was only of the body, the Lord would not have said to the paralytic, *Wilt thou be made whole?* knowing that he wishes; he wishes! But since it was a slipping into ^B spiritual failings, for this reason He asks the paralytic, saying: *Wilt thou be made whole?* That is to say, will you guard yourself from now on not to sin? *Wilt thou be made whole?* Give your consent, and receive the healing, since I do nothing by force; for I am He who cried out long ago through the prophet: *If you are willing and obey me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you are not willing, and do not obey me, the sword shall devour you.* Since, therefore, man is a creature of free will, and the paralytic was spiritually paralyzed, for this reason the Lord, so that He might not provide healing to him without merit, asked him, saying, seeking his consent, *Wilt thou be made whole?* Regarding bodily diseases, the Lord did not ask at all, saying, *Wilt thou be made whole?* just as He did not ask the woman with the issue of blood, nor the leper, nor the two blind men. For where He knew there was a spiritual ailment, He asks, wishing to receive consent; if he does not receive consent, He does not grant healing.

It is surely possible for someone to say: What then? Did the two blind men also bear the mark of sins, since the Lord asked them too, saying, *What will ye that I shall do unto you?* Were not those two blind men, who are recorded in the divine Gospels, blind with their bodily eyes, and did they not lack keen sight with their spiritual eye concerning the Lord? They did not have perfect knowledge; they were wavering concerning the confession; therefore the Lord delays the healing, so that He might strengthen the faith. But it is surely possible for someone to say: You are slandering the blind men; for the men were faithful. Not so, but they only heard [that] the Lord is passing by, [and] they cried out, saying: *Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.* How then were those who cried out this cry sinners? Listen, you who speak against it. Through this very cry, which they uttered first, He also made the delay of the healing, since they were calling out, saying: *Have mercy on us, O Son of David.* What son of David provides such power, or performed such miracles? Fair was Absalom, but he was revealed as a parricide; amiable was Amnon, but he defiled his own sister; wise was Solomon, but in the end he slipped. Since, therefore, they approached Him as the son of David, and not as God, thinking Him mighty and knowledgeable

› as a physician, and not as the glorious God, he did not answer the blind men when they cried out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David," so that he might give their faith room to progress. ^A Since the blind men accepted this delay, they were illuminated in their souls; and a little while later, when the Lord saw that they had been illuminated in their souls and had received the light of faith, He questioned them, saying: "Do you believe that I can do this?" What then do the blind men say, whose faith had now progressed? "Yes, Lord." They no longer say, "Yes, Son of David," but, "Yes, Lord." Having been reminded by the delay, they made their confession immediately, saying: "Yes, Lord, we believe that You can do this." Then the Lord, showing that they had progressed in faith, answered, saying: "According to your faith let it be to you," implying that if they had not progressed in faith, they would not have received their sight. ^B Therefore, the Lord also questioned the paralytic here—since he was weakened more in his soul by the corruption of his sins than in his body—saying to him: "Do you want to become well?" But the paralytic, not yet knowing who was speaking to him, answered the Lord saying: "I want to become well. You do well to ask if I 'want'; for I have long since ceased 'wanting,' since for a long time now I have wanted, and yet I have achieved nothing; why should I persist in wanting that which I do not attain? I want to become well; I have grown old on this bed, I am a talkative tomb, I am dead while living; nothing worse can happen to me; I have become a byword for everyone; thirty-eight years have passed since I began sitting by this pool, and no one has compassion. The gift is sold; the sons of the Pharisees traffic in it; one person is healed each year, and while the one who arrives first ought to be preferred to the others, the wealthier one is preferred instead. Justice is absent from the pool; iniquity prevails. Will a just administration ever come, so that the water might finally cease to be merchandise and might be given liberally to all?" But the Lord says to the paralytic: "How can one fixed in one and the same place discourse on these things? Does he speak to me as if I were ignorant? ^C Do I, the Lord of the pool, not know what happens there? Did I not know of the Judaic commerce? That is why I have come to exchange the pool, and now I stop it and open up the bath of baptism. In that one, a single person is healed each year; in this one, countless numbers will be regenerated daily; into that one I ordered an angel to descend, into this one I Myself, the Creator of angels, have descended. Therefore, answer the one questioning you: 'Do you want to become well?' That is to say: 'Do you believe that I, who am speaking to you, am able to do such things?'" But the paralytic, lifting his head a little, acknowledged the supreme power of the Lord; yet, following his old custom, he answered saying, as you all clearly know: "Yes, Lord, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred; but while I am coming, another steps down before me." The Lord then said to the paralytic: "Why do you stammer, paralytic? It is enough for you that ^D [the Christ] is speaking to you."

Do not let your imagination run to many things, ^A nor look to the troubling of the pool; the Jewish affairs have been troubled, but you have the eighth [day] of my spring, which you seek out—I know. For even if you have no man, I, the God who became man, am standing by you. Therefore hear me, and rising, take up your pallet and go to your house. Sting the Jews, strike demons with amazement, smoke out those who contradict, give assurance to the wrong-minded, break the idleness of the Sabbath; instead of a lawyer, carry your bed." Having heard these words, the paralytic, immediately shaking off the malady at the Lord’s word, was fulfilling the command, and was carrying the bed. He was fending off the Jews—who wished to stop him on account of the Sabbath and were saying, "It is not lawful for you to carry the pallet, because it is the Sabbath"—as if fulfilling the command of the one who ordered him, saying to them: "He who made me whole, that one said to me, 'Take up your pallet, and walk.'" And while the lawless Jews were accusing the Lord and asking, "Who is the one who healed you and ordered you to take up your pallet?" and were barking like dogs against the one who had healed him, he who had been healed persisted, struggling like a martyr against those murderers. ^B After these things, the Lord meets him again, and says to him: "Behold, you have been made whole; sin no more, so that something worse may not happen to you." Do you see, beloved, that it was because of his sins that he was held for so long a time in weakness? Let us therefore also turn back, so that we may be saved from this temporal punishment and escape the eternal hell, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.

On the word "babai̇no"