“There [Peter] found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.’ Then he arose immediately.”
Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, it is the spring season. It is a season of renewal, a season of new growth, a season of births and re-births, if you will. Latent buds open. Flowers bloom. The dull grays of winter wane with the onset of a cornucopia of colors: greens and reds, pinks and yellows. The cold, hibernating world wipes the dust from her eyes, aroused by the warmth of a late-March sun. She wakes up to new movement and to old sounds. The respiration of nature quickens, and the circle of life accelerates and joyfully whirls about. It is coincidental that the “springtime” of our Christian liturgical seasons corresponds with the natural rhythms of the world. We commemorate and experience the liturgical reality of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. It is Paschaltide. Simultaneously, the Northern Hemisphere experiences the biological reality of spring. Plants that once seemed cold and lifeless now appear very much alive. As we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior we bear witness to the manifold indicators of nature’s own rebirth: color, movement, growth, fruitfulness.
(pause) The above statements would be harmless enough—the parallelisms between physical resurrection, spiritual rebirth, and the seasonal renewal of nature—IF the world was not so steeped in New Age philosophies. The above statements could all be vigorously, cheerfully affirmed, IF there was no pressing danger of a conflation of concepts. There is a comparison to be had between the resurrection of our Lord and the seasonal renewal of nature, but they are not the same. (repeat) Physical resurrection is not spiritual rebirth. And spiritual rebirth is not seasonal renewal. I love nature. I love springtime. I love to watch the weekly—no, daily—transfiguration of a dry grapevine: to slowly bud, and bloom, and by mid-summer hang heavy with foliage and fruit. It is natural, yes, but sometimes it feels supernatural, miraculous. I love all these things. But the spiritual rebirth that takes place at the instance of our baptism, and the physical resurrection that our Lord has already experienced and that is promised to us at the time of our Lord’s Second Coming: these far exceed the physical realities of the flora’s seasonal changes. The physical resurrection of our Lord—the joy of Pascha, the hope of all the baptized faithful—must not be over-spiritualized, if it is to remain faithful to the apostolic Tradition.
So, hear this homily as Pt. II of a word already spoken two weeks ago: “Christ is risen bodily! And we with him will be raised bodily!” Any Christian philosophy that discounts the physical resurrection is no true Christian theology. St. Thomas touched the risen Christ. He did not have a spiritual revelation of the risen Christ—an awakening. No, but coarsely, crudely, he put his finger through the Master’s hands. He sunk his own hand deep into the Master’s side. Yes, he did have a revelation at the time, and the revelation was this: the Kingdom of God is a physical kingdom. “My Lord and God! [He is a man! He is here!]” he cried. The Christ is a glorified man. The Kingdom of God is ruled over by the Son of God—a glorified man. With this revelation in mind, we can then properly interpret today’s Gospel and Epistle readings, both of which recount the miraculous healing of a paralytic (and really hear this now!) [the miraculous healing of a paralytic] as indicative of the advent of the Kingdom of God. Said another way: bodily wholeness is part and parcel of the physical reality of the Kingdom of God.
“Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country, that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda. There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.’ Then he arose immediately. So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord” (Acts 9:32-42)
And from the Gospel of St. John:
“Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ … [So] Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath” (John 5:5-6, 8-9).
“And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. AnastÄ“thi, arise… .’” AnastÄ“thi, á¼€νάστηθι, this word should sound familiar to those of you versed in Orthodox iconography, specifically Greek iconographic inscriptions. AnastÄ“thi, “arise”: anastasis, “resurrection.” It is the title given to the large icon that we see hanging in our altar. Why is this so significant, the language of St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles? St. Peter heals a paralytic, and in doing so, he says to him, “anastÄ“thi, arise.” There are other things he could have said. In fact, he could have used the same words that our Lord used in St. John’s Gospel: “Egeire, get up.” What we see here in the Acts, though, is a clear apostolic interpretation of the implications of our Lord’s resurrection. “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you, iatai se (literally, ‘makes you whole’).” Putting it all together, we read, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ makes you whole. Arise… .” Physical healing, in this account of the healing of Aeneas, is paralleled with language reminiscent of Christ’s resurrection. Stated even more simply: resurrection—spiritual and/or physical—assumes physical wholeness. The good news of Pascha, the good news of the Kingdom of God, cannot be divorced from the salvation of the body, bodily wholeness, or bodily resurrection.
Brethren, in a culture more saturated with New Age spirituality than we can even imagine; in a culture that interprets personal salvation and personal enlightenment through the lens of pantheism, monism, nature worship, moralism, Deism: all rebrands of innumerable ancient heresies—idolatry and Gnosticism—it is paramount that we as Orthodox Christians hold fast to the revealed gospel, that Christ is risen bodily! That salvation in Christ includes the salvation of the body! That wholeness in Christ means complete spiritual, psychological, emotional, relational, and bodily wholeness! Seasonal, spiritual renewal does occur in the life of the Christian through repentance, prayer, and the daily practice of the spiritual disciplines. Spiritual re-birth—the kind of being “born again” that Nicodemus sought from Jesus in John, chapter 3—[spiritual re-birth] occurs through our sacramental dying and rising with Christ, our personal association with Christ in the waters of Holy Baptism, so that we might say with the Apostle, “I have been crucified with Christ [that is, I have died], and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). And physical resurrection, physical wholeness: this will take place in the last days, as the Apostle also says,
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel… and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thess 4:16-17).
He says this in concord with St. John, who writes in his First Epistle,
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be [in the resurrection], but we know that when he [Jesus] is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
Look to the Anastasis icon, brethren, the icon of the Resurrection of our Lord! There: there is none paralyzed; there is none blind! Likewise, there is no ghost, no phantom! Rather, there is perfect harmony of soul and body! There is man perfected! There is man glorified! There is the incarnate glory of the resurrected Christ! And he is pulling humanity—Adam and Eve, and us with them—out of the tombs to experience this incarnate glory with him!
Through the prayers of our holy fathers and mothers, O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! x3