{"id":6019,"date":"2020-03-30T10:11:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T00:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6019"},"modified":"2020-04-01T08:00:10","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T22:00:10","slug":"do-you-want-coronavirus-to-go-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/do-you-want-coronavirus-to-go-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Want Coronavirus to Go Away?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Do You Want Coronavirus to Go Away?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

John 5:1-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a moment to think about this question \u2013 do you want coronavirus to go away? You may be thinking, \u201cwhat a silly question, of course we want it to go away. Isn\u2019t it obvious?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We witness a scene of devastation in the gospel reading of the paralytic man; similar to what we see in the world today. St John describes it as, \u201ca great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed<\/em>\u201d (Jonh 5:3). They\u2019re all lying there by a pool which is situated next to the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gate was the sheep gate where the sheep would enter on the way to be slaughtered for the Passover. By the gate was a pool so that they could be washed before they were taken to the Temple for slaughter. Because there was a direct link between the pool and the Temple, it was considered to be holy water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people thought they would be healed when it was stirred and given power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a scene set around a multitude of sick people but then the story hones in on one person, a man paralysed for 38 years. He was probably in the worst state, all the more reason for Christ to focus on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ approaches him, a man that had been paralysed for 38 years, and asks him a question; \u201cdo you want to be made well?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a silly question,\nof course he wants to be made well. Why ask a question like that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gospels are not\njust historical stories or events, the gospel is for our lives. Our own\npersonal encounters with Christ. The gospel takes these stories and puts them\nin the midst of our lives. So the question we can take from this is \u2013 do you\nwant coronavirus to go away? This is the question that Christ asks the\nparalytic man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that Christ\nwould not ask a silly question. Everything He did had a profound purpose. Why\ndid Christ ask this question?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was ordained a\npriest, I had to go to Egypt for my ordination. When I arrived in Egypt, I met\nAnba Bakhomious just before the liturgy began for the ordination and he looked\nme in eyes and asked, \u201care you prepared\nto be a priest?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I replied, \u201cYes, Your Grace, by your prayers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He raised his voice\nand asked again, \u201care you prepared to be\na priest?\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again I said, \u201cumm yes, by your prayers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he became visibly\nangry and he shouted, \u201cAre you prepared\nto be a priest? Yes or no?\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I said, \u201cyes<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he replied, \u201cgood<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seemed like an obvious question. I\u2019ve resigned, I\u2019m here, I travelled from Australia to Egypt, so I was prepared. But he was asking in the sense of \u2013 Do you realise the consequence of what you are entering? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you realise what will be required of you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you realise the sacrifices necessary? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you realise that you will lay down your life to others? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you realise what you are embarking on? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is for that reason\nthat Christ asks the question, \u201cdo you\nwant to be made well?\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready to be made well?<\/em> No longer will you lie here. No longer will\nyou rely on others to feed you. Are you ready to stand, to walk to carry your\nbed, to work? Are you ready for the consequences and responsibilities of\nhealing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climax is when\nChrist finds him again and says, \u201cSee,\nyou have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see the link that\nChrist puts between disease and sin. It\u2019s not clear whether this man\u2019s sin led\nto his disease or if it were the other way around. What is clear is that there\nwas a link between disease and sin and part of his physical healing was to sin\nno more, and restore his spiritual health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor since for the most part when the soul is diseased we feel no pain, if the body receive though but a little hurt, we use every exertion to free it from infirmity, because we are sensible of the infirmity, therefore God oftentimes punishes the body for the transgressions of the soul, so that by means of the scourging of the inferior part, the better part also may receive some healing.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>St John Chrysostom<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Christ after healing\nthe paralytic finds him again so that he can complete the healing, the spiritual\nhealing. In the NKJV, we read, \u201csee you\nhave been made well.\u201d<\/em> In the other translations, it reads, \u201csee you have been made whole.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are now complete,\nphysically and spiritually whole. We see the ultimate responsibility of healing\n\u2013 repentance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you want coronavirus to go away? There are many ways that the world is responding to coronavirus; social distancing, closures, lockdowns, self-isolation, closing borders. They\u2019re all good measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other measures include\nprayer. Even the prime minister said his prayer knees were getting a good\nworkout. There is another measure beyond this that some people are putting in\nplace. I believe this is the most effective measure. The measure of repentance.\nDo you want to be made well? Do you want coronavirus to go away? Let us repent.\nLet us sin no more. If God sees us all repenting what would He do? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.\u201d<\/p>2 Chronicles 7:14<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We implore God\u2019s mercy\nto heal our land, to heal our world by giving Him our repentance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scariest thing\nabout corona is that our actions affect everybody else. If we are infected and\nwe don\u2019t self-isolate, it effects everyone around us through the ripple effect.\nOur actions affect others. If a virus can do that, repentance can do the same,\nmore even. My repentance has a ripple effect on the world and on God\u2019s heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do You Want Coronavirus to Go Away? Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily John 5:1-18 Take a moment to think about this question \u2013 do you want coronavirus to go away? You may be thinking, \u201cwhat a silly question, of course we want it to go away. Isn\u2019t it obvious?\u201d We witness a scene … Continue reading “Do You Want Coronavirus to Go Away?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,204,88],"class_list":["post-6019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-christ","tag-coronavirus","tag-repentance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6019"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6033,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6019\/revisions\/6033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}