Address
of His Beatitude Lubomyr,

Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych,

to the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

and all people of good will

on the occasion of the Day of the Sick

Today – on the Sunday of the Paralytic – our Church, proposing that the faithful listen to the Gospel reading about the meeting of Jesus Christ and the paralytic near the font of Bethesda, wants to give special attention to the sick, and also to those who take care of them.

Each of us once in life was sick. We know many people who for a long period of time suffer from an illness which is often accompanied with great pain. It generates the inevitable question: "Why does a human being suffer?" None of us has the final answer to this. Some say that it is punishment for personal guilt; others say for the sins of the parents; another considers illness, as well as any other suffering, a test by which the Lord God educates us in holiness. In all those views there is something truthful, but we do not know the final answer, other than the fact that the incarnate Only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who had no sin at all, took suffering on Himself wholly voluntarily. We can only say that He took on Himself our sins, and at the same time He makes us participants in His saving sufferings.

In today’s Gospel story, in addition to the paralytic, there is another person, that same Jesus Christ Who heard the complaint of the sick man and healed him. The Lord God gives only to chosen holy persons the special grace that through them, during their life or after their death, the sick in a miraculous way become at once fully healthy. Doctors and other medical personnel can give great help to those who suffer, as it is said among the people, “to put a patient on his feet.” However, we are all called to do as Jesus did, to come to the patient, to listen to him and help him in the measure of one’s abilities. Each of us has to show the sick that, regardless of their illness, they have not stopped being valuable members of society and with their prayers and suffering can very much serve their neighbors.

This Sunday is designated by holy Church to turn the special attention of the faithful to the sick and to feel a sincere desire to help them. Our Savior Jesus Christ, Who gives us all and in whose hands is the life of the human being, promised a reward to those who will give the thirsty only a glass of water. Thus, similarly He will reward each one who at least with a warm word will comfort a sick person.

May the Lord's blessing be on you!

+ LUBOMYR

Issued on April 21, 2008, year of Our Lord,

in the city of Kyiv at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ.

I entrust father-pastors to read this Address at every Divine Liturgy on the Sunday of the Paralytic, May 18, 2008, the year of Our Lord.