“It would be wonderful if suffering itself brought us closer to God. When we see things from this perspective, we do not despair and discourage ourselves,” said Bishop Nectarie of Brittany, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Western Europe, on Sunday.

The Gospel passage about the Healing of the Paralytic at Bethesda teaches us “to believe with our whole being that the Saviour Jesus Christ is the Physician of our souls and bodies, regardless of the cause of our suffering—whether it is due to sin or by the Lord’s allowance,” the hierarch said.

“There are many lessons we can take from today’s Gospel reading. But let us focus on confessing God, recognizing His divinity, and, not least, being grateful to our Creator,” His Grace added.

“As I have told you, if we look at things from this perspective, we do not easily accept despair into our souls.”

“In the contemporary context and in this age we live in, we often hear the word ‘despair.’ He despaired in his soul; sometimes, we no longer hear the word ‘discouraged’. We very often hear the term from modern psychology: He has depression or is depressed. Can a Christian be depressed?” the hierarch asked.

God is with us, but He waits for us to call upon Him

“Practically, theoretically, we should not, but you see that we distance ourselves from God’s work, we distance ourselves from His commandments, and we end up suffering because of our personal sins. This is what happened to this paralytic, who had been sick for 38 years, and we understand that God comes to meet us; it is enough to cry out to Him: Lord, help me!”

The Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Western Europe recalled a parable from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, which recounts Saint Anthony the Great’s struggle with demons one night. Later, he cried out to God: Lord, where were you? God replied: I was beside you, but you did not call on Me.

Do we not also end up forgetting God? Nevertheless, “He is beside us, waiting; He is at the door, and He Himself is the Door: Whoever enters through Me will be saved. What else does the Saviour Christ tell us? Without Me, you can do nothing. Do we, in this age, in the 21st century, still live these words with our whole being?” the bishop continued.

“If it came down to gratitude and humility, the world would no longer suffer, and contemporary man would no longer be in pain.”

Assistant Bishop Nectarie of Brittany served Sunday at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Spyridon in Bucharest. The hierarch was present in Bucharest during the “Here and Now” Festival, organized by the Romanian Government for Romanians in the diaspora and those near the country’s borders on the Day of Romanians Everywhere.

Photo: Basilica.ro Files / Raluca Ene