At today's Holy Liturgy in the Church of St. Luke in Kotor's Old Town, on the feast of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (second Sunday of Lent - Pacista), the Gospel according to Mark was read, beginning 7 (2,1-12):

  "And he entered again into Capernaum after a few days; and heard that he was in the house. 2. And immediately many gathered so that they could not even sit in front of the door; And he spoke to them. 3. And they came to him with the taken, which was carried by four. 4. And not being able to get close to him from the people, they discovered the roof of the house where he was, and after digging, they lowered the bier on which they lay. 5. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the captive: "Son, your sins are forgiven!" 6. And some of the scribes sat there and thought in their hearts: 7. "Why does this man blaspheme God like that? Who can forgive sins except one God?” 8. And immediately Jesus understood with his spirit that they were thinking like that in themselves, he said to them: "Why are you thinking like that in your hearts?" 9. Which is easier? To say to the taken: ``Your sins are forgiven''; or say: `Get up and take your bier and walk?' He said to the one who was taken: 11. "I say to you: `Get up and take your bier and go to your home.'" 12. And he got up immediately, and taking the bier he went out in front of everyone so that everyone was wild and glorified God saying: "Never by not we'll see."

Proto-deputy Branislav Đuragić from Novi Sad addressed the faithful people, indicating that Christ, looking at our hearts, wants to see that we are believers, that we trust Him, Who can make our sins be forgiven, which is the most important thing we can get by coming to church .

Today's Holy Gospel presents a truly wonderful and moving picture before our spiritual eyes. We see Christ just beginning his sermon, his sermon to the Jewish people. We see a mighty people flocking to Him.

There was one house in this situation. It was so full of people, who were thirsty for the word of God, that they couldn't just all stand, but they stood in front. At the same time, four men, four friends, come to bring their friend, a man who was sick, who was lying on the bed, who was motionless.

Apparently, that disease was so terrible that he struggled for years. The evangelist Mark does not give us more detailed information about him, as we have in Matthew, who also mentioned this event.

The four of them, seeing that there were so many people that they could not pass, made such an effort that they even dug up the roof of the house where Christ was. We are talking about Palestine where the houses were built in such a way that the roof could be opened.

In front of Christ, Who was addressing the people, suddenly rots start falling from that roof, to interrupt Him in what was His mission, but He, as we see here in the Gospel, does not react to it at all, does not make a scene out of it . On the contrary, He sees and feels the desire and faith of these four, who brought their friend who is on the bed.

They put him down because they couldn't get through anyway and literally put him before Christ. And, as the Evangelist Marko says here, Christ, seeing their faith, addressed this dispossessed. That is a very important thing. He addresses the soul of this man first and tells him: "child, your sins are forgiven."

The people who stood around Christ, among them were ordinary people, but there were also scribes, learned people of that time, good connoisseurs of the Law of Moses, they knew very well that no one in the world has such authority but God himself, and that's why they grumble and talk to themselves "Who is this, what is this person inventing, putting himself above God and suddenly forgiving someone's sins. Only God can do that."

But, in front of them is God, the God-man Christ, and he reads them like the first books, and that is why here the Evangelist mentions the detail that precisely knowing Christ in his spirit what they thought in their hearts, he reveals their thoughts, he addresses them openly: "why do you think so in your hearts yours, because you judge me without knowing who I am and what I am?".

But these four bring a man with sincere faith because they heard that there is a great prophet, a great healer, and not knowing if this friend of theirs will be healed, they made a great effort. Now imagine someone at that time being carried on a stretcher by four friends, while his illness was not only that he was lying down, but he was probably also in pain.

And he agrees, perhaps, to public shame. They will bring him and what if He does not heal him? What will be their effort and what they did carrying it in the heat that must have been great at that time. Generally, they make a great effort to bring their friend to Christ.

Christ, as the Evangelist Mark says, "saw their faith". How important is that faith even today, how important is the faith of us who are in the Church, who call ourselves Christians, who believe that we can inspire others with our faith? To use our faith to help someone who may be spiritually bound.

Here, in this story, this man was physically bound, and that is why Christ's first address to him is to free himself from spiritual bonds, the bonds of sin, because He, as the Son of God, really has that authority. The second thing, which then resolved itself, was the physical suffering of this man, who then stood up healthy in front of everyone.

That is why Christ, looking at our hearts, wants to see exactly that. He wants to see that we are believers. He wants to see that we believe in Him, that we believe that He can do this, and that is to forgive our sins. And that is the most important thing that we should receive when we come to the temple of God. This is precisely the burden that we may not even feel and it often happens that when we come to confession and start with the fact that we have no big sin - "I did not kill, I did not steal"... Just something so small, everyday. But, as the holy fathers say, when that sack of small pebbles accumulates, it becomes enormously heavy, it drags us, constrains us and we cannot move.

Only in the Church, only in the Son of God, only in the presence of a blessed priest can we receive the forgiveness of that great sin, those great sins of ours, which may seem small, because we are gossiping about someone - "I don't mean anything bad, because I just want to express my opinion." ... And that's it, that's where we all fall most often and we're really able to always point the finger at another and say "I know him". But who can know whom better than God, who can know us better than God?

That is why we have no right and must never allow ourselves, like these writers, to sit on that chair which is only destined for the Son of God. Only He can sit, not her, and only He can judge. None of us, absolutely no one has the power to judge another person, and that is why this Gospel is really the Gospel of faith, to believe that Christ forgives sins and that he forgives the sins of everyone, and that our faith, like the faith of these four people, can make someone stand up. in every sense. Both physical and spiritual.

May the Lord grant us to endure this spiritual pilgrimage that we have during Great Lent to the end, to grant us not to carry our sins the way these scribes did, but to openly confess them before our priest, asking for blessing and forgiveness and that the prayers of all the saints and today's great patron, Grigori Palamas, will be the prayers that will lift us up and carry us until the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, so that we can really worship that wonderful Son of man, the Son of God, Who forgives everyone and everything if we sincerely love and we forgive each other. May God give us the strength to glorify the Name above every name, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen",said Fr. Branislav..

Photo - Andrea Ševaljević