In the Gospel of John, we hear the incredible story of Jesus raising up a paralytic who had been infirm for 38 years. This poor man would wait by the pool of Bethsaida in the hopes that when an angel would come and stir the waters, he might be the first one to descend into the pool and receive healing. Yet moment after moment, he would miss out on the healing as someone would always get there first.
One day, Jesus approached this man and asked him a very peculiar question: “Do you want to be healed?”. What a strange question to ask! The paralytic has been in his state for close to 4 decades! But we learn from this that God never acts against our will. If we truly desire to be healed, then all we need to do is answer in the affirmative.
We too, living in this fallen world, also suffer from a spiritual paralysis. All of us are afflicted with various passions and diseases of the soul. Every day is another opportunity for us to receive healing, and each and every sunrise that we receive the gift of waking up in our beds, our Lord asks us: “Do you want to be healed?”.
What is our response? It usually involves some sort of ultimatum:
“Yes Lord, but only if _______”
…only if I don’t have to deny myself through fasting
…only if I don’t have to forgive that person
…only if I can enjoy the pretty weather and skip Vespers
…only if I can skip partaking of your precious body and blood this Sunday because of _____
A precious question that our Lord asks us daily…we should pay more attention to the response we give dear ones!
Let us ponder and reflect on the attributes of another Saint that the Church offers us in the middle of our 40 days of celebrating Pascha in the store of St. Tabitha. When St. Luke wrote this account in the Acts of the Apostles, he began it by saying: “At Joppa, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which was translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did.” For some reason, St. Luke adds that extra detail about Tabitha’s name for us, which goes a long way in describing just what type of person she was!
Dorcas is the Greek word for “Gazelle”, or as we more commonly see here in Michigan, a deer. For those that don’t live in the countryside, seeing deer on our property always feels like a special treat. Time for us seems to slow down and stop for a few minutes while we watch them, because in the midst of all the power lines, concrete roads, street lights and industrialization, deer are a reminder to us of the beauty and simplicity.
Just like we name our children after the Saints of the Church, the Gazelles were so beloved by the Judeans, that they often named their children after them, hoping that they would lead a life with that same beauty and simplicity.
St. Tabitha (which was the Hebrew Word for Dorcas) was a credit to her name! She lived a very Christ-like life in the city of Joppa, not too far from the sea. We learn from scripture, that unlike someone who had gained notoriety by being rich and famous, she simply used the gifts that God had given her in order to help others who were in need.
St. Tabitha used her abilities as a seamstress, to make clothes for orphans and widows, all of whom recognized and returned the love that she offered to them. When she became sick and died, all whom she helped mourned, and immediately sent out for St. Peter, whom they heard was in a nearby city. When he finally arrived, we hear how all of the women and children showed St. Peter all of the clothes that she had made for them. All of St. Tabitha’s spiritual treasure was revealed to the Disciple, who then immediately knelt down and prayed, before raising this Holy Saint from the dead.
We don’t know much of what happened afterwards St. Tabitha, but we can only imagine what kind of Disciple she became, having experienced life not only on this earth, but also (for a short time) in the Kingdom of Heaven after the gates had been opened by our Lord’s Death and Resurrection!
We can certainly learn a lot from this short account of the life of St. Tabitha, but perhaps the easiest way to remember and emulate her attributes, is to once again reflect upon the two adjectives that describe a “Dorcas” for which she is named:
The first and perhaps the best way to describe a gazelle, is that because of the simplicity in their way of life, they can be stunningly beautiful. St. Tabitha is a reminder to us all that true beauty doesn’t come from how we look or what type of worldly stature and power that we have, it comes from the way that we live our lives. True beauty is defined by the works that we do, by the faith that we have, and by the love that we show for God and for others.
We saw this beauty very clearly in the life of St. Tabitha, who spent her days offering her love to those who were in need. Imagine what would have happened if she didn’t do these things, got sick, and died. Would there be so many who would have rushed to find St. Peter, in order to have him come and perform a miracle? When he would have arrived to the upper room where St. Tabitha was sleeping, what gifts of love from the widows and children would have been shown to St. Peter?
It was the beauty of her love that resurrected Tabitha from the dead. Imagine, brothers and sisters, what the beauty of our love of God and of each other, can do for the rest of the fallen world.
The second adjective that is often used to describe a gazelle is “simple”. There are times when our lives in this world become so complicated. Everyone has schedules to keep, appointments to make, conference calls to be on, shows to watch…all of life’s distractions can sometimes take away from the simplicity that is called for in the life of a Christian. It takes away from what our Lord says is the “One thing that is needful” …simply sitting at our Lord’s feet and instilling His Words into our lives.
“Simple” is also a word that can be used to describe the response that our Lord asks us in the Gospel today: “Do you want to be healed?”
“Yes Lord.” No “buts”…no “only ifs”…simply surrendering our life back to the One who gave it to us in the first place.
Let us emulate the life of St. Tabitha and all of the Saints who have both come before us, and are here now, urging us forward towards the beauty of the Kingdom…Amen!