10th May, the 4th Sunday after Holy Pascha (of the Healing of the Paralytic at Bethesda), the parishioners of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Chisinau participated in the Divine Liturgy celebrated by Metropolitan Vladimir in the Cathedral Square.
The arch-pastor was assisted at the service by archpriest Vadim Cheibas, Cathedral Dean and Metropolitan Secretary.
The Sunday Gospel Reading speaks about a paralytic man who expected a miraculous healing every day at a pool near the Sheep Gate, or Bethesda. Holy Apostle John speaks that an angel came every day and moved the water, and the person who first entered into the water would be healed from whatever disease he or she had. The whole story is related in John 5: 1-15. We see many kinds of persons there, but apparently, one of them was desperately lonely, for there was nobody to place him into the water after it was moved by the angel. However, the paralytic hoped for a miracle, and Lord Jesus Christ, knowing his heart full of hope and patience, gave him the healing, although it was Sabbath, holy day for the Hebrew, when nobody was allowed to do any work, even carrying something in public. We see that instead of giving glory to God for the miraculous healing of a man from their own people, the Pharisees and scribes blamed the poor man for caring his bed on a day when it was forbidden. We see how sometimes national customs becomes dogmas, and people forget the most important beyond them – love and empathy.
Due to the emergency state rules during the pandemic, public worship was allowed in open air settings, instead of inside church prayers. In such conditions, the Divine Liturgy was officiated in the Cathedral Square, and although people preserve physical distance, unity in prayer and faith gives hope for the overcoming of this challenge.
Synodal Sector of Institutional Communication and Mass-Media Relations