Uncreated Grace - Fr. Gregory - March 8, 2026

On this second Sunday of Great Lent, the church places before us the witness of St. Gregory Palamas, who defended the truth that God is not distant or abstract, but present and active. He is not knowable in his essence, which remains beyond comprehension, but in his living and uncreated grace. Through prayer, repentance, and the life of the church, humans may participate in the living presence of God. God became Man so that man might truly participate in God — not in his essence, but in his life.Fr. Gregory connects the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas to today’s Gospel reading, in which Christ heals a paralyzed man. In this account, we see a revelation of divine energy at work, what it looks like when the uncreated energy of God touches a human life. When the paralytic is brought before Christ, He first heals the deeper paralysis, saying, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Before healing the body, Christ heals the soul. To reveal his authority to the scribes, he says, “Arise, take up your bed and go to your house.” The same divine light that shone from Christ at the transfiguration now restores this paralyzed, broken man.Fr. Gregory reminds us that Pascha is not merely a date on the calendar, but illumination and participation in the uncreated light of the resurrection that makes all things new. He encourages us to continue the fast not as though we’re earning something, but as those being carried to Christ, those laying our paralysis before him, those receiving forgiveness of our sins, those receiving healing, and those rising when Christ says, “Arise, take up your bed and walk.”