Today's Gospel tells about a man who was sick of the palsy. Or rather, about quite a few men who were sick of the palsy. One of them was cured, the others were not, because they didn’t realize that they were sick and didn’t want to be cured.

We are not talking about physical paralysis here, but spiritual paralysis. When Jesus saw the man who was sick of the palsy and was brought to Him, He said: “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee!”

In Hebrew, the name Michael means “who is like God”. This name speaks of God’s greatness, power, uniqueness, and the answer to the question contained in this name is: “No one! There is no one equal to God!”

Yet there is something of God himself in Michael: he is an angel of God. Angels are God’s messengers, His envoys – that’s what the Greek word “angelos” means. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, it is said that angels are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation”, and Jesus assures us that the guardian angels of God’s children “do always behold the face of His Father which is in heaven”.

Today’s Gospel begins with a description of how Jesus healed a man with dropsy. Dropsy is actually not a disease, but a medical condition caused by some serious illness. For example, it can be caused by cardiac failure, lung problems, liver disease or pancreatitis. Dropsy can vary in severity, but it is uncomfortable and can be extremely painful. By healing this man, Jesus not only relieved him of his pain, but He did much more: He healed this man of the disease that had caused the dropsy.

St. Augustine tells in his “Confessions” how he was once about to die of some serious illness, and if he had died at that moment, he would have gone to hell with all his unrepented sins. It was only the prayers of his loving mother that saved both his body and, more importantly, his soul.

There are countless mothers who have prayed for the body and soul of their children in the same way throughout the centuries. And so our spiritual Mother – the Church – prays for all of us. It is hard to imagine anything more devastating than a mother having to bury her son. Especially if the mother is a widow and it is her only son. But there is something even more devastating: when a mother should bury her son knowing that her son’s soul will go to hell.

What does it mean to “seek first the kingdom of God”? God’s kingdom is not like earthly countries. It is not bound by place or time, it is not founded on either democratically elected or appointed institutions, it does not need to establish itself either by military force or diplomacy. God's kingdom does have borders, but they are not defined geographically, they run through human hearts.