Sixth Sunday of Pascha

Sunday of the Blind Man;

Equals-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helen;

Constantine, Prince of Murom, and his sons Michael and Theodore,

the Wonderworkers

May 21, 2017

Entrance Hymn of Pascha

In the gathering places bless ye God the Lord, from the springs of Israel. Save us, O Son of God, Who art risen from the dead, who sing to Thee: Alleluia.

Troparion of the Resurrection – Tone 5

Let us believers praise and worship the Word; coeternal with the Father and the Spirit, born of the Virgin for our salvation. For, He took pleasure in ascending the Cross in the flesh to suffer death; and to raise the dead by His glorious Resurrection.

Troparion of the Ss Constantine and Helen – Tone 8

Having seen the image of Thy Cross in Heaven, and, like Paul, having received the call not from men, Thine apostle among kings, Constantine, entrusted the commonwealth to Thy hand, O Lord. Keep us always in peace, by the intercessions of the Theotokos, O only Lover of mankind.

Troparion of St Joseph – Tone 2

Proclaim, O Joseph to David, the ancestor of God, the amazing wonder, for by the angel they were revealed unto thee. For thou hast seen a Virgin great with child, and thou gave glory with the shepherds and didst worship with the Magi. Wherefore, plead with Christ God to save our souls.

Kontakion of Pascha – Tone 8

Thou descended into the tomb O Immortal. Thou destroyed the power of death. In victory Thou arose, O Christ God, proclaiming, "Rejoice" to the myrrh-bearing women. Granting peace to thine Apostles and bestowing resurrection on the fallen!

Epistle – Acts 26:1, 12-20

In those days, King Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense: “I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those at Damascus, then at Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance.”

Gospel – John 9:1-38

At that time, when Jesus was passing, He saw a man blind from his birth.  And His Disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.  I must work the works of Him Who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  As He said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” [which means Sent].  So he went and washed and came back seeing.  The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, “Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?”  Some said, “It is he”; others said, “No, but he is like him.”  He said, “I am the man.”  They said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”  He answered, “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went and washed and received my sight.”  They said to him, “Where is He?”  He said, “I do not know.”  They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.  Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.  The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight.  And he said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”  Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.”  But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?”  There was a division among them.  So they again said to the blind man, “What do you say about Him, since He has opened your eyes?”  He said, “He is a prophet.”  The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight, and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind?  How then does he now see?”  His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes.  Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.”  His parents said this because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.  Therefore his parents said, “He is of age, ask him.”  So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner.”  He answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  They said to him, “What did He do to you?  How did He open your eyes?”  He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you too want to become His disciples?”  And they reviled him, saying, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.  We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He comes from.”  The man answered, “Why, this is a marvel!  You do not know where He comes from, and yet He opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, God listens to him.  Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”  They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?”  And they cast him out.  Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him He said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”  He answered, “And Who is He, Sir, that I may believe in Him?”  Jesus said to him, “You have seen Him, and it is He who speaks to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe”; and he worshiped Him.

Sunday of the Blind Man– Sixth Sunday of Pascha

The Lord Jesus was coming from the Temple on the Sabbath, when, while walking in the way, He saw the blind man mentioned in today's Gospel. This man had been born thus from his mother's womb, that is, he had been born without eyes (see Saint John Chrysostom, Homily LVI on John; Saint Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V:15; and the Second Exorcism of Saint Basil the Great). When the disciples saw this, they asked their Teacher, "Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" They asked this because when the Lord had healed the paralytic at the Sheep's Pool, He had told him, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14); so they wondered, if sickness was caused by sin, what sin could have been the cause of his being born without eyes. But the Lord answered that this was for the glory of God. Then the God-man spat on the ground and made clay with the spittle. He anointed the eyes of the blind man and said to him, "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam." Siloam was a well-known spring in Jerusalem used for its waters, which flowed to the eastern side of the city and collected in a large pool called "the Pool of Siloam."

When our Lord Jesus Christ, then, came at midday to this city, which is also called Sychar (John 4:5), He was wearied from the journey and the heat. He sat down at this well. After a little while the Samaritan woman mentioned in today's Gospel passage came to draw water. As she conversed at some length with the Lord and heard from Him secret things concerning herself, she believed in Him; through her many other Samaritans also believed.

Therefore, the Savior sent the blind man to this pool that he might wash his eyes, which had been anointed with the clay-not that the pool's water had such power, but that the faith and obedience of the one sent might be made manifest, and that the miracle might become more remarkable and known to all, and leave no room for doubt. Thus, the blind man believed in Jesus' words, obeyed His command, went and washed himself, and returned, no longer blind, but having eyes and seeing. This was the greatest miracle that our Lord had yet worked; as the man healed of his blindness himself testified, "Since time began, never was it heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind," although the Lord had already healed the blind eyes of many. Because he now had eyes, some even doubted that he was the same person (John 9:8-9); and it was still lively in their remembrance when Christ came to the tomb of Lazarus, for they said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Saint John Chrysostom gives a thorough and brilliant exposition of our Lord's meeting with the woman of Samaria, the healing of the paralytic, and the miracle of the blind man in his commentaries on the Gospel of Saint John.

[www.goarch.org]