On the fourth Sunday of Pascha, Fr. Matthew Howell hearkens back to the first lesson he learned in his first college economics class: "There is no such thing as a free lunch." He then connects it to Christ's healing of the paralytic, stating that Jesus heals the man as a gift, but then gives him a condition to preserve the gift. In a similar manner, we are all forgiven and saved freely through baptism and the sacramental life, but we must work diligently in our spiritual life to preserve the gift of salvation that God gives us and keep the passions at bay. Along the way, Fr. Matthew discusses his first car as an illustration of the importance of preserving a gift, completely speculates about the cause of the man's paralysis, mentions addiction recovery support groups, points out that saints are those who have been made whole and who have preserved that wholeness, and compares the importance of physical therapy after a surgery to the spiritual therapy that Jesus asks of us in the Church in order to preserve the gift of the Holy Spirit.
