The Paralytic
- WALTER HILTON
Rise up, and take up your bed, and go into your house.
Being too weak to walk, the paralytic was carried in a litter to our Lord, who, when he saw his plight, said to him in his goodness: Surge et tolle grabatum tuum, et vade in domum tuam (Jn 5:8). Rise up, and take up your bed, and go into your house. And he did so and was made whole.
And just as this man, when he was cured, carried on his back the bed which before carried him, so it might be said, spiritually, that a soul reformed in faith bears this image of sin which previously bore him.
And so do not be too anxious about the stains you contract from this image of sin which you carry. Do not fear them, in spite of the shame you feel at seeing them in yourself and in spite of the taunts of your spiritual enemies saying in your heart, "Where is your Lord Jesus? What is it that you are seeking? Where is this beauty that you speak of? What do you feel except blindness and sin? Where is that image of God that you say is reformed in you?"
Comfort yourself by faith, as I have said before, and, if you do so, this faith will enable you to overcome all the temptations of your enemies.
Saint Paul said: Accipe scutum fidei, in quo tela hostis nequissima poteris extinguere (Eph 6:16). Let strong faith be your shield through which you may extinguish all the burning darts of the enemy.
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Acknowledgement
Walter Hilton. "The Paralytic." from The Scale of Perfection edited by Thomas H. Bestul. TEAMS Middle English Text Series. (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000): 158-59.
Reprinted with permission of Medieval Institute Publications.
The Author
Walter Hilton (d. 1396) was an English Augustinian mystic. He was the first man to write a book of mysticism in the English language. His works became influential in the 15th and 16th centuries. He is the author of The Scale of Perfection and Treatise Written to a Devout Man.
