Christ is risen! Christ, the Risen One, is the One we should imitate as St. Peter did. The other Prime Apostle wrote, "Imitate me, as I imitate Christ," yet the same words could be placed in the mouth of Peter. For he very much did imitate the Lord: as the Lord healed the paralytic, so did Peter, and as the Lord commanded him to take up his pallet and walk, so did the Prime Apostle. All miracles occur through the power of Jesus Christ, for "Jesus Christ heals you," but He may heal through His disciples, through those inflamed with His Spirit, inflamed with Him. Have we not heard stories of countless saints, the testimony of the Spirit's working in the past, saints who healed many through their prayers and their blessings? Have we not heard of many icons and spots of grace that have healed? The chapel in Czestochowa has walls gilded with crutches, and the pools at Lourdes bestow healing on many. Yet all of this is only through Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity Incarnate. It is through the indwelling of the Trinity in the saints and in the Theotokos that these healings occur, that indwelling that sanctifies even their relics, their images, the spots where they appear. All those who follow Christ in His healing work do so through imitation of Him and even more so through divinization by Him.
