And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;
Read Chapter 14
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And He had took him, and touched him, and ley him go (ε̉πιλαβόμενος, "when he had ouched him." apprehensum, Vulg.) He heals by His touch the dropsical man who, from fear of the Pharisees, did not ask to be healed on account of the Sabbath, but only stood up, that when Jesus beheld him He might have compassion on him and heal him. S. Cyril.
Mystically. S. Gregory (lib. xiv. Moral.) observes: "The sick of the dropsy is healed in the Pharisee"s presence, for by the bodily infirmity of the one is expressed the mental disease, i.e. the avarice and covetousness, of the other." "For," says Bede, "the dropsical man represents one who is weighed down by an overflowing stream of carnal pleasures." S. Augustine adds, "We, lightly compare one sick of the dropsy to a covetous rich Prayer of Manasseh , who, the more he abounds in riches, the more ardently desires them. Avarice and covetousness, then, are very similar to the dropsy, and as this dire disease is best remedied by abstaining from drinking, so the remedy for unlawful desire is mortification, abstinence, and continence, all of which wither and drive out virtuous habits."
