Be comforted, you fainthearted. Be strong, do not fear. Behold, our God renders judgment and will render it. He will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will speak clearly. For water shall burst forth in the desert, and a valley in the thirsty land. The waterless desert shall become meadows, and the thirsty land springs of water. There will be the gladness of birds, a habitation of reeds and marshes. (Isa 35:4–7)
But that these five thousand men are signs of divine power, the Lord himself predicted through the prophet, saying, “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me will be signs in the house of Israel from the Lord of hosts on Mount Zion.” The same prophet later revealed the nature of these future signs when he said, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear, and the lame will leap like deer.” We can recognize the fulfillment of this prophecy in the lame man who had been unable to walk since birth.
If we look closely, we can also recognize the sacraments prefigured mystically in him, for the lame man received healing while looking toward Peter and John when he was at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. We too were lame prior to coming to the knowledge of Christ, in the sense that we were limping along the way of righteousness. Our halting strides were not those of the body, however, but those of the interior life. Whoever has gone astray from the way of righteousness or from the way of truth is altogether lame, even if his feet and legs are healthy, since he limps with his mind and soul. For the journey of faith and truth is traveled not with bodily steps but with strides of the interior life. For the one who is estranged from the way of justice, from the way of truth, even if he has straight feet, is completely lame because he limps in mind and soul. For he enters on the journey of faith and truth not with physical steps but with the steps of the internal life. Hence doubtless we limped for a long time on the way of justice, when we did not know Christ the Lord, the true way of salvation and life. But after we came to the beautiful gate of the temple and looked at the apostles of Christ with faith, then the steps of our mind were made strong so that we no longer limped upon the way of iniquity, but with straight steps we walk down the road of justice.
Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermon 1.3–4
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