Gospel
Mk 2: 1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum
after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered
together so
that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and
he
preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic
carried by
four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up
the
roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on
which
the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic,
"Child, your sins are forgiven."Now some of the scribes were sitting
there asking themselves, "Why does this man speak that way? He is
blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?" Jesus immediately
knew
in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said,
"Why
are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to
the
paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven,"or to say, "Rise, pick up
your mat and walk?" But that you may know that the Son of Man has
authority to forgive sins on earth" he said to the paralytic, "I say
to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home." He rose, picked up his
mat
at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all
astounded and
glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."
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Today’s Scripture
readings tell us about God’s forgiveness of our sins. In the first
reading; God
says to Israel through
Isaiah : “You burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your
crimes.
[But I] wipe out… your offenses; your sins I remember no more."
The same theme of forgiveness is dramatically
continued in the
Gospel reading today. We see the four men bringing the paralytic man
before
Jesus. We see here, their faith and their friendship.
[Think of
the beauty of friendship and what friendship can do.] They had faith
and they
believed that Jesus could heal their friend. And Jesus, seeing
their
faith, he does not disappoint them, he has compassion. He forgives the
man’s
sins, “Your sins are forgiven…stand up… and walk again.” Jesus
sees not
only the physical ailment, but he goes deeper and sees the soul which
is
scarred with sin. The belief at that time was that sin and sickness
were
indissolubly linked together. Jesus loved the man and forgave his sins.
When Jesus looks at each one of us, what does
he see? He sees the
soul – which is troubled and tormented by sin. Sin separates us from
God and
Jesus wants to end that separation. He wants to forgive us and unite us
to
himself. This can only be done if we present ourselves before him – our
initiative is necessary. Someone once said,
The God who
created you without your consent will not save you without your
co-operation.
God will not forgive us without our co-operation. It
takes
courage for us to take that step – we have to do it. In the Catholic
Church, we
are so blessed that we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Through it,
we get cleaned up. We hear the words “Your sins are forgiven”.
If I may ask, “How many of us make use of that sacrament?”
When was
your last confession? Please don’t answer me…tell your God. [ Did
you
say 2 years? 4 years? 12 months ago?]
What Jesus said to the paralytic was
controversial. “Your sins
are forgiven”. Here, we see the attitude of the Scribes
toward Jesus.
“How can this man forgive sin? Only God can.” For the Scribes,
Jesus was
blaspheming. Their reasoning was logical, except for one thing –
they
failed to see that Jesus was divine and therefore had the power to
forgive
sins. Jesus showed his authority to forgive sins by healing the man.
Since the
forgiveness of sins cannot be seen and observed, Jesus had to prove
that He had
that authority to forgive sin – he had to heal the man and he did.
What do we learn from
this passage today?
1. The determined faith
of those four men and their friendship brought healing to the
paralytic.
Our faith too and our friendship can have such effects on others.
Because of
our faith, and because our friendship, others can be touched and healed.
2. If we love people, we need to be concerned
about them. We
are, as it were, their physical health and more so, their spiritual
well-being.
3. We must also see that many of our problems
have a root cause in
sin which we must deal with first.
4. We must realize that sin alienates us from
God and our
neighbor.
Therefore, we need to present ourselves to
Jesus in the sacrament
of healing. We need to hear Jesus say over us those beautiful
consoling
words; “Your sins are forgiven”. Of course, the sacrament of
Confession
is a difficult one. But in confessing to God, to another human being,
who acts
in the person of Christ [In Persona Christi], we experience the
freedom, the
forgiveness that gushes out from the heart of God.