The Paralytic | Bandera

The Paralytic

Fr. Dan De Los Angeles |January 12,2018
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The Paralytic

Fr. Dan De Los Angeles - January 12, 2018 - 12:10 AM

Friday, January 12, 2018
1st Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 Sam 8:4-7
Gospel: Mark 2:1-12

Jesus returned to Capernaum. As the news spread that he was at home, so many people gathered that there was no longer room even outside the door. While Jesus was preaching the Word to them, some people brought a paralyzed man to him.

The four men who carried him couldn’t get near Jesus because of the crowd, so they opened the roof above the room where Jesus was and, through the hole, lowered the man on his mat. When Jesus saw the faith of these people, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now, some teachers of the Law who were sitting there wondered within themselves, “How can he speak like this insulting God? Who can forgive sins except God?”

At once Jesus knew through his spirit what they were thinking and asked, “Why do you wonder? Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man: ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say: ‘Rise, take up your mat and walk?’ But now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

And he said to the paralytic, “Stand up, take up your mat and go home.” The man rose and, in the sight of all those people, he took up his mat and went out. All of them were astonished and praised God saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

Moods can be volatile at a time of infirmity. We can only imagine what the paralytic, featured in today’s Gospel reading, had to bear. The awkward intrusion he had to make through the roof, and the physical condition that made it necessary for him to be carried around on a mat, were circumstances too taxing to his moods. But there was something at stake that sustained his patience. He needed a cure, and he was convinced Jesus could do it for him. Faith in Jesus subdued the volatility of his moods.

But faith was not enough. Four people had to carry him. Perhaps it was even the suggestion of these four people that he should get to Jesus by the roof. Faith moved his spirit, but the love of those four people moved him physically. He only had to trust them. In the realization of what we believe we need a community. Faith necessarily involves other people. This is basic to Christian life since our marching order is to love one another. How can we fulfill this great commandment if we are alone?

Our being in a community could bring lots of irritations, and our moods can be very volatile. But if we have faith, the resultant vector would always point to our true North. Faith in God and love of the community will produce something as spectacular as the cure of the paralytic. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.

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