Friday, January 17, 2014
1st Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading: 1 Sm 8:4–7, 10–22a Gospel Reading:
Mk 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)
The Jews believed in the psychosomatic nature of sin. Thus when they saw how Jesus substantiated his grant of forgiveness to the paralytic with subsequent restoration to perfect health they couldn’t deny Jesus’ identity as coming from above without being inconsistent. The healing of the body came only after Jesus’ adversaries accused him of usurpation of the divine power to forgive.
But even if they did not raise any protest Jesus would have done the same thing. After all, when God heals, he heals both body and soul. If any meaning should attach to the sequence of Jesus’ acts it is the superiority of the spiritual over the physical.
As God would have it let us prioritize our spiritual healing. There are many advantages in doing so. First it enhances physical health. “Mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body) is also spoken of body and soul. Most of all it also takes care of our other needs at the spiritual and even at the physical level. “Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all the rest will fall in line. Give God his due and God will give back to you…” so goes a classical Church hymn. Let us seek healing with as much faith and hope as the paralytic of today’s Gospel had when he approached Jesus. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website:www.frdan.org.
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