The cure of the paralytic

January 16, 2015
Friday, 1st Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading:  Heb 4:1–5, 11
Gospel: Mk 2:1–12

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.

DAiGITAL EXPERIENCE
Daily Gospel in the Assimilated
Life Experience

Miracle- making and remission of sins are two actions only a God can do. Jesus did both: he cured the paralytic and forgave him his sins. The inevitable conclusion would have been that Jesus was God, yet the Pharisees insisted on other conclusions. But when the paralytic walked like any ambulant person, they found themselves in a very awkward situation, with their hearts resisting what their minds were concluding.

Jesus drove the last nail when he asked: Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man: ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say: ‘Rise, take up your mat and walk?’ They kept quiet. By their silence they bound themselves to the presumption that while any person can claim the power of remitting sins, only God can substantiate such claim with miracles. Did the Pharisees leave the scene converted? The Gospel tells us that they left and looked for ways to destroy him.

In “Spenser’s Ireland” Marianne Moore wrote, “you are not free until you have been made captive by supreme belief.”  Instead of bowing to the facts hinting Jesus’ divinity, the Pharisees sought to destroy him. They had him tortured and killed, in fact. Instead of submitting to the supreme belief that Jesus was God because he could forgive sins, they preferred to remain captive by their biases. They were not free.

To be truly free we need to submit ourselves to a belief more superior than the belief our minds can establish. This is only possible through faith, such as the faith of the paralytic. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website:www.frdan.org.

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