Is 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25; 2 Cor 1:18-22; Mk 2:1-12
Our human existence is
a gift of God to us and its origin and end belong to God. Christian faith is the
recognition of God’s definitive affirmation of humanity in Jesus Christ. Faith in
Christ is an explicit affirmation within human life that illuminates God’s affirmation
prefacing all life. Through faith in Christ, humans are oriented toward the source
of their true affirmation and away from the ever-present potential to negate their
own existence. Our faith is a simple human response to the revealed divine word.
God reveals himself to us continuously through persons, word and situations. He comes
to us in various ways and we ought to recognize him. In the gospel of today we hear
Jesus appreciating the faith of people as they bring a paralyzed person to him to
be healed. His healing is total, for he does inner healing by forgiving the sins of
the person and then does physical healing by restoring him back to good health. In
the first reading we have Prophet Isaiah giving good news to the wearied people.
God is going to liberate them from the Babylonian captivity and lead them back to
the Promised Land. In the second reading Paul insists that he and his companions
have been positive in their dealings with the people of Corinth. Paul tells them that
he had been faithful in every way to his office as preacher of the Gospel of Christ.
This office was given to him by God the Father. Just a Christ was God’s yes to the
divine promises, so God in Christ enabled the apostles to be faithful in their mission
to Corinth.
In the first reading from Prophet Isaiah begins with surprising
news that what God is about to do for the people will overshadow even the deliverance
from Egypt. In those days of the past God opened up a dry pathway through the sea.
Now a new Exodus was about to begin. But this time the elements will be reversed.
This time a well-watered pathway will lead straight through the parched desert between
Babylon and their homeland. Further, God promises the possibility of the forgiveness
of sins of the entire nation. But he commanded them to set aside the ways of the past
in order to open the door to a better future. The initiative for this wonderful act
of deliverance comes entirely from God. The people could never claim to deserve such
deliverance. God chose them to be an ideal people to show to the rest of the world
what it meant to give total service to God. They had a special bond with God as they
were his chosen children. But they took this relationship with God for granted and
went their own way. Instead of serving him they pursued their own interest. Even
though God was tired of their wrong doings, has now forgotten all their sins. With
all their illusions shattered, the people may now be prepared to accept the noble
task God always had in mind for them.
In the Second Reading from the second
Letter to the Corinthians Paul teaches us, that our response to God's promises should
be yes, as the response of Jesus was always yes to his Heavenly Father. God was not
inconsistent with us by saying yes and then No. In our relationship with God we
should never be inconsistent. God the Father made many promises to his people. Through
Jesus who is their fulfilment, every one of God's promises were accomplished, we being
living witnesses of each promise found in the Old Testament. As such, our response
to prayers is always Amen for the glory of God, "Amen" meaning Yes. It is God who
establishes us as members of the Body of Christ and who has anointed us. It is by
His grace that those who believe in Christ receive strength and the necessary faith
to walk the living faith that leads to salvation. God set His seal on us by placing
His Spirit in our hearts as a first instalment. Three things stand out here. God anointed
us. He marked us with a seal. He gave us His Spirit as a first instalment. A seal
means that it is official and binding. God placed His seal on us through the Sacrament
of Baptism. Though the Corinthians thought they had reason to mistrust Paul, because
he changed his plans to visit them, he insists that he and his companions have been
faithful. God the Father together with Christ and the Spirit is at work in the apostles
and enables them to say yes to the people of Corinth. The Gospel of today tells
us that Jesus had just returned home and performed yet another healing miracle. No
sooner had he arrived, the word got out and the crowd gathered at His home. So great
was the number of people that some had to stand in front of the door as Jesus spoke
the Word to them. The people were all eager to hear what he was saying, for no man
spoke like this man and he spoke not like the Scribes, but as one having authority.
Mark tells us of the healing miracle that took place in Capernaum into which is inserted
a controversy story between Jesus and the Scribes over the forgiveness of sins.
The story began at Capernaum located on the north coast of the Sea of Galilee. Already
people were aware of his popularity and they came in large numbers to listen to Jesus.
They brought to Jesus a person paralyzed and in need of healing. He was helpless
and they had to carry him on a stretcher. The people already trusted in the healing
power of Jesus. There were four stretcher-bearers. Without them, the paralytic would
not have been able to go to Jesus: he needed their help to reach him. But there was
something more. When the men could not bring the paralyzed man to Jesus because of
the crowd, they climbed the roof and made a hole in it above Jesus so they could lower
the man before Jesus in a mat. In Palestine every house had a flat roof to which people
went to rest, for taking the sun, and to get away from it all in the cool of the evening.
To that roof they had a stairway from the outside. The people could easily take the
man to the roof remove some straw and lower him before Jesus. Mark does not say that
Jesus appreciated the faith of the paralytic, but rather he was touched by the faith
of all: that of the paralytic and the stretcher-bearers combined. He appreciated
their determination which is a measure of their faith, trust and confidence in him.
Being
impressed by their faith, Jesus made a surprising statement, saying before the crowd
that his sins are forgiven. The man had come for healing of his physical disability,
not forgiveness. But in the way Jesus sees things there can be no healing of the body
without the inner healing of the soul. Healing involves making a person complete again.
It was a sign of communion. There was not only the sympathy and human compassion that
the bearers expressed for the paralytic by bringing him to Jesus to be healed. But
there was also, above all, communion in a single faith in the Savior of the world,
in the long-awaited Messiah so often proclaimed by the Prophets. This, therefore,
was a sign of the communion of saints: borne by four men - four being the symbol of
holiness - the paralytic would receive from Jesus, that is, from God himself, the
forgiveness of his sins. Jesus tells him before all those present that his sins are
forgiven and does not tell him that he is healing him now. Jesus shows that physical
and spiritual healing go hand in hand. This indeed raised the controversy about the
forgiveness of sins and people question him about his divinity. The Scribes immediately
conclude this as blasphemy, for the power of forging sins was only with God and they
could not see the divine sonship of Jesus. However, the paralytic stood up as Jesus
asked him to do, take his mat and walked out before all and those present were amazed
at the miracle.
The healing miracle and the forgiveness of sins led to the
controversy that immediately followed. For a better understanding of what is going
on here, it is important for us to realize here the close links the Jews of the time
made between sin and sickness. Many kinds of sickness were seen as punishment for
personal sin or the sins of parents. We remember the story of the healing of a man
born blind in John’s gospel. When Jesus and his companions first saw the man, the
disciples asked him whose sins had made the person blind, whether his sins or those
of his parents. This man's paralysis is also seen by the people around as a punishment
for some sin in his own life or that of his parents. If Jesus could clearly remove
the illness, then the cause of the illness was also being taken away. In so doing,
Jesus makes it clear that in forgiving the man's sin he was not blaspheming. He was
what he claimed to be. If the man now was no longer sick or disabled, it meant that
the sin, too, was gone. What impressed the audience was not the forgiveness of sins,
because they could not sense that from the depth of their hearts. They were impressed
that this little known man in their small town could heal a person who was paralyzed
for a long time and he was now able to walk. They were truly impressed but by the
wrong things. The Scribes who were the scholars of Law overheard the words of
forgiveness from the mouth of Jesus and complained that he had uttered words of blasphemy.
The reason for their charge is that the Law declares only God can forgive sins and
no one else. The Scribes could not easily accept the divine power of Jesus and hence
they considered his utterances as blasphemy. Jesus at the same time was able to read
the hearts of people and so he knew what the Scribes were thinking and he confronted
them. They thought it was easier to say one’s sins are forgiven than to tell the
paralytic to get up and walk. The latter could be identified immediately, while the
former could not be verified at all. Referring himself as the Son of man, which indicated
not only a human being but the ultimate saviour sent by God, Jesus commanded the paralytic
to get up and pick up his mat and go home. To the amazement of the entire paralytic
did exactly as Jesus commanded him to do. He got up, took his mat and went away.
They were all able to witness the power and authority of Jesus who not only did the
healing but also brought about the forgiveness of God in the heart of the person.
The whole person, one in whom all parts are in perfect harmony with God, other people,
one’s environment and oneself, is the truly holy person.
In this miracle of
healing we have the fundamental dogma of our Christian faith, namely, Christ is the
Son of God, told to us by none other than Jesus himself. He also told them that he
had the power to forgive sins which was considered a blasphemy by the Scribes. They
said only God can forgive sins and only an offended person can grant forgiveness that
is God. Jesus in his answer proved how wrong they were. First he showed them that
he knew fully the thoughts they had in their minds which they had not expressed openly.
Secondly he asked them which was easier to speak, on forgiving sins or on physical
healing to make a paralytic walk, since both required divine power. Thus to show
them that he has the divine power and full authority from God, he commanded the sick
person to take his mat and walk and the person did just that. Mark tells us that
all were amazed and whether the Scribes were included among them was doubtful. They
were hard hearted persons filled with their selfishness and pride. Jesus in fact would
have worked the miracle of mercy even if the Scribes had not interfered. In his revelation
of the mystery he wanted to show them that he is divine and hence shows his divine
power in the total healing of the person.
Summarizing today's readings, they
affirm to us that we as Christians have received our forgiveness of sins by our faith
in Christ. We are called to believe in the fulfilment of the promises of the Heavenly
Father that we reconcile ourselves to him in the Spirit. This enables us to partake
in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to receive our inheritance as children of God,
as chosen by Jesus from eternity. In the light of today's Gospel, then, we can look
at our own lives and see if there is a real harmony between our spirit, mind, body
and surrounding environment. Being holy is not just saying prayers or being pious.
It is about a wholeness and integrity that touches every aspect of our life and all
our relationships. May all of us respond like the paralyzed man: by allowing our sufferings
and sins to bring us to Jesus; and by surrounding ourselves with good Catholic friends
who will support us in our faith by their prayers, by their words, and by their example.
Happily, of course, the paralytic was able to come to Jesus, who blessed him with
two precious gifts: forgiveness and healing. The first was actually much more important
as Jesus makes that clear in his response to the scribes. But the physical healing
he did was very special. Based on the experience of this paralytic, we first of all
have to say that our sufferings have the power to bring us closer to the Lord. The
Gospel teaches us that Jesus is ever ready to heal us only if we choose to come to
him and he does the total healing of the person, physical and spiritual. It also makes
us to have greater appreciation of our own value in the sight of God.
There
is the story of an acrobat who performed an unusual, wonderful feat. There was a
great canyon, 300 feet wide gorge. It was nearly a thousand feet deep and all sharp
stones protruding. He had tied a strong wire across it and in the presence of a huge
crowd assembled there he walked across and returned. Then he did something more.
He was blind-folded and he went across the gorge and returned. Everyone was astounded
at the feat. Then he did something more astounding. He took a wheel barrow filled
with sand and pushed it across and back. The wire was sagging almost to a breaking
point. As he landed one young man ran to him and said that he was great and no one
like him. The acrobat asked him whether he trusted him and the young man said yes,
totally he trusted him. Quietly the acrobat emptied the wheel barrow of the sand and
said I am going again across the gorge and you are going to sit in this wheel barrow
and I will push you across. The man disappeared from the scene. His total faith had
disappeared. Fr. Eugene Lobo S.J.