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| “Christ Healing the Paralytic” by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, 1730-32 |
Reading 1: Hebrews 4:1-5, 11
Let us be on our guard
while the promise of entering
into his rest remains,
that none of you seem to have
failed.
For in fact we have received
the Good News just as our ancestors did.
But the word that they heard
did not profit them,
for they were not united in
faith with those who listened.
For we who believed enter
into that rest,
just as he has said:
As I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter into my rest,”
and yet his works were
accomplished
at the foundation of the
world.
For he has spoken somewhere
about the seventh day in this manner,
And God rested on the seventh
day from all his works;
and again, in the previously
mentioned place,
They shall not enter into my
rest.
Therefore, let us strive to
enter into that rest,
so that no one may fall after
the same example of disobedience.
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Commentary on Heb 4:1-5, 11
The author defends
the faith of his audience by saying they are not like their ancestors who
rebelled against God (Psalm
95; 8-9).
Following the citation from Psalm 95, the author takes up the idea of “rest”
using Genesis 2:2. “God rested on the seventh day after
creating the world in six days. The point is not that God was tired and needed
a break; rather he was showing us our need to live and work for the rest that
lies ahead. The call to enter his rest is a call to unite ourselves with
God—weekly on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) and ultimately in the attainment of salvation (Revelation
14:13) (CCC 345).”[4]
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 78:3 and
4bc, 6c-7, 8
R. (see 7b) Do not forget the works of the Lord!
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have
declared to us,
we will declare to the
generation to come
The glorious deeds of the
LORD and his strength.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
That they too may rise and
declare to their sons
that they should put their
hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of
God
but keep his commands.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
And not be like their
fathers,
a generation wayward and
rebellious,
A generation that kept not
its heart steadfast
nor its spirit faithful
toward God.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
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Commentary on Ps 78:3 and 4bc, 6c-7, 8
In these verses from Psalm 78, the psalmist looks back at the
rebellion against God by those who followed Moses out of Egypt. The psalmist
sings of handing down the faith in God and the story of his works from
generation to generation.
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Gospel: Mark 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum
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 him,
“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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Commentary on Mk 2:1-12
The story of Jesus healing the
paralytic begins a series of conflicts between Jesus and the scribes and
Pharisees in Mark’s Gospel. The story clearly demonstrates the connection
between healing, faith, and forgiveness. When Jesus tells the paralytic his
sins are forgiven, the Scribes immediately understand the revelatory nature of
the statement. Only God has the authority to forgive sins. Since they do not believe
Jesus is the Messiah, his words are blasphemy, a charge they will bring out
again later at his trial. Later in the Gospel, Mark attaches even more
importance to faith as a component of healing.
The Lord’s response: “the Son of
Man has authority to forgive sins on earth,” is probably directed at St.
Mark’s Christian audience rather than at the scribes or the paralytic in the
story. Jesus' identity is then confirmed by the miraculous action that follows,
as the paralytic is told to rise, pick up his mat, and go.
CCC: Mk 2:1-12 1421; Mk 2:5-12 1502, 1503; Mk 2:5 1441, 1484, 2616; Mk 2:7 430, 574, 589, 1441; Mk 2:8 473; Mk 2:10 1441
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Reflection:
The healing miracle that is
described in Mark’s Gospel provides a renewed emphasis on our understanding of
the relationship between the Savior, each of us, and the Church. From a very detached point of view, we all
understand and know that Jesus came into the world so that we might be united
with God. We were reconciled to him by having the great barrier removed that
fell when Adam and Eve fell and brought sin into the world through
disobedience. We know, again at an
intellectual level, that when Jesus offered himself up on the cross, it was as
a sacrifice of atonement, intended to pay the price for Adam’s sin and open a
portal so that we might once more enter God’s Kingdom.
All of these grand
theological statements have been poured into us from our earliest years, for
those of us born in the Christian faith.
Looking at the Gospel today as the Lord once more encounters one who was
afflicted, this time with a paralysis, we see on an individual level what
forgiveness accomplishes. Jesus uses the
healing miracles as metaphor. We are all
wounded, broken, damaged by choices we have made that separate us from
Christ. We have all done things that can
be classified as sin (the simple definition for sin is: “a conscious failure to
love – love self, love others, love God and his creation).
When we allow this brokenness
to go untended, it is like breaking a bone and not having it set. It does not mend properly and may always be
twisted or bent, weakened and unable to work as it was intended. In severe cases it can cripple a person for
life: cripple their ability to have relationships
with others, ruin the relationships they have with their loved ones. The Lord can heal this injury, these
self-inflicted wounds (for even when another person harms us and we allow our
bitterness to fester, refusing to forgive them, we sin, injuring ourselves).
The paralytic was brought to
the Lord by friends who had faith. We
have access to forgiveness without such extreme measures. It takes two separate actions on our
part. First we must recognize that we have
injured our relationship with Christ through sin. Cradle Catholics may recall that, in their
elementary days, they were told to count the number of times they had committed
certain sinful acts, and report these at the confessional, by the numbers. A priest friend who was returning from
hearing confessions at a Catholic elementary school confided once that hearing
these confessions was like “being pelted with popcorn.” As adults our failures generally are much
more serious, and have a more profound impact in our lives. Nonetheless, the first step is recognizing
that we have damaged our relationship with Christ through sin.
The second step, and this may
sound simplistic, is true contrition.
For Christ, who forgave even those who murdered him, there is nothing he
will not forgive of the truly repentant person.
One of the hardest things we do in our faith is offer the sins we have
committed to the one who is without sin.
But to receive forgiveness we must ask for it. We must lower ourselves through the roof if
necessary to lay helpless before the Son of God, our brokenness laid before
him, our helplessness and vulnerability offered to him in faith. When we do this our sins will be forgiven and
our relationship with him restored.
If we are brave enough to
hear those words, we will also take that experience to the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. The sacrament offers us
several benefits which time prohibits us from fully reflecting upon. But chief among them is that we speak the
words to one who stands in the place of the Lord and are absolved. Like the doctor who reviews the test results
and finds the treatment successful, we thought we felt well following our act
of contrition, but now we hear the official word, words of love from Christ
through the Church.
Today our prayer is
simple. We pray that God will give us
the spiritual strength to recognize our sins and weaknesses, and offer them to
him for healing. We wish to be made
whole by the one who is love personified.
Pax
[1]
The picture used today is “Christ Healing the Paralytic” by Giovanni Antonio
Pellegrini, 1730-32.
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the
psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is
for private use only.
[4]
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco
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