Gospel, Mark 2:1-12 This is one of my favorite Gospel texts, encompassing such a variety of characters and so visual I find it easy to place myself in the scene. Jesus has returned once again to the home of Simon Peter, to the same room in which he had previously healed many of the townspeople following casting out of the evil spirit during the synagogue service.
The house was built in the typical style of the time…an enclosing outside wall along which the interior rooms were built. In Capernaum, walls were constructed of uncut basalt stones balanced with small rocks and pebbles, then plastered with mud and whitewashed. Ceiling beams were spaced about every two feet, crisscrossed with a cover of branches and reeds held together with mud and a final layer of smooth clay mud on top. There on the roof people dried fruits and grains and even slept up there on nights when the poorly ventilated rooms were too hot and stuffy.
The four men who brought their paralytic friend to Jesus knew how such roofs were built…and disassembled when needs be. It was their faith that Jesus noted, not just that of their paralytic friend. I can imagine him looking at them, a smile acknowledging their ingenuity in getting their friend before him…and them smiling back in recognition. I am sure that, after the paralytic was healed and the crowds dispersed, they would get to work repairing the roof and spending some time with Jesus, home-owner Peter, and the rest of the disciples.
Jesus forgives the paralytic’s sins before the physical healing. Some years ago a friend who participated in a healing prayer ministry told me of a person who had come numerous times for prayer but had not received the healing she desired. One of the team members, sensing that God wanted to heal her, asked if she was holding onto any resentment toward another person. She acknowledged that she was. They began praying for the grace for her to forgive, and when she was finally able to do so, she received the physical healing following the spiritual one. We are a unity of physical-emotional-spiritual and it is not surprising that illness and healing in the physical realm be related to spiritual illness and healing.
In the order in which Jesus healed, Jesus also wanted to give his naysayers evidence that he had the authority to forgive sins. They weren’t convinced. I wonder if their lack of spiritual openness may have also resulted in a little arthritis or indigestion.
Reading 1, Isaiah 43:18-19,21-22,24b-25 Chapters 40 to 55 of Isaiah, often called Deutero-Isaiah, are gene4rally attrtibuted to an anonymous poet, a later disciple in the tradition of Isaiah, who prophesied toward the end of the Babylonian exile. From this section come the positive words of encouragement reviving the Israelites’ hope in the “something new” that God is preparing for their future. The sins of the past are forgiven. The people had learned and repented. Now God could begin to refashion his people. How many times has the cycle of “living without focus on God – falling into difficult times for living by our own will – recognizing the basic error of our ways – repenting and turning to God – receiving forgiveness and rising to newness with God” been repeated in the history of the world…or in our own personal histories, for that matter? With God there is always forgiveness and hope for those who turn to him.
Reading II, 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 The words in this passage don’t flow very well in English…I’m not sure how well they came across in the original Greek. Read it in context with the preceding verses. Paul had previously told the Corinthians that he was going to visit them on his way to and from Macedonia. Apparently, plans changed and Paul was not able to do so. Some members of the highly-factionalized Corinthian community, perhaps a bit smitten by the strong language of Paul’s previous letter to the Corinthians, probably took the occasion to challenge the trustworthiness of Paul’s words and, perhaps, character. Although he hadn’t been able to visit them as he had said, Paul nonetheless asserts the integrity of his person and his mission…not “yes” and “no” any more than Jesus had been “yes” and “no”. Specific situations of life may be beyond our control, but Paul was true to Jesus in every moment. That’s how he could write, as we read in the second reading last week (1 Cor. 11:1): “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Although we may not be as constant in our following Christ, more like the Corinthians than Paul, God takes us and transforms our “Amen” into a pure offering and newly bestows the Holy Spirit upon us.
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