On this
Sunday, the Maronite Church commemorates the
miracle of Jesus' healing the paralytic.
We find
that Jesus had returned to Capernaum. Since the
news of his healing of the leper had become
spread throughout the region, he had become very
well-known. For this reason, he probably went to
Capernaum by night in order to avoid the crowds.
The house he went to was probably that of Simon
Peter. By morning the house was filled with
people. The crowd was filled with simple
believers who wanted to listen to the Master,
but mingled in the crowd were members of the
Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin had the function of
guarding the orthodox teaching of the Jewish
faith. The members of the Sanhedrin were not
pleased with the teaching of this new master and
were seeking a way to entrap him. In any case,
there were many there who came to profit from
the presence of the Lord.
Many
times Jesus comes to us, visits us. He comes to
us with an idea, a word we hear, a person who is
suffering or joyful. Jesus is present. However,
many times we neglect to notice him. We do not
take advantage of his presence and we simply let
the moment pass. We fail to be like the
disciples on the road to Emmaus who invited
Jesus to stay with them and eventually recognize
him in the breaking of the bread.
One of
the people who had heard about Jesus' presence
in Capernaum was a paralytic. Since he was
unable to go on his own, he sought the
assistance of four friends who would carry him.
The crowds were surrounding the house, so the
men were forced to go on the roof and lower the
paralytic through a hole. Such actions were
proof of the faith of the paralytic and his
friends.
Jesus
looked at the man and said, "Child, your sins
are forgiven." This was not a cure, but a
promise of a cure. For the Jews believed that
the sickness of the man was caused by his sins.
In the Jewish mind, there is a very strong
connection between sin and suffering (See Job
4:7). However, the forgiveness of sins was the
prerogative of God alone. For any man to claim
to do that was an insult to God and blasphemy,
punishable by death (See Leviticus 24:10).
The
experts of the law who were present were afraid
to confront Jesus publicly since the Master was
too popular. But Jesus read their thoughts and
questioned their doubts. Since no one could
determine whether a man's sins had been forgiven
or not, Jesus performed a physical cure; he told
the man to get up and walk. In this incident,
Jesus signed his own death warrant. From that
moment, he was in opposition to the Jewish
authorities who would eventually seek his life.
Jesus was on his way to glory.
Like the
paralytic, we must expend all our efforts to
take advantage of the healing presence of the
Lord. Let us seek the Lord with faith and
humility, asking him to cleanse us. |
