A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark Mark 2: 1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum, word went round that he was back; and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the word to them when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men, but the crowd made it impossible to get the man to him, they stripped the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves, “How can this man talk like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God?”

Jesus, inwardly aware that this is what they were thinking, said to them, “Why do you have these thoughts in your heart? Which is easer: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, ‘up, pick up your stretcher and walk?” But to prove to you that the Son of Man had the authority on earth to forgive sins,” – He said to the paralytic – “I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.” And the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astounded and praised God saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

THE JOY OF BEING FORGIVEN

An underlying joy can be detected in today’s first reading from Isaiah as well as from the pen of St. Mark, and the reason for that joy is forgiveness. Isaiah assures the exiled Hebrews that God has forgiven them. Their sins are no more. Nothing remains of their former misdeeds. So, they should surrender their guilt and their bandaged memories in order to welcome that newness that God has created in them. We find a similar palpable joy when we listen to the story of the paralytic. He is not only cured of his physical maladies by Jesus, he is also forgiven. His joy and that of his friends is matched by the astonishment of that of the crowds, who are moved ‘to glorify God’.

Probably all of us have known the happiness of being reconciled with a friend after some hurt has come between us. True forgiveness – that is forgiveness without grudges, without ever bringing up the incident again is a healing experience that breathes new life into a relationship – it reflects the quality of the forgiveness of God.

Too often however, the forgiveness we experience sacramentally does not bring that excitement and contentment. It may have become too routine to produce enthusiasm. Take the paralytic in our Gospel for instance. In his brokenness, he was assured of God’s healing and forgiveness. Brokenness also led the paralytic and his friends to seek out Jesus. In a search of a whole and healed body, the paralytic was also to experience the comfortable feeling of forgiveness. Like the Israelites, we often find ourselves in exiles of our own making. We withdraw from people just when we need them most. In our sin, we hold God and others at arms length, but even in this self-imposed isolation, God’s grace can still penetrate. Through the power of the grace of God, there is an opportunity for forgiveness and for a new beginning. Perhaps the most wonderful gift of all is the promise of God ‘Your sins, I remember no more’.

As with the paralytic, we may sometimes be powerless to help ourselves. We may be too broken to realise our need for healing. It is then that God sends us the gift of good friends where help leads us to health and wholeness. We admire how, in the Gospel, the paralytic has friends, knowing that he could not come into Jesus’ presence on his own.

Helen Keller, blind, deaf and dumb once articulated; ‘My friends have made the story of my life and in a thousand ways have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges, enabling me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by me desperation’. In the song ‘Bridge over Troubled Waters’ Simon & Garfunkel give this wise counsel, ‘When you are weary and feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all. Iam at your side. When times get rough and friends just can’t be found, like a bridge over troubled waters, I will lay me down’. Jesus was such a bridge for sinful humanity and before he lay himself down, he made sure his friends knew that he did so out of love for them and for us.

Today’s liturgy challenges the quality of that friendship we offer to others. Like those who carried their crippled friend to Jesus and lowered him into his presence, we are also called to carry the burdens of others and to bring them, by word and example, into the presence of Jesus.

An underlying joy can be detected in today’s first reading from Isaiah as well as from the pen of St. Mark, and the reason for that joy is forgiveness. Isaiah assures the exiled Hebrews that God has forgiven them. Their sins are no more. Nothing remains of their former misdeeds. So, they should surrender their guilt and their bandaged memories in order to welcome that newness that God has created in them. We find a similar palpable joy when we listen to the story of the paralytic. He is not only cured of his physical maladies by Jesus, he is also forgiven. His joy and that of his friends is matched by the astonishment of that of the crowds, who are moved ‘to glorify God’.

Probably all of us have known the happiness of being reconciled with a friend after some hurt has come between us. True forgiveness – that is forgiveness without grudges, without ever bringing up the incident again is a healing experience that breathes new life into a relationship – it reflects the quality of the forgiveness of God.

Too often however, the forgiveness we experience sacramentally does not bring that excitement and contentment. It may have become too routine to produce enthusiasm. Take the paralytic in our Gospel for instance. In his brokenness, he was assured of God’s healing and forgiveness. Brokenness also led the paralytic and his friends to seek out Jesus. In a search of a whole and healed body, the paralytic was also to experience the comfortable feeling of forgiveness. Like the Israelites, we often find ourselves in exiles of our own making. We withdraw from people just when we need them most. In our sin, we hold God and others at arms length, but even in this self-imposed isolation, God’s grace can still penetrate. Through the power of the grace of God, there is an opportunity for forgiveness and for a new beginning. Perhaps the most wonderful gift of all is the promise of God ‘Your sins, I remember no more’.

As with the paralytic, we may sometimes be powerless to help ourselves. We may be too broken to realise our need for healing. It is then that God sends us the gift of good friends where help leads us to health and wholeness. We admire how, in the Gospel, the paralytic has friends, knowing that he could not come into Jesus’ presence on his own.

Helen Kellerz blind, deaf and dumb once articulated; ‘My friends have made the story of my life and in a thousand ways have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges, enabling me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by me desperation’. In the song ‘Bridge over Troubled Waters’ Simon & Garfunkel give this wise counsel, ‘When you are weary and feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all. Iam at your side. When times get rough and friends just can’t be found, like a bridge over troubled waters, I will lay me down’. Jesus was such a bridge for sinful humanity and before he lay himself down, he made sure his friends knew that he did so out of love for them and for us.

Today’s liturgy challenges the quality of that friendship we offer to others. Like those who carried their crippled friend to Jesus and lowered him into his presence, we are also called to carry the burdens of others and to bring them, by word and example, into the presence of Jesus.

Fr. Kevin Lyon
Archdeacon of Glendalough