GOSPEL, Matthew (9: 1-8)

Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew

9 ¹ And after getting into a boat he crossed the sea and came to his own town.

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

² And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” ³ Then some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” ⁴ But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’? ⁶ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.” ⁷ And he stood up and went to his home. ⁸ When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

The Gospel of the Lord

 

REFLECTION

 Jesus Christ showed throughout his earthly life the power over the very laws of nature. In this incident, he also shows the power of forgiving sin. In Capernaum, before all the scribes, a paralytic supplicant and his family by a show of Faith receive from Jesus a heart-warming comment “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus Christ, by forgiving the sins of the paralytic, is also curing him of his illness, because according to the Jewish mind-set, this was a consequence of personal sin or his parents’ sin. In doing so, the Lord was denoting that pardoning the sins was more important than the actual healing. “Healing the soul is more important than healing the body”. Forgiving sin is a divine action: Jesus thus reaches the crowning manifestation of His power.

He came to us to take away the sin of the world; “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ” (John 1:29). He did not come for anything else. Everything He did and the life He lived was because of it. He ended His Mission painfully on the cross, saying to the Father: “It is finished!” Jesus left His Church to continue His mission to take away the sin of the world and she does this through the Sacraments He left us, particularly through Baptism and Confession.

Jesus continues to reconcile us to himself through Christ and through the Church, as St. Paul affirms (2 Corinthians 2:17). Effectively, the risen Jesus transmitted to the apostles and to the ecclesial community, the power of forgiveness: “²² When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23).

  

PRAYER

Lord, help those who are paralysed and chained to pettiness, fear, despair and lack of love.

Reconcile us, Lord, so that we may sit down again at your table at the feast. Amen.