7TH SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
“Which
of these is easier . . . 'your sins are forgiven'
Or
'Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk? ' "
This is the third Sunday
whereby we meditate on suffering. But today's gospel brings us to a higher
plane. It tries to lead us into the understanding of the person of Christ, that
he is not a mere wonder healer who cures Peter's mother-in-law so instantly and
cleanses the leper by his tender touch, but a God who reads the inner thoughts
of mortals and forgives the sins of men. This is the nobler truth which shall
be the center of our meditation.
Before the curing of this
paralytic in today's gospel, we already saw Jesus healing many sick people in
different occasions. But it is only in this particular event that Jesus seems
to break his usual way of dealing with them. Immediately, he loudly utters the
words he may have just silently said before: "My child, your sins are
forgiven. " This makes the people around them
wonder. Like them, we also ask ourselves: "why?" But perhaps unlike
them, we will try to pick up the pieces of our answers from how this almost
2000-year-old event is narrated to us. From this narrated story, we find three
kinds of people who somehow symbolize or stand or represent some different attitudes in their encounter
with the Lord: the people who bring the paralytic in; the scribes and Pharisees;
the paralytic himself.
1. The faith of the people who bring the paralytic in is good
enough for a start. We are not certain whether all of them have the same level
of faith, or are we being told of how deep that faith is. What we are sure about
is that kind of faith which makes them persistent and does everything they can
to bring the paralytic in. This must be the kind of faith Jesus himself sees in
them. And this is what Jesus capitalizes. He knows that a persistent faith does
not stop. When given a chance, it surely searches for something more. Thus, he
welcomes them, and personally the paralytic, with words that surprise them: "Your
sins are forgiven.”
The intention of those
people is plain and simple: to have the paralytic healed. They are among the
hundreds of simple people who learn about the miracles Jesus performs. Some of
them may have already considered Jesus as a prophet. Others perhaps take him a
mere wonder healer or a plain albulario.
But surely, no one ever thinks he is that divine as a God. The words of Jesus,
therefore, must be a break through. They are an eye opener. And Jesus says them
just loud and clear, after "seeing their faith;
" meaning, Jesus hopes that with his words, their persistent
faith may lead them rightly and directly that the person before them must not
be an ordinary man. After all, no one can forgive sins but God alone.
2. But as there are people
who persistently search for truth with all their honest intentions, there are
also those whose business is no more than putting others down with their
malicious intent. This is the case of the scribes who are present in today's
narrative. They are there not so much as to listen to the preaching of Jesus or
to witness his miracles, as they are to catch something to accuse him of. This is
the sadder part of the story. But we have good reasons to believe that Jesus utters
those words of forgiveness not inspite of their presence but because of their
presence. Jesus knows what they are there for, and he is just right to read the
malice in their hearts. Thus, he puts this question black and white: "Which
of these is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven' or to
say, 'Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk?’”
According to mere human
standards the former is much easier than the latter. The former needs no proof,
or better, its proof cannot be solicited nor be demanded. Whether or not the
sins are forgiven, no one can question. The latter is another case. The proof
can be very well seen, in case the sick is cured or not. This is why Jesus
continues: “But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,
“- he said to the paralytic - "I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher,
and go off home." By doing what is more difficult before man's
eyes, the people may understand that there is no reason why he cannot do what
is much easier.
But actually, the reverse
is true. The latter is much easier than the former for the very simple reason
that only God can ever forgive sins. This the scribes immediately see. But
sadly, they see it with the eyes of malice and dub it at once as blasphemous.
This becomes Jesus' chance to check their crooked thoughts. So, he demonstrates
to them his authority by curing the paralytic with a mere command: "/ order
you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home."
Here, the curing becomes a
proof of his divine authority, which should have not been the case. The
miracles of Jesus are meant to be signs that would point to a higher reality
which is his divinity. And by the many miracles he already performs, he has
practically given them enough signs. This is why he breaks his usual ritual and
says at once to the paralytic: "My child, your sins are forgiven.”
The scribes must have been among the fortunate ones to hear it. But they insist
in their own way and resist to the truth. With that, they completely lose their
opportunity to know who Jesus really is.
3. If the miracles are a sign of Jesus' divinity, sickness is
also a sign of sin. While it is true that physical ailment is not a necessary
consequence of sin, it is also true that sickness and death enter the world
because of sin (cf Rom 2:9). So, the words of Jesus
are meant not only to guide the persistent faith of the people or check the
malice of the scribes, but also to remind the paralytic himself - and us for
that matter – that what cripple us more are our own moral shortcomings and
failures. Sin is indeed a spiritual paralysis that puts us down. Thus, Jesus
comes to cure both body and soul. In fact, this is the higher purpose of his
mission.
"Get up!"
"Walk!" "Go off home!"
These are the words of cure to the paralytic. But these same words must indeed
be words of consolation and hope to every fallen sinner. "Getting
up" is what counts more before God. He is not so much concerned with
how many times we fall, but with the effort we exert to get up every
time we fall. "Walking" along
the path of the Lord is taking steps in the road to freedom from sin,
ailment, and death. And "going off home” means living a life of
grace where one simply feels at home with self, with neighbor, with the
world and with God.