Holyrood Church 715 West 179 Street, Upper West side Manhattan, USA, 212-923-3770

Let's make a hole in the ceiling

 

 

Good morning, happy Friday, and many blessings.

 

Today’s gospel (Mark 2:1-12) lesson is all about what we see, and what we don’t see. As a matter of fact, the whole church season of Epiphany leads us through the gospel accounts of Jesus’ earthly ministry and helps us look through the darkness to see if what we’re learning about this Jesus sheds any light on our own human experience. Let’s take a look and try to figure out what it is we are seeing here in Mark’s gospel.

 

This dramatic scene expands on the themes noted in yesterday’s encounter with the leper. Here the huge crowd which has gathered to hear Jesus speak reminds the reader of Jesus’ universal ministry. Next, a new dimension of that ministry is revealed, for without being asked to do so, Jesus forgives the sins of the paralytic. The scribes see the implications of this--that fellow from Nazareth is usurping a power reserved to God alone. While all the people are amazed and delighted that he also heals the man, the religious authorities see that he is a threat to themselves. As we see later in the Passion, they eventually bring Jesus down, do away with him and return to the status quo in which they alone are in charge.

 

What might have been a simple healing turns into a tense theological confrontation. It is Jesus who instigates this by forgiving the paralytic’s sins (which he wasn’t asked to do). The scribes who are present consider this to be blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus then uses his power to heal the body as a sign that he has authority to heal the soul also. Mark is already signaling the charge on which the Jewish authorities will later seek the death penalty for Jesus – blasphemy.

 

One of the most life-giving things Jesus is doing in Gospel texts like today’s is forgiving our sins. In doing this he is encouraging us not just to forgive others but first of all to forgive ourselves. If we do, so we learn to live at peace with the reality that we are limited human beings and make mistakes or are sometimes neglectful in the way we relate.

 

This Gospel invite us to bring to Jesus some failure from the past that we find it hard to forgive ourselves for. In the light of today’s scripture reading listen to Jesus’ desire to forgive you and also his desire that you would forgive yourself. If you find this capacity of Jesus to forgive attractive tell him so.

 

I too sometimes feel paralyzed by fears or by lack of energy. And I come before Jesus, not disguising my helplessness. I allow the strength of Jesus to take over. And I present myself before Jesus, without disguising my impotence. But I allow the strength of Jesus to take over and between the two of us we make a hole in the ceiling so that I can enter.

 

And remember, the paralytic is dependent on his friends to bring him to Jesus. It is their faith that Jesus acknowledges and responds to. The paralytic himself never utters a word throughout. In our evangelism discipleship, can we bring someone to church (in person, zoom or facebook) to come and see?

 

Blessings,

 

Fr. Luis+

Date news: 
Friday, January 15, 2021 - 17:15

Ministry at the time of Coronavirus (Covid 19): Prevent, cure and accompany

Now we have to shape what some have started calling; The Church at Home. Although I keep asking myself; What do those who do not have a home do? For this reason, at the same time, I am declaring today in our Holyrood Church a Lenten day of prayer, fasting and reading the Bible in the Time of the Coronavirus.

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