Ordinary of
the Mass
Mass Text - Latin
Mass Text - English
“Take courage … thy sins are forgiven
thee.”
It may have seemed strange to the onlookers when the paralytic was brought to
Jesus, that our Lord's first words to him were to forgive his sins.
Surely, his hope was for a cure from his paralysis. Our Lord's intention
was twofold. First of all, He was gently asserting His divinity before the
Scribes, the doctors of the Jewish Law, who were quite correct in saying
that only God can forgive sins—and quit incorrect in accusing the Son
of God of blasphemy in granting the forgiveness that comes from His divine
nature. Essentially, He was telling them: “I do what I do because it is
My right as God, the Son of God.”
Our Lord was also making clear the relationship between sin, suffering, and
death that is common to all mankind, as a result of the sin of Adam: “by
one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon
all men, in whom all have sinned.”
God created man and woman “in His image and likeness”—like the angels,
they were spiritual beings, endowed with intellect and free will—but unlike
the angels, the spiritual soul of man subsisted within a material body, like the
animals of the Earth. And, like the animals of the Earth, the material
bodies of Adam and Eve would have been subject to disintegration and
death—except that God endowed them with a number of what we call
“preternatural gifts” including freedom from ignorance, and toil, and even
freedom from sickness and death.
But Adam and Eve lost these special gifts by disobeying God's will. They
also lost the supernatural gifts of God's friendship that would allow them to
share in His eternal happiness. To distinguish, the preternatural
gifts allowed man to perfect his natural qualities, while the supernatural
gifts allowed man to rise above his own nature to a close union with God's
divine nature. All of these gifts were lost to us by original sin.
Now we know that God promised and did send a Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who offered Himself on the Cross, to restore mankind to friendship with God, and
to allow individual men and women to regain close union with God. But what
He restored were the all important supernatural gifts, but not the lesser
preternatural gifts that merely served to make earthly life more
pleasant—for eternal life is far more important. Mankind must still earn
its bread with the sweat of the brow, and still brings forth its children in
sorrow.
Even Redeemed mankind is still subject to suffering and death. It seems
that only our Blessed Lady escaped these losses due to original sin—not being
subject to it because of her Immaculate Conception. Most theologians
presume that giving birth to the baby Jesus was painless for her, and, of
course, all Catholics believe that her incorrupt body was taken up with her soul
into Heaven at the time of her Assumption.
So, after telling the paralytic man that his sins were forgiven, Our Lord
further directed him to “arise, take up thy pallet, and return to thy
house.” At least in this instance, the forgiveness of sins was
accompanied by a restoration of the preternatural gift of bodily integrity.
But the connection between holiness and health is generally more elusive than
that. Indeed, in the Psalms we read each Thursday morning the lament of
the psalmist:
I was envious of the arrogant when I saw them prosper though they were
wicked. For they are in no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek;
they are free from the burdens of mortals and not afflicted like the rest of
men.... Though I tried to understand this it seemed too difficult,
till I entered the sanctuary of God and considered their final
destiny.
The arrogant prosper and may escape the sufferings of normal men. Often,
they live a life calculated to make that escape possible. Someone
else is required to do their dangerous or dirty work. Someone else takes
their place in the heat and the sun, and in the cold and the wind. They
demand the best foods, have leisure time for enjoyable exercise, and for
consultation with those who practice the healing arts. Often the burdens
of the arrogant are off-loaded to the shoulders of the humble and the good.
But notice that the psalmist understands this contradiction when he considers
the “final destiny” of the arrogant. He finds justice in this
only when he has considered “the big picture,” when he recognizes that the
pleasures of life are fleeting, and the truly fortunate are those who find their
pleasures in eternity.
[In their final destiny, the arrogant are set,] indeed
on a slippery road; You hurl them down to ruin. How suddenly
they are made desolate! They are completely wasted away amid horrors.
As though they were the dream of one who had awakened, O Lord, so will you,
when you arise, set at naught those phantoms.
So, indeed, the holy may endure sickness and misfortune, while the arrogant do
not. But as iron is purified in a crucible, the indifferent man may be
driven by suffering to holiness, and as silver is refined from the earth by
fire, it may drive the holy man to greater holiness still. As the psalmist
puts it:.
With You [God] I shall always be, You have hold of my right hand; with
your counsel You will guide me, and in the end You will receive me in
glory.... Though my flesh and my heart waste away, God is the Rock of
my heart and my portion forever.... they who withdraw from you
perish.... But for me, to be near God is my good; to make the Lord God my
refuge....
Perhaps the most important thing we can recognize in today's Gospel is the
reality that our Lord can forgive sins—that in His name, His priests can do
the same—and that the “healing” of a soul is infinitely more miraculous.
Bringing back to life the soul that is metaphorically dead is
a far greater miracle than even the resurrection of the dead. The great
miracle of this Gospel is not that the man got up and walked home, but
rather that he walked home free from sin.
Take
courage … thy sins can be forgiven thee.
