Today’s Gospel is the only occasion in the whole of Scripture when Jesus is recorded as accepting the challenge of his ‘watchers’ and actually dumbfounds them with a ‘proof’ of the power of His word – it must have left them speechless.
The phrase ‘Your sins are forgiven’ is so easy to ‘say’. Indeed anyone could say it really, because there’s no way anyone can prove whether you’re ‘spoofing’ or not! It could be the sort of con-job that anyone could try to pull off because you don’t need smoke or mirrors or anything. All you’d need is a gullible audience who wouldn’t question. But the crowd in the Gospel did question that day – wouldn’t you if you were there? I know I would have!
But I have to admit I’d be left open-mouthed too, as so many of them were in the house on that occasion when Jesus ‘proved’ the power of his words to ‘forgive sins’ by showing the power of his words over the physical ailment of a life-long paralytic. ‘Get up and walk’ he said, as some must have sniggered, who knew the paralysed man’s tortured life history. But those words spoken produced the ‘impossible’ in the sight of His onlookers, proving the power of Jesus to say ‘your sins are forgiven’ to have been equally as ‘real’.
When we say our faith is based on the Word of God, we don’t do so glibly. When I base my life and my love, and root it in His Word, you can be sure that it’s not growing in an ‘airy-fairy’, ‘whatever you think yourself’ type fluffy faith – it’s real – its so very powerfully real.
To know that my sins can be and are forgiven, as well as believe it
to know the experience of forgiveness as well, and to believe it!
to know the presence of a loving God, as well as to believe it, is the true gift of Faith. Faith is when and where the head and the heart beat in tune with each other – and in sync with their God! In life and/or in death, could anyone ask for more.
Have a good week and remember this coming Wednesday begins Lent. Hope it will be a good opportunity for all of us again this year.
A O’N
Living with the harsh realities of life is not peculiar to those of us who live at the beginning of the 21st century! Living our faith in the midst of challenging or difficult times is not a new phenomenon either – even a quick glance at our readings this week will show that faith lived, in whatever circumstances, can make a terrific difference (for the better) in life’s complex and sometimes very unfair weave.
Leprosy may well be eradicated in the part of the world with which we are familiar, but it is still a horrible reality in many other parts. Market forces and international trade traffic and ‘margins’ mean the balance of nutritional and medicinal necessities for millions of people in other parts of this globe are not available! It’s not that they’re ‘not available’, it’s that they must be held in abeyance – (so to speak) to keep the monetary balance right!! – 21st century logic how are ye!
And even here in the West in what we would like to think is the ‘sophisticated’ sector of world space, – the ‘leprosy–like’ scourge of drug addiction, and the horror of a disease like Aids and many others, that are devastating millions, is a stark reminder that we never escape fully the frailty of the flesh – we just change its expression! Mark records Jesus in the Gospel today assuring the sufferer ‘I do choose’, just before he actually ‘touched’ the leper – a thing you never did in those days.
But then Jesus broke many of the taboos that social convention had vacuum packed in the name of strict practice or political correctness. What a marvellous image that the caring outstretched hand of the God in whom we believe, ‘chooses to’ touch us, whoever we are, wherever we happen to be. Whether that be in the most pitiful of plights or in the cushiest of circumstances – ‘Be cured’ is the promise and the power of those words we hear again today.
As I read elsewhere, to-day’s leprosy for us can be our own sinfulness, and that’s exactly the uncomfortable, distressing part of our lives that can be touched by God who knows how to heal, how to forgive and how to make a difference! Would but that might be the case for all of us who’ve gathered here to pray this week-end. We can continue to pretend we don’t need it, but if we do, we’re doing no more that kiddin’ ourselves!
A O’N
