Wash me clean, Lord.As we stand at the threshold of another Lent, the gospel reading for this Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time --- the last Sunday of Ordinary Time until Monday, June 1st --- provides us with the opportunity to prepare our hearts for the Lenten season. The story of the paralyzed man being lowered through an opening in a roof into the presence of Jesus is like an acorn --- there is much potential within the exterior.
One might ask “What is the major event of the Marcan story?” Many will answer it is the curing of a physical disability. Some might provide another, more significant answer. Jesus gives us the answer in the first recorded words he offers the paralytic: “Child, your sins are forgiven.” The major action in this story is Jesus’ focused attention on the man’s spiritual condition, not the physical disability.
If you were lying on the stretcher in front of this recognized healer, are those words what you would want to hear? Most likely not. You would have wanted to hear something like, “Okay. Your persistence has been noted. Get up and walk from this place.” Why would Jesus say “your sins are forgiven?”
Jesus had determined that there was the weight of a heavy spiritual burden that needed to be taken out of this man’s life before physical healing could take place. After Jesus had healed the spiritual illness, the burden of the man’s sinfulness, he could bring about the desire healing of the man’s body.
God gives us a promise every day: “I am with you always.” We are presented the same promise given to the paralytic. It is a promise that are sins are forgiven. We do not have to allow the heavy burden of our sins continue to weigh heavily upon us. No matter what failures you might keep on your mental list or what mistakes you have a hard time forgetting or letting go, Jesus is ever-ready to help you lift the burden, the psychological burden from your mind and heart. He carried the cross once for all of us sinners. We do not have to continue the same task in our lives. What we do have to realize is that we have to understand what forgiveness truly is.
Fortunately most of us are not restricted in movement like the paralytic. But because we have sinned, we need the “God-given freedom from paralysis of spirit” brought upon us by our sinfulness. It is the gift of the season of Lent that enables us to consider our lives and the sinfulness that has or continues to weight upon us. It is our opportunity to share in the reality of a miracle in our lives: it is the miracle of spiritual healing.
So many times I have been told by a penitent finishing his/her confession: “Thank you so much, Father. You have made me feel so much better. You have lifted a cross from my back.” Usually, if my wits are with me, I reply “Oh no. Not I. The man who hangs upon every crucifix, Jesus of Nazareth: he is the one who has helped you shed the burden.”
Plan ahead. Decide before Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, not what you want to give up or do for Lent but rather how you want to give of yourself during the forty days of Lent to better understand how much Jesus truly loves you and only asks one thing from you: to seek forgiveness of your sins. Let him through the season of Lent bring that forgiveness to you.
If you were lying on the stretcher in front of this recognized healer, are those words what you would want to hear? Most likely not. You would have wanted to hear something like, “Okay. Your persistence has been noted. Get up and walk from this place.” Why would Jesus say “your sins are forgiven?”
Jesus had determined that there was the weight of a heavy spiritual burden that needed to be taken out of this man’s life before physical healing could take place. After Jesus had healed the spiritual illness, the burden of the man’s sinfulness, he could bring about the desire healing of the man’s body.
God gives us a promise every day: “I am with you always.” We are presented the same promise given to the paralytic. It is a promise that are sins are forgiven. We do not have to allow the heavy burden of our sins continue to weigh heavily upon us. No matter what failures you might keep on your mental list or what mistakes you have a hard time forgetting or letting go, Jesus is ever-ready to help you lift the burden, the psychological burden from your mind and heart. He carried the cross once for all of us sinners. We do not have to continue the same task in our lives. What we do have to realize is that we have to understand what forgiveness truly is.
Fortunately most of us are not restricted in movement like the paralytic. But because we have sinned, we need the “God-given freedom from paralysis of spirit” brought upon us by our sinfulness. It is the gift of the season of Lent that enables us to consider our lives and the sinfulness that has or continues to weight upon us. It is our opportunity to share in the reality of a miracle in our lives: it is the miracle of spiritual healing.
So many times I have been told by a penitent finishing his/her confession: “Thank you so much, Father. You have made me feel so much better. You have lifted a cross from my back.” Usually, if my wits are with me, I reply “Oh no. Not I. The man who hangs upon every crucifix, Jesus of Nazareth: he is the one who has helped you shed the burden.”
Plan ahead. Decide before Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, not what you want to give up or do for Lent but rather how you want to give of yourself during the forty days of Lent to better understand how much Jesus truly loves you and only asks one thing from you: to seek forgiveness of your sins. Let him through the season of Lent bring that forgiveness to you.
