REFLECTIONS TODAY
Today’s Gospel narrates the story of Jesus healing a paralytic brought to him by some men on a stretcher. They want to bring the paralyzed man in front of Jesus, but they are not able to do so at first because of the crowd. They eventually find a way by going up to the roof, and from there they lower the paralytic on the stretcher. Jesus sees their faith. The use of the plural pronoun “their” (autōn) tells of a faith that is collective. Faith can move mountains. But a collective faith can do more. On the one hand, in the end, people see the miracle that Jesus performs. On the other hand, Jesus sees the faith in the hearts of those who show their concern to the paralytic, a concern which the scribes and Pharisees fail to show.
Gospel • Lk 5:17-26
One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the one who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2022,” St. Pauls, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.