Jesus cures a paralyzed man.
When I hear today's gospel of the cure of a paralyzed man, whose friends carried him to Jesus (Matthew 9:1-8), I am reminded of a time when I was I was driving an old jeep along a dirt road between villages in Brasil. Suddenly part of the road subsided and the jeep was stuck in a hole with no way out. Then a farmer came along with a pair of bullocks which he roped to the jeep and they soon pulled it out. Like the people of that time, the paralyzed man knew that he was a sinner and thought that because of his sins, he was unworthy to ask God for a cure. Like the jeep, he was stuck in a rut and thought that there was no way out. Jesus knew what he was thinking and said, '' Courage, your sins are forgiven.'' Some scribes who were there said to themselves, ''This man is blaspheming, only God can forgive sins.'' so Jesus said, ''Which is easier to say, '' Your sins are forgiven'' or ''Get up and walk,'' and so he said to the man, ''Get up and walk.'' The man got up and went home. Sometimes, we can feel that we too are in a rut. We have advanced as far as we can to know Jesus and because of our weaknesses cannot produce any more good works.But Jesus says, ''Snap out of it, I can help you to overcome your weaknesses and there is still a lot more that you can do. Be helped by the faith of your friends in the community.'' All we can say is ''Thank you, Lord, for pulling me out of the hole and giving me the courage to keep on walking in your footsteps''.
Don Hornsey
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