From the responsorial psalm: “What we have heard and know, and what our fathers have declared to us, we will declare to the generation to come, The glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength. Do not forget the works of the Lord!”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 1:40-45)
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”—he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone.
Mark tells us that so many people came to see Jesus when he returned to Capernaum, that there was not enough room for them as they crowded around the home where he was staying. As he taught them, friends of a paralyzed man brought him to Jesus but were unable to get to Jesus because of the crowd. They resorted to climbing the roof, breaking through it, and lowering the man down on a mat. “When Jesus saw their faith,” Mark tells us, “he said to him, ‘Child, your sins are forgiven.’” Jesus knew what the scribes were thinking and responded to them, making clear that as the Son of God, he is able to heal the sick and forgive sins. The miracle takes place before astounded witnesses who glorify God and say, “We have never seen anything like this.”
God, you know me better than I know myself. You know that I am sometimes subject to paralyzing fear and anxiety in discerning the next best step in daily life. Help me call to mind—to bring into the present moment—that the place to let my hope rest is in you: “That they too may rise and declare to their sons that they should put their hope in God. . . . Do not forget the works of the Lord!” The people who witness the paralyzed man rise and walk have never seen anything like it. To see is to know, to witness is to trust in what is seen. Give me the grace to see without the benefit of sight, trusting that Jesus sees my faith. At the end of the day, I want to say of the works he performs in my life: “I have never seen anything like this.” Saint Anthony, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.