Mark 6:1-6 Forgive Me, Lord

For today's readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/020316.cfm

We have heard variations of this Gospel reading a couple of times in January.  Hearing it so much we are mindful of those times that he inflate ourselves and think ourselves all-powerful, losing sight of the fact that we should be humbled before the presence of our all-might ever-living God the Most High. 

The early Christian church was plagued with heresies in which Jesus was considered totally God, or completely man.  Even the Jewish people, many of them in Jesus' time took him merely as a prophet.  Yet it was revealed to a few, and then to billions of people throughout the last two millennia that this was truly God made manifest.  We are called to reflect on our sins and bow down before him in true contrition to ask forgiveness before he turns his back on us as he did those who rejected him at Nazareth.  The Lord offers us the opportunity to repent just as he did his servant David.  We are given the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which we can be given absolution for our sins and given new life with purity of soul and a clean heart.  Let us embrace this Sacrament while we can. We are the Lord's beloved and he wants nothing more than to be in full communion with us.

"Lord, forgive the wrong that I have done." (Today's responsorial psalm.)

Luke 4:14-22a Scripture Fulfilled

Have you ever gone away from family for awhile and returned home to meet everyone again for a reunion?  Suddenly despite how our experiences may have changed us, we are put right back into our  familial stereo types and expectations.  Have you considered if you were there within the temple seeing the son of the carpenter, one of your old playmates, or a cousin suddenly take up a scroll of Isiah, read it, and ending by stating that he was the fulfillment of the messianic passage.  How would you react?  You'd been taught to wait for the Messiah, and here is a person you know saying he is the Messiah.  Luke tells us, "All spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth." 

The first letter of St. John reminds us that all who love God also love one begotten by him, namely his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  In doing so we love Christ and each other as Christ taught us.  If we do not love each other, then don't we lie when we say we love God?  It is sometimes hard to love each other.  Hurt, deception, and killing can stop us and make it difficult to love each other.  A man mentioned yesterday that it is difficult to love because he can't forgive.  In the course of the liturgy he realized that he and we are being called to forgive.  Sometimes that first step to forgiving is praying for those who have hurt us, he realized.  Let us endeavor to take those small first steps that will unite us in love with Our Father in Christ.

Luke 5:17-26

In a Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) class years ago we were told about an unfortunate incident where a woman was raped on the street in front of her house.  Most of her neighbors were home and they did not help or call the police.  Afterwards they sent her cards of apology for their inaction stating that they didn’t believe that they could help in any way and they felt helpless.  The point of our instructor telling us the story was to have us understand that we truly needed to believe that we could help, otherwise we needed to walk away and call for help from someone else: To help someone we needed to have faith because in administering CPR once it is begun you aren’t supposed to stop unless someone, like an emergency medical technician, is there to take over for you.

In direct contrast in today’s Gospel reading we hear about the friends who came to the aid of their paralytic friend and even when they couldn’t get their friend into the house where Jesus was preaching and healing, they found another way and they gently lowered him.  They had faith.  They believed that Jesus could heal.  They believed that they could help make this a reality for their friend.  We know that Jesus healed him because he was able to pick-up his stretcher and leave, but Jesus also forgave him his sins.

Jesus never had to say that he was God.  He showed it through his actions and words.  The scribes and Pharisees are the ones who tell us, “Who but God alone can forgive sins?”  Jesus responds to them and asks, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Rise and walk’?”  There is a phrase ‘Putting a band-aide on a problem.’  For this man to have only been physically healed would have been this sort of superficial solution.  God heals hearts when he forgives.  At healing masses there is sometimes a concern that those receiving the Sacrament of Anointing may faint because of the Spirit that moves through the profound belief of the recipients.  May we all give glory and praise to God in his mercy to “forgive us our sins…and deliver us from all evil.”  Amen.