Homily for the Week of February 19, 2012

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 2012
First Reading: Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 41:2-3, 4-5, 13-14
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Gospel: Mark 2:1-12

Today’s Gospel must be read within two different references. The first is in the reference of what we have been reading from Mark over the past three weekends. The first chapter of Mark began to discuss the authority of Christ versus the authority of the Scribes and Pharisees. From where did Jesus get His authority? Today we read that Jesus’ authority is a divine authority, although this idea will be seriously opposed.

The second reference is what have just heard in today’s Gospel. It is in reference to Lent which begins this Wednesday. Lent will interrupt our sequential reading of the Gospel of Mark, which we will return to after Easter, but entering Lent with the question of Jesus’ authority on our minds can help us use Lent well.

In our Gospel today four men bring a paralyzed person who could not walk to Jesus. They take great measures to get past the crowd in order to bring their friend to Jesus’ attention. There is no comment made about the faith of the paralyzed man; instead, Jesus acknowledges the faith of the man’s friends. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

When He said this, Jesus was immediately accused of blaspheming. Blasphemy means saying bad things about sacred ore religious objects or actions. Why? The cause of sickness and disabilities was seen to be rooted in sin. In the people’s minds, either the paralyzed person himself or someone in his family had sinned, causing the paralysis. Jesus didn’t want to merely cure the man’s disability; His intent was to heal the man by restoring him to full standing within the community.

To the people, this was blasphemy because only God can forgive sin. No human had this kind of authority.
Synopsis
There is an old saying about forgiveness that says, Forgive and forget. Unfortunately, we, as humans, can forgive but we’re not able to forget. It’s impossible for us to forget the pain we’ve experienced through someone’s thoughtlessness or anger. But, I believe that it is more difficult for us to forget the bad things we have done, and should not have done, than it is for us to forget what has been done to us by someone else. And why is it that way? Because we have to live with our conscience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our conscience tells us that what we did was good or bad. Our conscience is always there like a thermometer indicating our guilt and shame. These don’t go away unless we forgive ourselves and ask God to forgive us also.


With God, there is no skeleton in the closet. God’s forgiveness is total and without reserve. In fact, in today’s 1st reading, God tells His people that He will not remember our sins. It’s not that God can’t remember the bad things we have done. It’s that He chooses not to. That is a miracle: that there can be, and is, a forgiveness so complete that not even the memory of the offense remains. Jesus brings us complete forgiveness. The best we can do is “forgive and accept” our situations. Only God can forgive and forget.

At times we too can doubt that our sins can be forgiven by anyone except God. When we confess our sins to a priest he does what Jesus did to this crippled man. We are forgiven right there. The priest represents Jesus who listens to our confession. Through the priest Jesus removes our guilt and takes away our sins.


So often, we take this sacrament of God’s forgiveness for granted. If we were fully aware of the depth of the Sacrament of Confession, we might ask ourselves exactly what have we done to deserve this forgiveness. In actuality, there is absolutely nothing that we can do to “make up” for our sins. God’s forgiveness is free—absolutely and completely free.


Jesus offers us this free gift of forgiveness out of love for us, and our concern that we not live in guilt any longer. How fortunate we are to be able to just turn every one of our sins over to God and be free of our fears and worries. How fortunate indeed. It is true that we can talk directly to God and ask for forgiveness. But the healing takes place when we make an effort to speak to someone in confidence as to what we have done.

Confession or telling our sins is only one part of forgiveness. The other part is reconciliation. As a result, many Catholics experience profound peace, acceptance, forgiveness and freedom from the burden of what they have done. For many it is like letting go of the baggage that they have been carrying around for a long time. All of us at times carry a great deal of “baggage” that we would like to unload.

Confession heals in different ways. It helps us to start a new life, to overcome with guilt, to begin a new religious way of living. at times to patch up a broken relationship. I,as a priest become the healer, not to condemn but to help a person begin a new way of living.


All of us have a little part of us called “putting things off.” And this includes our spiritual obligations. Let us fully appreciate all that Jesus has done for us out of love. Sometime during the 40 days of Lent this year make a good confession. Do it. You’ll never regret it. Then you will know the words of Jesus: RISE, PICK UP YOUR MAT, AND GO HOME.