13th Week in Ordinary Time (B) : Thursday 4th July 2024

“A feeling of awe came over the crowd when they saw this, and they praised God for giving such power to men.” (Mt.9:8) They saw Jesus healing a paralytic and forgiving his sin.

The crowd was right on two things but wrong on one: Being awed by the healing and giving praise to God for what they acknowledged to be divine power but they were wrong on their assumption that the power was given to a mere human being. Jesus was more than just a homegrown sensation; the son of the carpenter-turned-healer. He was the Son of God who indeed has the power to forgive sins. The scribes accused Him of blaspheming. It seemed that had Jesus said in the first place, “Get up, and pick up your bed and go off home,” to the paralytic, the scribes would not have been scandalised although the result was the same: the healing of one of God’s children imprisoned by an unforgiven ailment. The man was healed but the scribes remained paralysed by their punishing ethos.

Jesus pointed out that a deep seated ailment hides an unforgiven factor and the Son of God comes to free people from such predicament. The people must learn that forgiveness of sins is a divine act which God wants to share with  us so that we learn to be forgiving. That is the meaning of being CHRIST-ian.

Dear Lord, may our experience of Your divine forgiveness make us act justly.