14 January 2022

Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Mysteriously, our faith opens the way to God’s action within the world. Today the Gospel offers us the scene of four men who bring a paralytic to Jesus, and in their audacity, they open up the roof above Jesus in response to the problem posed by the crowds blocking their access to the Lord. Mark describes Jesus reaction: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, ‘Child, your sins are forgiven.’” The faith of these men opens up a space for Jesus to work—to grant forgiveness of sins and then to perform a sign of healing. The attitude of these men contrasts with that of the scribes who have been listening to Jesus, whose attitude of skepticism and doubt shows itself when they accuse the Lord of blasphemy for forgiving the paralytic’s sins.

Today, we meditate on these two attitudes of faith and of skepticism as well as on the Lord’s response to them. Let us pray that the Lord Jesus might give us the attitude of faith—which is of course his gift—so that his grace might flow more abundantly into our lives and the lives of those around us.