Child, your sins are forgiven

FRIDAY 17 JANUARY (Mk 2,1-12)

Jesus is greater than Abraham. This prays that sin is forgiven: “He said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she has a husband.” Abimelech, who had not approached her, said: “O Lord, would you slay a man even though he is innocent? He himself told me, ‘She is my sister,’ and she herself also stated, ‘He is my brother.’ I did it in good faith and with clean hands.” God answered him in the dream: “Yes, I know you did it in good faith. In fact, it was I who kept you from sinning against me; that is why I did not let you touch her. Therefore, return the man’s wife – as a spokesman he will intercede for you – that your life may be saved. If you do not return her, you can be sure that you and all who are yours will certainly die.” Abraham then interceded with God, and God restored health to Abimelech, that is, to his wife and his maidservants, so that they could bear children; for God had tightly closed every womb in Abimelech’s household on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah” (Cf. Gen 20,1-18). Jesus prays from the cross as the Crucified asking forgiveness for those who had condemned him and put him on the Cross.

Jesus is greater than Moses. This prays for forgiveness. Jesus atones for the sin of the world, removing it for redemption: “But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, “Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth’? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'” So the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people (Ex 32,11-14). Moses takes the side of the people. Jesus carries on his shoulders the sins of the people to obtain forgiveness from the Father and to expiate the penalties due to them.

Jesus is greater than the prophets: Nathan announces to David that sin is removed. Jesus personally gives the forgiveness of sins: “Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan answered David: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die” ” (2Sam 12,13-14). Jesus is infinitely beyond Abraham, beyond Moses and beyond all the prophets of the Old Testament.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” 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. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Jesus asks forgiveness for sinners, proclaims conversion to them and always gives forgiveness, if they are willing to return to God. He came to redeem sinners from their imprisonment and eternal death slavery. Instead, he redeems sin and atones for it, offering his body in holocaust and in sacrifice. Moreover from him, through his Holy Spirit, he heals, cures, recreates and regenerates. Jesus is beyond, divinely and infinitely beyond.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints arrange that we understand the very high mystery of Jesus.