The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins

9 DECEMBER (Lk 5,17-26)

The simplicity with which Jesus forgives sins is the revolution of revolutions. Today, the heavy ancient rituality is abolished. In one word of Jesus – man, your sins are forgiven you – a two thousand year old religious tradition, made of complex, complicated, very difficult and even impractical rituals is erased. A single example will suffice so that we understand the lightness of forgiveness established by Jesus.

If it is the anointed priest who thus sins and thereby makes the people also become guilty, he shall present to the Lord a young, unblemished bull as a sin offering for the sin he committed. Bringing the bullock to the entrance of the meeting tent, before the Lord, he shall lay his hand on its head and slaughter it before the Lord. The anointed priest shall then take some of the bullock’s blood and bring it into the meeting tent, where, dipping his finger in the blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, toward the veil of the sanctuary. The priest shall also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense which is before the Lord in the meeting tent. The rest of the bullock’s blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of holocausts which is at the entrance of the meeting tent. From the sin-offering bullock he shall remove all the fat: the fatty membrane over the inner organs, and all the fat that adheres to them, as well as the two kidneys, with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he must sever above the kidneys. This is the same as is removed from the ox of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar of holocausts. The hide of the bullock and all its flesh, with its head, legs, inner organs and offal, in short, the whole bullock, shall be brought outside the camp to a clean place where the ashes are deposited and there be burned up in a wood fire. At the place of the ash heap, there it must be burned (Lev 4,3-12).

Along the course of the centuries, men certainly not replenished and filled with Holy Spirit, have made the forgiveness of sins impractical, turning the masses away from the sacrament of penance. The result was the separation of the souls from the body and blood of Christ the Lord. It was the abandonment of the hearts to sin, to the non-request of forgiveness, due to the foolishness of people that do not think and do not decide according to God, by evangelical truth, but by vain and tortuous reasoning of their minds.

One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set (him) in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”

Jesus comes to open the doors of the Father’s mercy to every man. What Jesus opens, no one must ever close. The doors of the Father’s heart must remain open at night and during the day. No one has been given the power to close them for a moment, one hour and one day. Not only must the sinner always be welcomed, for him all his brothers in faith, must offer their own life for his conversion, his repentance, his return into the grace and truth of Lord Jesus, in His Holy Church. If I have to give my life for sinners – this is true evangelical law – might anyone ever turn away from the mercy and festive welcome of the Father? It would be a true contradiction. I am dying due to sin and at the same time I am turning him away from the source of forgiveness and grace. If I turn him away, it is a sign that I am not dying for him. If I am dying for him, never might I drive him away. In Christ, every one of his disciples is called to die for sinners and for this reason he is also called upon to always leave the door open to the Father’s heart so that he can always enter.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints open every door of salvation.