MONDAY, DEC 11
Luke 5: 17-26
One day as Jesus was teaching,
Pharisees and teachers of the law,
who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem,
were sitting there,
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 Jesus 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 one 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.”
Grace: I ask for the grace to know Jesus in a deeper way that I may abundantly love and follow him.
For many people reading this passage for reflection, a key point often centers on the faith of the paralytic. For others, it centers on the faith of the friends who lowered the paralytic through the roof so he could encounter Jesus. Perhaps each of us should raise the question, “Do we have the faith to bring people to Jesus?”
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning my wife and I ride out of the Mainland Trail Head on a 28-mile bicycle ride. Next to the entrance of the trail head is a Via bus stop at which numerous buses stop each morning. At least once a week we will see two smartly dressed people sitting next to the bus stop seated on either side of a wheeled book-rack. This rack is piled high with brochures advertising a church with texts designed to encourage people to enter the kingdom of God. About fifteen feet away is the bus stop with four to twelve people sitting waiting for the bus. I have never seen the two groups interact with each other. In a world that is eager for results rather than process, this might appear to be a fruitless effort. Still we can be confident that in the process of showing up for God week after week there is an underlying testimony to some power and some mercy greater than we encounter on any given day.
This brings us back to each of us and all of us. Do we love Jesus enough to show up even when we are discouraged? How many opportunities did we miss last week when we could have presented someone to Jesus but were afraid and we stood aside? Lord, heal my timid heart this advent.
For Reflection and Prayer:
Reflect on the events of your week and list two or three opportunities you might have had to minister to God’s people, but failed to because you were afraid or uncertain what to do.
Write a prayer asking God for the grace to see the opportunities to minister to God’s people, and for the strength to act, as did the friends of the paralytic.
Listening Activity: Below is a link for the song by Dan Schutte “Here I Am Lord”. You may close your time of prayer by listening to this song.
The Contributor:
Deacon Robert M. Caldwell, holds a Master of Arts Degree, English; and a Master of Science Degree, Clinical Psychology. Ordained a Catholic deacon in 1999; he serves at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in San Antonio, TX., where he enjoys facilitating Little Rock Scripture Study and presenting parish missions. He is married to Anne Marie Caldwell.
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Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.