Thursday of the
Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Amos 7:10-17; Matthew 9:1-8)
It is said that St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) could
tell when a person needed confession.
His eyes seemed to look into one’s soul.
A similar capacity was shown in the movie last year about Mr.
Rogers. Seeing a young man with an
injured nose, he knew that it was due to more than the excuse he was given. In today’ gospel Jesus exhibits this ability
of looking into the heart of people.
A paralytic is brought to Jesus. Ostensibly he comes to have his body
healed. But Jesus recognizes that the corporal
defect is not what is most ailing the man.
Jesus forgives the paralytic’s sin causing the most distress. The religious workers comment that Jesus’
action violates God’s sovereignty over sin.
Jesus then shows that he has received authority to forgive sins by curing
the paralytic’s physical ailment. The passage
ends with the people glorifying God for giving men the power to forgive.
We should hear the word “men” as referring to priests today. God has given to the priests of the Church
authority to forgive sins. We are not
helpless if we find ourselves guilty of an unjust deed. We do not have to journey to a faraway place
to make a sin offering. We only have to repent
of our wrong-doing, confess our sin to a priest, and sincerely promise to avoid
the sin in the future. We can put aside
the worry of having done something that will upend us forever.
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