Monday of the 2nd Week of Advent

Paralysis can come in many different forms. Some people are actually physically paralysed. Depending on the severity of the physical paralysis, such people may not be able to move or do anything on their own, and would require the help of family and friends to attend to their daily needs. Another form of physical paralysis is the inability to speak or express oneself clearly and concretely. Persons suffering from such a paralysis may find it difficult to communicate and may end up being misunderstood or even rejected. This is why being paralysed physically in one way or another is certainly no laughing matter, since we lose our freedom and independence to care for ourselves, and are at the mercy and generosity of others.

In today's Gospel, we come across a paralysed man who was brought on a stretcher by some men. These men went up on to the flat roof and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in front of Jesus, as the crowd made it impossible to find a way of getting him in. It was the faith of these men that impressed Jesus and Jesus cured the paralysed man, based on such great faith. The paralysed man may have had faith, but there was no way of telling about the amount of faith he had, since he could not move or express himself. So this paralysed man was lucky and fortunate to have such great friends who had such great faith in Jesus.

Another form of paralysis which we should be extra careful of is paralysis due to sin. When we sin, our conscience and our soul slowly becomes paralysed, until we become unable to differentiate what is truly right or wrong, and our soul is unable to move and reach out to God. We become alienated from God, untul we may even lose all connection or communication with Him. This is why, if we notice in today's Gospel, the first words Jesus said to cure the paralysed man were: "My friend, your sins are forgiven you." Physical paralysis was already bad enough, but what concerned Jesus even more is spiritual paralysis, which can cripple us far worse. Today, let us be on our constant guard against the snare of spiritual paralysis. Let us make every effort to have our sins forgiven through the sacrament of Reconciliation, so that we could be able to "get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home," and return to our loving God's care and guide once again.