Homily
7th Sunday of Ordinary Time B
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
19 February 2012
Daily Readings
At first glance, our Lord can seem a bit insensitive. He ignores for a time what is obvious to everyone in today's Gospel, that the paralytic needs a physical healing. He says to him first - your sins are forgiven.
Upon further reflection, it becomes obvious that the Lord is the most sensitive person in the room, even as he is the most merciful and compassionate as well. The Lord senses something that everyone else has become desensitized to, that spiritual evil can do much more damage that natural evil or evil of external circumstance. What does the Lord see exactly? He sees that being physically healthy but unable to become the person you truly want to be is a more grave paralysis than the physical paralysis in front of him. Your sins are forgiven is the most compassionate thing the Lord could possibly say.
The sacrament of the anointing of the sick follows today's Gospel is a particularly profound way. Although the sacrament is properly given at the onset of a serious illness, and prayers for physical healing are always made with great faith, the sacrament entails at its core the forgiveness of sins, and can be used as we know as part of the last rites given to ensure that a soul is free from sin, free to move from death to eternal life.
Ash Wednesday arrives in a few days, and once again as Catholics we are invited to enter into this season of penitence with sincerity, and not to treat this holy season as merely a self-improvement project. Lent is essentially the opposite of self-improvement - it is self-forgetfuless as we begin humbly admitting that we are dust, that we are unnecessary and that our lives are merely fleeting and superficial unless they are joined to that which is necessary and eternal. We make promises to move away from our sins, and to hate them with a perfect hate, but more importantly, we make ourselves available to be moved by a love that is powerful enough to forgive our sins. And we begin not in isolation, but like the courageous friends in today's Gospel we enter Lent together with our brothers and sisters in the Church, for as most of us have learned the hard way, our individual promises are worth little unless they are sustained by true friendship and accountability.
Let us use the Eucharist today to be true friends to each other, and as we confess that we, as sinners, are not worthy to have the Lord enter under our roofs, let us help each other to enter sincerely under the roof of his grace and mercy, and so have our sins truly forgiven. Amen.
7th Sunday of Ordinary Time B
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
19 February 2012
Daily Readings
At first glance, our Lord can seem a bit insensitive. He ignores for a time what is obvious to everyone in today's Gospel, that the paralytic needs a physical healing. He says to him first - your sins are forgiven.
Upon further reflection, it becomes obvious that the Lord is the most sensitive person in the room, even as he is the most merciful and compassionate as well. The Lord senses something that everyone else has become desensitized to, that spiritual evil can do much more damage that natural evil or evil of external circumstance. What does the Lord see exactly? He sees that being physically healthy but unable to become the person you truly want to be is a more grave paralysis than the physical paralysis in front of him. Your sins are forgiven is the most compassionate thing the Lord could possibly say.
The sacrament of the anointing of the sick follows today's Gospel is a particularly profound way. Although the sacrament is properly given at the onset of a serious illness, and prayers for physical healing are always made with great faith, the sacrament entails at its core the forgiveness of sins, and can be used as we know as part of the last rites given to ensure that a soul is free from sin, free to move from death to eternal life.
Ash Wednesday arrives in a few days, and once again as Catholics we are invited to enter into this season of penitence with sincerity, and not to treat this holy season as merely a self-improvement project. Lent is essentially the opposite of self-improvement - it is self-forgetfuless as we begin humbly admitting that we are dust, that we are unnecessary and that our lives are merely fleeting and superficial unless they are joined to that which is necessary and eternal. We make promises to move away from our sins, and to hate them with a perfect hate, but more importantly, we make ourselves available to be moved by a love that is powerful enough to forgive our sins. And we begin not in isolation, but like the courageous friends in today's Gospel we enter Lent together with our brothers and sisters in the Church, for as most of us have learned the hard way, our individual promises are worth little unless they are sustained by true friendship and accountability.
Let us use the Eucharist today to be true friends to each other, and as we confess that we, as sinners, are not worthy to have the Lord enter under our roofs, let us help each other to enter sincerely under the roof of his grace and mercy, and so have our sins truly forgiven. Amen.
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