Sunday Reflection: Paralyzed in Sin; Freed in Grace.‏

Sunday Reflection: Paralyzed in Sin; Freed in Grace.

Of all the things to say to a paralyzed man this has got to be the most confusing:  "Your sins are forgiven."...

Can it be that there is a connection between the physical nature and the spiritual life?  You bet!  Sin takes its toll spiritually and physically.  Consider the Friday night drunk who abuses the gift of alcohol.  That night and the day following alcohol sits as a judge over the actions of Friday night.  The sin produces a splitting headache. The repentant drunk thinks "I'll never do that again."  But you and I know that unless a greater love enters that person's life he will continue to abuse the alcohol.  

For this reason Our Lord goes to the heart of the problem and forgives the sin.  In doing so He indicates to all of us that the spiritual must be healed prior to the physical.  The physical healing of the paralyzed man is an outward expression of an interior reality.  This is the definition of a sacrament.  The most healthful and helpful sacrament is the sacrament of holy Confession.  It prepares us for the healing of our physical nature because we are set free from the poison of sin. 

Years ago Menninger Institute published a book entitled:  "Whatever Became of Sin?"  Sin has become a sickness in our modern society and now is treated while lying down on a couch.  Sin is a sickness that paralyzes the spiritual life of any man, woman  or child.  It freezes us in our self and permits no positive movement to God.  It is the most destructive thought, word or deed that we can perform.  Ultimately, we pay the awful price of sin in our physical death.  Let us pray that we do not have to pay the eternal price for our folly in a self constructed hell.

"Who can forgive sin but God alone?" thought the pharisees.  Hence from the spiritual Jesus moves to the healing of the paralyzed man:  "Take up your bed and go to thy house."  The bed represents the habit of sin and so the carrying of the bed indicates the freedom from sin.  The house stands for the heaven promised to the repentant sinner. Hence sin is not the most horrendous deed in this world:  the denial of sin is the most destructive mentality that we might assume for it denies the need we have of a Savior.  

The pharisee judges and fails to come to the faith that reason brings to the miracle.  If Jesus forgave sins as witnessed by the ability of a paralyzed man to walk, then (a posteriori = by experience) Jesus is God.  If our world's leadership could come to this conclusion then only the true Catholic faith would reign in every government.  Instead the paralyzed continue in their sins for the confessional is the modern "broom closet".  Now no one sins but there are millions of "sick" people out there who fail to recognize that sin is the cause of their psychosis or neurosis.  They continue to lie in the bed of their sinfulness and deny the need of a good Confession.  We, the Church, must become the light and the salt that brings these souls back to the Lord.  Intercession leads to confession of sin; confession of sin leads to spiritual health; spiritual health gives us physical healing.  Let us pick up our beds and walk to the home that forgiveness creates for us in God.

In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Fr. Richard Voigt

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