THY SINS BE FORGIVEN THEE!

A MESSAGE FOR THE 18th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

In today's Gospel, our Lord does something remarkable.  He heals the man sick of the palsy.  We are so accustomed to the many accounts of his miracles that this one may not seem particularly noteworthy.  However, we should try and imagine how much we would be astonished if we witnessed one of these miracles ourselves.

And yet, I can tell you that I have personally witnessed such a miracle.  Many, many times, in fact.  For the true miracle in today's Gospel is not that the Son of God was able to heal a cripple, but that this same Son of God, and Son of Man, was able to forgive sins.  It is the healing of the man's soul that is the greater miracle, because no mortal man had ever before claimed the power to absolve from sin, and so for our Lord to assert that he had such power was, in the eyes of the Pharisees, a terrible blasphemy. 

Christ's claim that he had the power to forgive sin, was, however, only part of the problem.  Their scandal was compounded by the fact that it seemed to be nothing more than an idle claim to have such power.  After all, how could he actually prove that the cripple's sins were indeed forgiven.  Hence, our Lord's second miracle today, in which he raised the man with the palsy from his bed, and made him to walk.

Here now was a miracle that people could see with their own eyes.  Christ performed it in order to prove he had the power to perform the first, unseen miracle.  That same unseen miracle occurs every Sunday morning here in the confessional, and although your priest does not pretend to have the power to heal all your various illnesses, we have the witness of Christ's miracle in today's Gospel as the proof that our sins are forgiven.  It should serve also to prevent us from falling into the familiarity of contempt we gradually accumulate through the regular and unseen absolution of our sins.

In St. John's Gospel, our Lord gave to his apostles and their successors the power to absolve from sin.  "Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven."  Of course, the priest does not have this power of himself.  He serves merely as the instrument of God's divine power when he pronounces the words of absolution.  It is God who forgives sin, and he alone has the ability to do so.  Christ, who is God, forgave sin.  The priest, who is most certainly not God, also forgives sin, but only because God chooses to work through him in the Sacrament of Penance.

Today, we are given the reminder that the health of the soul is far more important than the health of the body.  We tend to spend so much time and money on doctors, so they can try and keep us alive a few more years in this vale of tears.  Should we not take far more care of our immortal soul by ensuring it is constantly in the most supernaturally healthy state we can provide?  Thanks to the loving-kindness of our merciful God, we have been given the means to cleanse our soul as frequently as we need, transforming in the twinkling of an eye a soul deserving of eternal hellfire to one now capable of receiving the reward of everlasting life.  This opportunity has been made available to us—let's take advantage of this compassionate gift of God, fully realizing the depth of God's mercy in providing it for us, and in complete awe and wonder at the miraculous transformation of our soul that occurs.  "Son, be of good cheer: thy sins be forgiven thee!"