Sharing of life: What are you most and least grateful for this week?
Facilitator reads focus statement: Both the first reading and gospel speak about God's mercy for sinners. In the second reading, Paul speaks about our "yes" to God.
Read the three readings and the Psalm. Pause briefly after each reading
FIRST READING: Isaiah 43:18-25
Writing in the sixth century B.C. after the Israelites had returned from the Babylonian exile, Isaiah invites the exiles to recognize the lessons God may be trying to teach them through their painful experience. Shamed and disappointed, they were to learn that they could not rely solely on their own resources but on God. They learned that infidelity to God had dire consequences. But perhaps, most of all they were to learn that their God was not one who held grudges. Rather than tally up past failures, their God was going to do a "new thing", namely offer a new beginning. Failures of the past would not be remembered. What wonderful news for the exiles and for us.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM 41
This psalm is a lament of one suffering from some debilitating illness. The connection between sin and suffering seen in today's gospel is present in this psalm.
SECOND READING: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22
The authors of Foundations in Faith offer the following commentary on this reading.
In defending himself from a charge of vacillating (he had failed to come to Corinth and was judged harshly for this), Paul uses the occasion to speak about the constancy or "yes" of God. The "yes" of God though Jesus, and the "yes" of Jesus to God, is the ground of the steadfast "yes" of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy in worship and service. The passage ends with a baptismal Trinitarian theme in the language of commerce. Baptism puts down the "first installment" (the Spirit in our hearts) in a promise of future glory in Christ. God can be trusted to deliver the balance in full.
GOSPEL: MARK 2:1-12
In this miracle story, Jesus claims God's power to forgive sins. Jesus is "at home" (some scholars say at Peter's home). While he is preaching, four men come carrying a paralytic on a stretcher. We can imagine the commotion caused when the man is presented to Jesus through the roof. When Jesus sees their faith, he acts. Usually Jesus acts in response to the faith of the sick person; in this case, he responds to the faith manifested in the friends of the sick man.
Jesus begins the healing by pronouncing forgiveness of sin. The scribes present are shocked and enraged. They say: "Who does this guy think he is? Doesn't he know that only God can forgive sin?" Everyone knows, including Jesus, that it is very easy to say: "Your sins are forgiven.". But when Jesus follows up his words of pardon with: "Rise, pick up your mat and walk.", he shows that he acts with the power of God. His enemies had to be baffled. But the people are "astounded". They glorify God saying, "We have never seen anything like this.". For the paralytic, the event is a resurrection. Through the healing touch of Jesus, he is made whole and freed from spiritual and physical sickness. The story clearly shows Jesus' power over spiritual and physical sickness.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What verse or image spoke to you and why?
2. At the end of the first reading, God tells us that he wipes out our past offenses and remembers them no more. Why do we, or others, have a hard time letting go of past failures, even though we are deeply sorry for them?
3. Have you ever had to spend a long period in bed? If so, what was that like for you? If not, what do you fear most about such an experience?
4. Can you think of anything that paralyses your spiritual or emotional growth at this time? If not, what are examples of obstacles to our emotional and spiritual growth?
5. Can you think of anything that paralyses the church's growth at this time? If so, what?
RESPONDING TO GOD'S WORD
Name one way you can act on today's readings. Suggestions: Reach out to someone who may be suffering from some form of paralysis. If you have a past failure you are still guilty about, let it go. If need be, go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
CONCLUDE WITH PRAYERS OF PETITION AND INTERCESSION.
Especially pray for paralyzed people and all who have a difficult time believing God has truly forgiving them their past failures.