Sunday, February 22, 2009

"See, I am doing something new!"

St. Joseph Church (Cottleville)
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
February 21-22, 2009 - 5:00 p.m., 7:00 & 8:45 a.m.

Is 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25
Ps 41
2 Cor 1:18-22
Mk 2:1-12

This may be one of those gospel readings that we have heard so many times it no longer strikes us as extraordinary. If we take the time, however, to really think about the scene we just heard described, we come to see that there is something incredible about what happened at Peter’s house in Capernaum. A couple weeks ago we heard how our Lord had cured Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in that very house. Now He returns, after traveling all over Galilee preaching and healing. Now He returns here to Capernaum, which is His home-base of sorts. It was the custom in that part of the world for people to leave the doors of theirs homes open during the day as a sign that visitors were welcome. Well apparently our Lord drew quite a crowd of visitors, since Mark tells us that there were so many that there wasn’t even room around the door of the house for more people to listen to Christ’s preaching.

Into this fray come four men carrying their friend who is paralyzed. They must have heard of the miraculous healings our Lord had been performing and realized that this was their chance to help their friend. Already here we should admire the love of these men for their paralyzed friend. They knew that they couldn’t do anything for him, but they also knew someone who could. Imagine their dismay when they saw the great crowd of people. Imagine how hard they must have tried to get through the crowd to Jesus without any success. And yet even this would not deter them. They were so determined to bring the paralyzed man to Christ that they came up with a pretty crazy plan. They carried him up to the roof of the house, and then they literally had to bread through the thatch and clay roof in order to have access to the house. (Makes you wonder how Peter felt about all of this…) Imagine too the reaction of the crowd as they saw this man being lowered on his mat into the house.

And now we come to the key point of the Gospel. Our Lord works a miracle of healing after He sees the determination of those who are seeking Him. How could He not fulfill their request after all they have gone through to reach Him. Their desire for Him is so strong that nothing was going to get in the way of their reaching Him.

This Gospel fulfills the words of the Lord in our reading from the prophet Isaiah: “See, I am doing something new!” Our Lord was doing something new when He forgave the sins of the paralytic and healed his physical ailment. The words of the prophet remain true for us today. In the midst of the monotony of our daily routine, Jesus Christ wants to do something new for us –even here at this very Mass. Maybe we are burdened by some sin that we can’t seem to get rid of. Christ wants to do something new for us. Maybe we, on the other hand, we feel that we’re on the right track, that we’ve been living a truly Christian life, in accord with the teachings of the Church, for some time now. Even then, Christ wants to do something new. Wherever we find ourselves, we have not exhausted the infinite riches that Jesus Christ has to offer to us. He always wants to take us deeper into the very life of the Trinity – the very life that He enjoys with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

So the question falls to us. Are we as determined as the four men in the Gospel to get to Christ? Are we so convinced that He has something to give us – something that no one else can give us – that we will do whatever it takes to make our request heard? Notice in the Gospel that Christ is hard to reach not because He has hidden Himself but because of the large crowd. In a similar way, our lives are crowded with all kinds of things that could stand between us and Christ – everything from the lies we are told by the world to our own attachments to things other than Him.

As I’m sure you all know, Lent is now just a few days away. This Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, will mark the beginning of that ever-important season that prepares our hearts to meet Christ in His passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus Christ wants to do something radically new for every one of us during this Lenten season. He wants to do something radically new for us this year when we celebrate the Paschal Mystery at Easter. The season of Lent, then, is an opportunity to show to Him how deeply we long to reach Him, to be touched by Him. It’s our chance to take drastic measures to reach Him – to climb to the roof and to break through in order to get around whatever might stand between us and deeper union with Him.

This Lent, let us take seriously those traditional practices that cannot fail to show our Lord how much we need Him – the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In these next few days, each of us needs to reflect upon how we are being called to embrace these practices this Lent. What will I do differently in my prayer life? Maybe I’ll commit myself to spending some time each week here in the adoration chapel or some time each day at home reflecting on the Scripture readings for the day. What will I fast from during these days? Maybe it will be a traditional fast from certain types of food. Or maybe it will be a fast from something else. Maybe I’ll commit myself to spending less time on the Internet or watching television. And how will I heed our Lord’s call to give alms? Maybe I can increase my contributions to the parish or to a charitable organization. Maybe I can go through my closet and give away those extra clothes that I don’t really need. Maybe I could even give of my time to serve the poor by volunteering.

Our Lord stands ready with His grace at every moment, and in a particularly strong way He does so during the holy season of Lent. At every moment He longs to do something new for us. May we receive from Him at this Mass and throughout the season of Lent the grace we need to do something as radical as those four men in the Gospel – the grace to be willing to do whatever it takes to reach our Lord and His healing touch. Then, when Easter comes, we will reflect upon what God has done for us in our Lenten journey, and we will be able to repeat with the crowd in today’s Gospel: “We have never seen anything like this.”

No comments: