Thursday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time

"When Jesus saw their faith...."
 
Last March, when we were planning for the Loyola weekend retreat "I Call You Friend' (commemorating the friendship between Ignatius and Francis Xavier), Father Paul and I chose the story of Jesus' healing of the paralyzed man as the Gospel proclamation for our Friday evening prayer experience -- although we chose not today's reading from Matthew but the portrayals from Mark and Luke with their more dramatic elements of raising the roof -- literally! --and the lowering the man to the very foot of Jesus.
 
No matter the source, this healing story is a profound exemplar of embodied friendship -- putting our shoulder to the wheel in wanting what is best for our friend, a yearning for that friend's healing and wholeness then evinced in a willingness to make sacrifices for the flourishing of the other. Jesus must have been so tenderly moved to see such faith early in his ministry... the physical work demanded to bring the man from a distance on his pallet/mat/bed; the expectant hope that what they had heard of this wonder-worker man new to Capernaum might touch the life of their dear friend.
 
Had they brought their friend to have his sins forgiven, even before a confessional word was spoken? Probably not. But as a sign of this greater blessing of unmerited forgiveness, Jesus heals the paralyzed man -- a gesture in direct repudiation of the understanding in Jesus' time that illness was a result of sin. The sneering response of the authorities -- "Who does this chap think he is?" -- foreshadows the threat brought by Jesus' ministry that will pick up its pace in the coming days. For the moment, awe and gratitude is the coda for this miraculous healing story, sufficient for the day.
 
When our culture continues to prize self-sufficiency and celebrates individual freedoms, this story serves to remind us that at our deepest core we are made for relationship, for community, for intimacy, for friendship. When we are lost, confused, weak, or hurting, it is our friends who can carry us to the heart of Jesus in prayer... or who can share a story of their own struggles with doubt or despair.... or who can drive us to a chemotherapy appointment... or who can offer us respite from full-time care of an aged parent. Friendship: love in the particular.
 
I am often struck by the admonition from Jesus at the end of the story: "Pick up your mat." Always remember where you have come from and what happened this day, he seems to be saying. The cured man who returns now to his home... where will he keep that mat? We can imagine the telling and retelling of his restoration to health and wholeness, with friends gathered round the campfire for generation upon generation.
 
Let us today be grateful for our friends and for the sacrifices they have made to bring us to this place and time, helping us to track and tell our own story of healing and mercy we receive at the foot of Jesus.