Daily Reflection Monday in the Second Week in Advent

Today at the beginning of the second week in Advent we have another incredibly beautiful passage from Isaiah 35. “Be strong and fear not! Here is your God.” “Sorrow and mourning will flee.” It is very much worth reading again, and again! Who could not be moved by these words? However, I’m going to dip into a past reflection again since I had the weekend retreat and I haven’t the strength to write tonight! It was on the gospel reading we have today.

Of the fifteen or so physical healings of Jesus that the gospels relate, three stand out as fuller and more moving than others. They are the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage, the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus at the gate of Jericho and today’s reading of this cure of the paralyzed man who was lowered down from the roof while Jesus was in the house at Capernaum.

All three Synoptic accounts tell this story. It is a beautiful and most memorably described event. We are in what is probably Simon Peter’s house in Capernaum (according to Mark) that Jesus used as his sort of headquarters for a time. We recall that one of Jesus’ very first healings was also in this house when earlier the Lord found Simon Peter’s mother in bed with a fever and lifts her up as the fever left her. Mark’s account of that in chapter 1 also states immediately afterward that the entire city gathered at the door with their sick late in the day and that Jesus “cured many who were sick of various illnesses.” This is an important passage since it tells us clearly that although only a few healing stories are told in the gospels, Jesus healed countless others whose stories we do not know. All those people continued to tell their stories of the day Jesus healed them to everyone they met for the rest of their lives. Surely their witness must have been a most powerful and lasting component of the early Church’s growth in ancient Israel.

It’s the details Luke gives us that stand out here. The great crowd at the house, those four who carried the man, climbing up to the roof, opening it and then lowering their friend to Jesus before the entire crowd. Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven and we must conclude he meant to say this rather than “be healed” because he knew the Pharisees would object, which they do since they believed that only God could forgive sins. This gives Jesus the chance to pronounce his famous challenge to the unbelieving Pharisees, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat and walk?’” And with that Jesus proves to the Pharisees that he does indeed have the power to forgive sins as he tells the paralytic to do just that, which the man does to the awe of all present.

This healing is also significant in that it tells of those who carried the man, either family or friends or both. They go to great effort to get their friend before Jesus who sees both their faith in Jesus himself as well as their love for their poor friend. It reminds us that we usually need the help of others in finding healing for ourselves. There is so much that we simply cannot do on our own.

The healings of Jesus, along with his other miracles, were great signs of the Kingdom come for the nascent Church. We must admit that physical healings of these types seem rare today. However, there are other kinds of healing available to virtually all who hope in Jesus. There is the healing of our memories, the healing of relationships through forgiveness, and the healing of our troubled hearts. These may be understood as spiritual healings. Jesus can indeed heal our hearts, our memories and our relationships if we put our trust in him, pray every day and seek to surrender our will (what we want) for God’s will. The more we trust God, put all our hope in him and seek him with all our hearts, the more we are able to accept and embrace all things, all people. And in being given the grace to do that, we experience a kind of healing that enables us to be filled with joy even if our bodies remain as they were. If we would believe it, that spiritual healing is every bit as powerful as actual physical healing and is present in the world everywhere if we but have the eyes to see. It is available to us if we seek God with all our hearts.