HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B (1)

HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: YOUR FAITH WILL MAKE YOU WHOLE

BY: Fr. Benny Tuazon

HOMILY:

(Mk. 2:1-12)
In the day’s Gospel, we have the cure of a paralytic which featured the inclusion of the faith of those who tried so hard to bring him to Jesus and the relation of sin and sickness as revealed by Jesus’ healing statements.

In their desire to help this poor paralytic, four men opened the roof where Jesus was and brought the paralytic down on a mat. You can just imagine the astonishment of Jesus and His appreciation of what the four men did. Indeed, it is hard to stop a determined person. I am sure Jesus commended the four. Their hearts of gold and their faith helped the paralytic to be healed. This reflects in a way the necessity and importance of intercession. While faith is a lot personal, it is also very communal. Our faith can be a source of blessing for others.

The more substantial part of the Gospel is the seeming change of Jesus’ healing command in order to satisfy His critics. Initially, He said, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” But He was accused of blasphemy. Jesus responded by telling the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” Jesus and the Jews knew that these two statements werr similar. The latter might be a regular statement but it still meant the same as the former. This is because sicknesses were believed by them to be symptoms of sins. Thus, when Jesus healer the sickness, He also forgave the sin.

If we want change, we can begin by looking at our sicknesses. They maybe able to reveal to us some things we need to stop because they are resulting to physical and spiritual maladies.