Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8

1st Reading: Genesis 22:1-19

God promises many descendants for Abraham through Isaac, the child of sacrifice.

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8

The cure of a paralysed man proves Jesus’ power to forgive sin

And after getting into a boat he crossed the sea and came to his own town. And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” Then some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he then said to the paralytic — “Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.” And he stood up and went to his home. When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

Misguided orthodoxy?

The contrast between Abraham and the Pharisees is striking and baffling. Abraham is misguided in thinking that God wanted human sacrifice. The Pharisees are orthodox in their theology that only God can forgive sin yet they are misguided in limiting God’s power. It is clear that even good intentions (on Abraham’s part) and correct ideas (on the Pharisees’ part) cannot go unchallenged; yet in such cases correction and warnings are most difficult to accept. One of the most difficult of tasks is to help good people see that they have room for improvement, or to show them a dark side of their character to which they are blind. Like the dark side of the moon which is never seen from earth, a good man can be oblivious of his failings.

Are we able to cope with another way of looking at things? Have we a mind open to correction? If this is hard for ordinary people, it is doubly hard for  leaders, religious or civil, to admit their mistakes and recognise the damage they may have caused to others. After all, how could such good, worthy people be wrong? This blindness is not to procedural rules, which they know well, but to common sense and elementary justice. It can be easier to exclude or excommunicate trouble-makers than to re-think the system. To further complicate things, the truth-telling prophet may  not be diplomatic in denouncing what needs to be changed. Often Jesus himself was less than diplomatic when asking people to rethink, “Why do you think such evil thoughts? Which is less trouble to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Stand up and walk’?

It is wrong to abuse theology in order to keep the poor in their place. In this case the cure of the paralyzed man teaches us something vital about life. God can transform and sanctify whatever is brought to him: a misguided Abraham, a sinful paralytic, an uncouth prophet; whereas the proud, arrogant person, no matter how pure and correct, cannot be helped. The proud person goes away angry; the unlettered crowd praise God for such a compassionate prophet as Jesus.

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The faith of Others

We often need the faith of others to carry us when our own faith is weak. Maybe that is one of the reasons why people ask us to pray for them. They may find it hard to pray for themselves and, so, they ask others to pray for them. In the gospel today, a paralysed man is carried to Jesus by the faith of his friends. Nothing is said about the faith of the paralysed man. The gospel reading says that when Jesus say their faith — the faith of those who carried the paralytic — he said to the paralytic, “Courage, my child, your sins are forgiven,” and then went on to heal him of his paralysis. We have all known a time in our own lives when we were carried to the Lord by the faith of others. It was the faith of our parents, and of our grandparents, that carried us to the church for baptism. As recently born babies, we had no faith of our own at that time. We begin our lives as Christians carried by the faith of others. In the course of our lives, we find ourselves still needing the faith of others to keep our own relationship with the Lord alive. Indeed, we are always very interdependent when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. As I grow towards the Lord, I help others to do so as well. As I grow away from him, I make it more difficult for others to grow towards him. In a very profound sense, we depend on each other on the pilgrimage of life. In that sense our own relationship with the Lord, or lack of it, while very personal is never purely private; it always impacts on others.