Cured in body and soul

The people who visit Lourdes all year round come from almost every part of the world. And many of them are sick and hope that by visiting Our Lady where she appeared to Bernadette they might be freed from their infirmities.

Most pilgrims do not obtain the bodily cure they had prayed for, but all of them return home filled with hope and resignation, and some of them spiritually converted. They are not cured bodily, but spiritually.

In today's Gospel we have a situation in which things are turned upside down. A paralytic young man was carried to a house in Capharnaum, where Jesus was staying, in the hope that Jesus might free him of his grave infirmity. The people crowding around the house were so many, that a passage for the sick man to approach Jesus was quite impossible. The only way was to make an opening through the roof of the room where Jesus was and lower the poor man down.

And that is what they did. But the first thing Jesus did as a reward for their faith was not to heal the man's body, but to cure his soul. Being impressed by the deep faith that had made them do that, he turns to the sick man and says to him: "Son, your sins are forgiven". It was only further down that Jesus eventually did cure the sick man's body as well, in response to the Scribes who were questioning the truth about the reality of that spiritual cure: "I tell you, rise up, carry your bed on your shoulders and go home!"

Thus, in today's Gospel we see a certain progress in the way Christ's personality and his superhuman powers are presented. Jesus is not only a miracle worker who heals all sorts of infirmities and manifests divine power, but one who forgives sins. And only God can forgive sins.

Here, I believe, two important considerations are in order. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is still with us. He is the same Jesus who freed the paralytic both from his bodily and spiritual infirmities, and who goes on forgiving our sins in the Church in the Sacrament of Penance.

When we confess our sins to a priest, it is to Him that we acknowledge our sinfulness and it is He who forgives our sins through the instrumentality of the priest. Each time we 'receive' this sacrament or any other sacrament, it is Christ himself whom we are meeting who alone, being God, can free us from all our sins and give us the strength to remain faithful to him and his message.

The other consideration which comes to mind here is our obligation as Christians to pass on God's forgiveness to others each time we are offended or hurt by them. This is in fact a condition for obtaining from God our own forgiveness: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass upon us". It has been said that "he that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself: for every man needs to be forgiven."

I remember one person, after urging him to forgive, telling me: "I do forgive, as I must, but I will never forget!" True, forgiving and forgetting are two different things. On the other hand, if there is true and sincere forgiveness, a change of attitude coming from the heart, forgetting will also follow. If then we start remembering our shortcomings, and perhaps our own offences against the person in question, and with the help of divine grace, we are then surely on the way to peace of mind and complete spiritual healing.