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The road is long and hard and difficult.
Never be afraid.
You won't be if you understand
where you are and why you are there.
- Catherine de Heuck Doherty
(Do you have this understanding? Pray for the grace to access God's will for your life.)
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HEB 4:1-5, 11; PS 78:3 AND 4BC, 6C-7, 8
MK 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
"Child, your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
"Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?"
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what
they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk'?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"
–he said to the paralytic,
"I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"I command you: Stand up! Pick up your mat and go home." —Mark 2:11
Will you receive "the promise of entrance" into God's rest (Heb 4:1), that is, will you be with the Lord forever in the perfect happiness of heaven? "Therefore, while the promise of entrance into His rest still holds, we ought to be fearful of disobeying lest any one of you be judged to have lost his chance of entering" (Heb 4:1).
By ourselves, we are unable to obey the Lord and enter eternal rest. We are spiritually paralyzed. Our only hope is to come to Jesus just as we are. We need to be carried to Jesus through the intercession, evangelization, redemptive suffering, and service of the members of His Church (see Mk 2:3ff). Jesus in His mercy will say to us in our spiritual paralysis: "Your sins are forgiven" (Mk 2:5). At this point, we can receive the grace to repent
and accept Jesus as our Savior, Lord, and God on His terms. If we are freed from our paralysis and become children of God (Jn 1:12), we will enter heaven where we belong, that is, with our heavenly Father forever.
Jesus is the only Way to our Father in heaven (Jn 14:6). Accept Jesus. "Rise" and "go home" to heaven (see Mk 2:11).
Prayer: Father, may I repent and bring joy to heaven (Lk 15:7, 10).
Promise: "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." —Mk 2:10
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION IV. The Revelations of God.
God reveals Himself to us in as mysterious a manner in the most ordinary circumstances, and as truly and adorably as in the great events of History or of Holy Scripture.
The written word of God is full of mystery; and no less so His word fulfilled in the events of the world. These are two sealed books, and of both it can be said “the letter killeth.” God is the centre of faith; all that emanates from this centre is hidden in the deepest mystery. This word and these events are, so to say, but feeble rays from a sun obscured by clouds. It is vain to expect to see with our mortal eyes the rays of
this sun; even the eyes of our soul are blind to God and His works. Darkness takes the place of light, ignorance of knowledge, and one neither sees nor understands. The sacred Scripture is the mysterious utterance of a God yet more mysterious and the events of the world are the obscure language of this same hidden and unknown God. They are mere drops from an ocean of midnight darkness, and partake of the nature of their source. The fall of the angels and of Adam; the impiety and idolatry of men
before and after the Deluge up to the time of the Patriarchs who knew, and related to their children the history of the Creation, and of the still recent preservation from the universal deluge; these are, indeed, very obscure words of holy Scripture. That, at the coming of the Messiah, only a handful of men should be preserved from idolatry in the general ruin and overthrow of faith throughout the world: that impiety should prove always dominant, always powerful, and the small numbers of the
upholders of truth should be ever persecuted and maltreated, seems incredible! Consider the treatment of Jesus Christ. Think of the plagues of the Apocalypse, yet these are words of God. They are what He has revealed! He has dictated them! And the effect of these terrible mysteries which will continue till the end of time is still the living word, teaching us His wisdom, power, and goodness.
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