Luke 5:17-26
One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "As for you, your sins are forgiven."
Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?" Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, "What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, "Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"- he said to the one who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."
He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, "We have seen incredible things today."
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Before Jesus heals the paralyzed man of his "physical" infirmity, He does something that every human needs: He forgives him of his sins. It's good to see this because it shows what God desires of us over what we blindly desire in our own sinfulness.
I can think of many times I've desire something else over being in the state of grace and many of those times led me our of His grace.
If the forgiveness of our sins is important enough to God to become a human, then one of the best ways we can honor Our Lord is to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and be restore to the state of grace God desires us all to be in. Take care and God Bless.
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