Our Gospel story begins by saying that “Jesus was at home.” Or as other translations have it, Jesus was in the house. House is a code word in the Gospel of Mark for the word “Church.” Thus the Church is where Jesus is to be found.
In the Gospels, Jesus is found especially where the community is gathered in remembrance of what He said and did for us in His dying and rising. The evangelist Mark makes it known that this Church was packed. Something like the six o’clock Mass here at Christ the King on Christmas Eve. This is an interesting image of the Church because the place is so jammed with on lookers that they block the entrance for all those who really needed to be there, like the four men with their paralyzed friend! But the four friends persist! They dig through the mud and the branches of the flat roof and lower their friend down at the feet of Jesus.
Paralysis is truly a difficult and terrible thing. In over four decades of ministry I have seen the results of paralysis in patients and parishioners who have multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, chronic fatigue syndrome. The desire to move is there, but the body will not respond. Muscle, nerve and brain must all cooperate or the elegant complexity of movement cannot occur.
Paralysis, however used in this Gospel setting, is both a reality and a metaphor or spiritual immobility. We find other examples as well in the scriptures. We have friends whose bodies are not impaired, and yet they too, cannot seem to take a step in any direction. This paralysis may be emotional, psychological, moral or spiritual. But it binds them as surely as if they were tied down. They live in fear of things changing, but also of conditions remaining the same. They are unable to make decisions. Unable to discern right from wrong. Unable to imagine new directions, or take risks. Their relationships are bogged down in rigid patterns and cycles that are unsatisfactory and unsuccessful. They are unhappy; they may even be chronically depressed, but their lives are going nowhere and they can’t see anyway to break out of their confinement.
The Gospel story of the paralytic is told not just to give courage to those who suffer bodily, but also to remind all of us that Jesus is the Lord of freedom. He removes the guilt of sin that binds us to the injuries, mistakes and regrets of our past. He also orders us – commands us – to get up and get on with our lives. We are set free for a reason, not just for show. Jesus expected and required the man to use his restored health for a purpose: to walk.
The man on the mat, lowered down by his friends, had something also to teach the scribes and those who thought as they did. This man modeled the humility that is required by anyone seeking wholeness for he laid down his mat completely depended upon his friends. He had emptied himself with the self-righteousness of the scribes, and those who presumed he was a sinner.
Jesus rewards his humility. He frees the man from his physical bondage, restores his sense of wholeness, and most importantly allows him to rejoin the community. We know that Jesus came to set captives free. Not just those held in chains in a dark prison, or paralyzed by physical diseases. We are mindful today of the terrible possibility of becoming paralyzed ourselves in spirit. Ask yourself is someone in my workplace or neighborhood excluded because of my own paralysis?
One of the important teachings in the Gospel lesson today is that those who are seemingly excluded because of a paralytic mind set, can find healing and newness. Those who are kept out of the inner circle will find their way in. They will, if necessary, break a hole in the roof and be lowered down before our amazed eyes. Did you know that in the early days of the Church someone was assigned the task of standing outside the place of worship to watch for Christ’s return? Perhaps we should be doing something similar today: “keeping our eyes on the ceiling” watching to see who is trying to break through.
Being freed spiritually from a paralysis of spirit can be a renewing and joyful experience. Some of us have been through it and will likely do it again. No one is really freed all at once. Rather it might be said that our Christian life is a steady process of being set free and in the process we need each other. We need each other’s honesty, each others support and encouragement. At the center of that freeing process there is Jesus who stands before us. He cuts through all the paralysis and says, “Stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” Go home to the community of Christians who have also been set free, freed from paralysis of spirit.
Amen. Amen. Msgr. Tom, Pastor Christ the King