"Unite in forgiveness and healing" by Beth
DeCristofaro
(Amos said) The LORD took me from
following the flock, and said to me,
‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now hear the word of the LORD! (Amos 7:15)
‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now hear the word of the LORD! (Amos 7:15)
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said,
“Why do you harbor evil thoughts? 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 then said to the paralytic, “Rise,
pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He rose and went home. (Matthew
9:4-7)
Piety
(Help me Lord to realize in heart and action
that) “If we realize that we are each
bound to the other members of the human race in the Mystical Body of Christ,
that we must love the human race as a whole, and love all the groups which
constitute it, then we can scarcely fail to realize the evil as well as the
stupidity of hating any part of the Mystical Body of Christ....”[i]
Study
Have you ever watched a cat stretch to clean
itself? Cats can twist like a pretzel,
suspend a foot high up over and behind its own head, and stretch its own toes
to nibble between and under every claw.
It meticulously works to get into every vital, dirty nook and cranny.
Sometimes I wonder how it knows it is that it is dirty at all if it is a
spoiled stay-indoors cat as so many of mine have been. Watching a cat clean itself is a sight to behold.
But perhaps we are sometimes too captivated
by what we see and what our perceptions tell us is reality. We, like the crowd around Jesus, would have
been wowed by the healing of the paralytic man.
Such healing is wonderous and kind.
But Jesus knew what was most important. He was not about to play to the
crowd nor placate the scribes by performing the “easy” wonder. Forgiving
someone is often invisible. Forgiving
one’s sins is even more so, but the results are beyond incredible and caring.
We don’t know the story of the
paralytic. We don’t know if he was victim,
survivor, or even if he was a jerk to those around him. Jesus knew he was broken. Jesus knew the relationship between the man
and his God was in some way. In
forgiving, Jesus restored that relationship, restored the man to his community,
and restored the man to himself.
Jesus’ forgiving is miraculous. That he asks us to do the same is both
wonderous and fearful.
Action
Perhaps the way a cat cleans itself is a lesson for us,
individually and collectively, in how to forgive, how to restore justice and
equality within our lives, our church, our country. We will need to stretch, to get uncomfortable,
to nibble on our long-held perceptions and views so that bias, superiority, and
exclusion is located and eradicated.
Pray for guidance on the “harder” path.
How can we bring inclusion, equality, forgiveness to life today?
[i] Fire
on the Earth, Fr. Paul Hanley Furfey, Catholic U of American, McMillon, NY,
1936, as quoted on http://merton.org/ITMS/Annual/21/Raboteau13-24.pdf
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