Jesus heals the paralytic. (*Warning*)

Today’s Gospel from the Mass (Mark 2:1-12) offers a demonstration His Divine Power to heal.  Warning – picture of a paralytic below.

[1]And when he returned to Caper’na-um after some days, it was reported that he was at home. [2] And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them.  [3] And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.  [4] And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.  [5] And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”  [6] Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,  [7] “Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”  [8] And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question thus in your hearts? [9] Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, `Rise, take up your pallet and walk’? [10] But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he said to the paralytic — [11] “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” [12] And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

As noted in another post, a powerful way to grow in awe of our Lord Jesus Christ is to attempt to understand and relate to His actions in our world today. One way to do that is to try to imagine what a paralytic might look like.  By doing so, we become more awed by the power of Jesus Christ.

Here is what a modern day paralytic looks like: