Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about how God healed and forgave the sins of the paralytic man, whom Jesus had made whole and healthy again. And yet the Pharisees and the opponents of the Lord made a lot of noise, complaining that it was blasphemy to think that someone other than God could have forgiven sins.

This was because they failed to understand the true nature of our Lord and His love. For God had loved us so much, and He is indeed Love Himself, so that He was willing to send forth His Son into the world, the one and only begotten Son, who is His Word made into flesh, taking up the appearance and substance of the human body, and yet remained fully divine, so that, by His authority and works, He might bring about healing and salvation for all of us mankind.

This is clearly matched with what had happened long ago at the time of Abraham, when God asked him to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, the one and only promised son which God had promised Abraham when he set out of his homeland to follow Him. The first reading today is actually an affirmation of God’s love, who has done even more than what He had asked of Abraham.

For in his great faith, even though knowing that he would have to kill his son, but he knows that God will certainly find a way for him. And he also knows that even if he did the terrible did, God will raise him up again, as St. Paul had pointed out in one of his epistles. God has the authority for all things, even the things that seem to be impossible for men.

God also did not hold back His only Son, just as Abraham did not hold back his son from God. And while Abraham had such a great faith in God, following and obeying the will of God completely, but God Himself is also ever faithful, to the covenant and promise which He had made with mankind, that He will not abandon us to sin and destruction because of those sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, have we been obedient to God, and have we been faithful to Him as Abraham had done? Or have we instead been complaining and ignoring what we all ought to do as the ones with whom God had made His everlasting covenant? This is unfortunately our bad trait, the nature which have caused so many of us to fall into sin.

God has loved us so much, that even though we sinned and disobeyed Him, He did not straight away reject us and cast us into eternal darkness, even though He was fully capable of doing so. He instead gave us new opportunity, a second chance to redeem ourselves, so that by our devotion and actions, we may be redeemed and be brought back into the grace of God.

May Almighty God awaken in all of us, the love which we ought to have for Him. May He bless us and empower us, that we shall be more devoted to the Lord, and may our faith be considered worthy by our loving God, who will then heal us from our afflictions as He had done with the paralytic man. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.