The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Which is easier to say "Thy sins are forgiven thee"; or to say "Arise and walk"?

In the healing of the body we are very often presented with seemingly impossible problems and difficulties. How easily and quickly we can harm and damage the health and even the life of this body of ours; but how hard and difficult it is to restore health and life to our bodies. Our doctors present us with countless operations, procedures, and drugs to alleviate symptoms and pain, but seldom cure or heal; and often cause even more problems. Realizing this we can understand what is entailed in saying to a crippled man: "Arise and walk". This would have to be something far above the normal.

Understanding what a wonderful thing it is to heal the body, we can begin to see what an even more wonderful thing it is to heal the soul. For the soul is much more elevated and precious than the body. The cure of the body may be obtainable through natural means but the cure of the soul can only be accomplished by its creator _ God.

When Christ says to the man "thy sins are forgiven thee", He has performed something that the people had never seen or heard. They deemed this impossible because this is something that only God can do. Rather than draw the logical conclusion that this Man is God, they chose rather to harbor the evil thought in their hearts that Christ was a blasphemer.

In order to dispel their evil thoughts Christ then performs another miracle, a less spectacular one, but one that they could more easily see and perhaps understand. He heals the man's body. "Arise and walk". This second miracle though less than the first was given to prove the first one.

How contrary this seems to right reason. It would seem more logical to offer a greater miracle to confirm a lesser not a lesser miracle to confirm the greater one. But, because of our fallen nature, Christ is forced to accommodate Himself to our level. He heals a body to prove that He has healed a soul.

All the witnesses to this event have only one correct conclusion to form: not only is Christ a great man with powers to heal infirmities, but He exercises the power of God in the healing of souls. Thus, He is both God and man.

There should be no doubt in our minds today that Christ is God and that He has the power to forgive sins. Please note that He does not say they are covered up or hidden but they are forgiven _ washed away _ gone. Christ does not accept the sinner the way he is, Christ only accepts him when he is cleansed of his sin. So it was necessary not only for Christ to forgive sins while He was here on earth, but He also established a priesthood to carry on this work of His. He placed His power in the hands of His priests so that in His name they can forgive men their sins.

But, just as there are many different "doctors" that attempt to heal the body and often cause more problems than they correct, so there are many "preachers" that pretend to heal souls and only cause more problems than the poor sinner began with. How many are given the Protestant suggestion that there is nothing wrong with them and that God loves them just the way they are. While their consciences writhe in agony they "bravely" put on a smile and pretend that all is well. And though they might deceive most people they cannot deceive God or themselves.

The only cure for our souls is the one that Christ has given us Himself. We must humble ourselves before His priest in the sacrament of Confession and receive absolution and do our penance. We must hate our sins — such that we have true remorse for having committed them and we must form the intention with the help of God's grace of never committing them again.

Christ could read the heart of the crippled man and knew the state of his soul. He could see that the crippled man detested his sins and was truly repentant and thus He can forgive him and say to him: "Thy sins are forgiven." The priests that Christ has sent in His name to forgive sins is unable to read our hearts so we must humble ourselves and open up our hearts to him. We must reveal that which is most embarrassing and humiliating to us so that he can advise, correct and heal us in the name of Christ. And when a true Catholic priest with faculties absolves us then we know that our sins are forgiven.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?