Friday – 1st Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Mark2:1-12

Persistent Faith and Friendship

St. Peter’s Church, Capernaum

I keep getting this image of Jesus as some sort of rock star.  He’s been away on tour for the past few days, preaching, curing and casting out demons all throughout Galilee.  And now He’s come back home to Capernaum, I imagine, to catch His breath and get some rest.  Not gonna happen!  He is mobbed, so much so that He can’t even get out of His own house; even the doorway is blocked with people.  So now He preaches and teaches at home; essentially He works from home!  Pre-Zoom I guess!

And now 4 men arrive carrying their friend who is paralyzed. There is no way to see Him.  You would think they would give up but not so.  They climb the roof, open a hole and then lower their friend down!  Creative?  Yes!  Persistent?  Most definitely!

Consider what this tells us.  How deep and loving is their friendship for their sick friend!  The lengths they will go to in order to even meet Jesus!  And consider their faith in Jesus, their obviously unshaken belief that He can cure their friend.  Even Jesus is amazed and recognizes their deep faith! 

They heard the Good News!  They believed what they heard!  And they acted on that belief!  They changed their routine, their life, out of love for their friend and faith in the Lord.  Can we say the same?  Aren’t we all believers?  Don’t we all have a friend who is struggling, in this continuing time of pandemic, to stay upright?  So what’s stopping us? 

Maybe that’s our mission today (and in the days ahead) – to reach out to those we call friend and put our Christian beliefs into action - to support them in their time of need, carry them on our shoulders if necessary, to be persistent in our friendship and in our faith!  But I would suggest we refrain from putting holes in peoples’ roofs!

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