THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost 30 September 2012

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

Let us consider today the man sick with the palsy and his bed. This man in his illness was confined to his bed and in this condition was completely reliant upon his friends. This man was truly blessed to have such friends who had faith in Jesus, because they carried him in his bed to Jesus. It was because of the faith of this sick man’s friends that Jesus forgave the sick man of his sins. Not only is the sick man dependent upon his friends for his physical needs, but we see that he is likewise dependent upon them for spiritual assistance also. It is therefore most often that sinners who receive the grace of repentance and accept penance do so due to the faith and merits of others. 

Sickness is often a sign of sin or bears some connection to sin, so we must in our own sicknesses seek first forgiveness for our sins and then the health of our bodies. Very often we are only concerned with our bodies and tend to forget our souls. Physical sickness too often focuses our attention only upon our flesh. We need to re-think our attitudes and priorities. We must begin to seek first the health of our souls and then concern ourselves with the health of our bodies, because Jesus healed this man’s soul before He healed his body.

The sick man is confined to his bed and is unable to help himself and is therefore dependent upon the charity of others. The person in mortal sin finds himself in this same situation because he can do nothing for himself to regain the grace he has lost. That grace of repentance is a gift from God often only given because of the faith and merits of others. The man in sin finds that he has lost control and is carried forth by his transgressions and goes where they lead him rather than where he would want to go, just as the sick man is carried in his bed where others wish to carry him rather than perhaps where he might desire to go. 

This bed also symbolizes our sins because so many of men’s sins are committed there. We are bound to our sins like the sick man is bound to his bed. Sinners are carried around by their sins just as this sick man was carried around on his bed. It is often within our own power to lie down on the bed when we are sick but very often it is no longer within our power to rise up again and we need the help of others. In like manner we can freely enter into sin by ourselves but, we are incapable of rising out of sin by ourselves – we need the grace of God and the help of others. It would be good for everyone to think when going to sleep in his bed that he will perhaps spend his last days or hours confined to bed and if the bed has been the place of many sins it will become a place of fear and torment in his last days. We should therefore sanctify this bed with prayers before and after entering it and often blessing it with holy water – resolving never to desecrate it with sin.  

If anything, our beds should become as the couch of David that he watered nightly with his tears of repentance. (Psalm 6,7) In this manner we can heal our souls from the bondage of sin and rise from sin as we rise from our beds. Instead of being held by our sins as the sick man was held by his bed we must with the grace of God; receive the forgiveness of our sins, and then rise from them and, take up this bed and carry it away rather than be carried away by it. This bed which was the occasion and/or source for sin, because of our spiritual sickness, now becomes our burden or cross, which we must carry in the spirit of penance. In taking up this cross, the constant reminder of our sins, we are always reminded of the weight of our sins and the mercy of God. We receive in this burden the opportunity to follow Christ: “Take up your cross daily and come follow Me.” (Luke 9, 23)

As bitter as the bed of sin was to us while we were in sin so much the more does it, as our daily cross of remorse and repentance, become to us a blessing and a joy. All that was bitter and heavy has become sweet and light. (Matt 11, 30) 

May we never forget the lessons and observations given to us today in the healing of this man sick with sin in the soul and also sick with palsy in the body. Christ heals first the soul and then the body, showing us that we must seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and then the things of this earth will be given us besides. (Matt 6, 33) We also find that the bed of sin is filled with suffering and misery, but once we rise from sin it becomes our cross in penance and though it is a source of many tears of remorse and penance it becomes a cross of sweetness and joy which we shall carry daily in imitation of Jesus. We should also always remember to show our gratitude to those known and unknown whose faith has merited for us from God the words: “Thy sins are forgiven thee” because it is due to the faithful prayers and sacrifices of others that we merit this grace.