Monday in the Eighteenth Week after Pentecost

Penance is a disposition of the soul, an interior attitude, intimately connected with Christianity. Christ in his first sermon said,

Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.

St Matthew 4.17

Repentance is a change of outlook, fresh orientation of thought, combat and deed. It means putting off the old Adam, with his purely human values and appreciations, and a putting-on of Christ with his values, his ambitions.

Penance is not an affair of any given moment, of any one day; it is an attitude to be maintained all through life. The weekly confession imposed by their rule on all religious is an act of penance, raised to the rank of a sacrament. Each one is a new orientation towards God, a return to the rod that leads to heaven.

As Christ on the eve of his Passion gave us the Blessed Eucharist, so on the day of his resurrection he gave us the sacrament of penance. The gift of his mercy followed the gift of his love. Continue reading “The Sacrament of Penance”

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lord, in today’s Gospel, what power you manifest! If you heal the body, you first, by a greater miracle, heal the soul. You begin by what for us is the most important: peace of mind.

Our hearts desire peace and happiness, which none but you can give. Purify our souls of sin and the tendency to sin — the two great obstacles to interior peace. Help us to be faithful to your commandments and to our vows, that so we may attain eternal glory.

Jesus is once again in Capharnaum, his own city. As soon as his arrival is known, the sick begin to throng around him. The house is already full, when men appear, carrying another stretcher. Impossible to enter the house, but the bearers were determined, by one means or another, to bring their palsied friend to Jesus‘ feet. They climb on the roof — the house was a low one — carrying the sick man with them, and let him down, just at the Master’s feet.

The sick man looks trustfully at the Saviour; the onlookers stand breathless with suspense. What will happen now? Then Jesus breaks the silence, looking tenderly on the sufferer:

Son, take courage, thy sins are forgiven.

But some of the Scribes say to themselves,

He is talking blasphemously, God alone can forgive sins.

Jesus reads in their hearts as in an open book, and answers their unspoken thought:

Tell me, which command is more lightly given, to say to a man, Thy sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise up and walk?

He spoke to the sick man:

Rise up, take thy bed with thee, and go home.

They see the miracle; before their eyes the palsied man rises and walks; impossible to question the power of the divine Healer of soul and body.

(cf. St Matthew 9, St Mark 2) Continue reading “thy sins are forgiven”