Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week after Pentecost

The crowds that witnessed the healing of the man with the palsy

were filled with awe at seeing it, and praised God for giving such powers to men.

St Matthew 9.8

How much more should we not glorify God, we who know that the miracle was performed, not by a man, but by a God, who is still living and working among us by his Sacraments and the power he has given his priests?

A man sick of the palsy, impotent in body, more impotent in soul, enchained by sin, hears that Jesus has returned to Capharnaum. For some time, he has been longing to meet him, and now he knows where to find him he implores his friends to carry him to the feet of the Miracle-worker.

Jesus had already seen him and loved him just because he was helpless; it is for the sick and the impotent that he has come down to earth; what need of a physician have those who are in full health?

Jesus has but one desire: to go about doing good. He became man, not to extinguish but to inflame the smoking flax, to ment the broken reed, to set the prisoner free, to announce liberty to the oppressed, and to bring about his Father’s year of grace, when he, the Lamb of God, willhave taken away the sins of the world. For that his Father sent him; for that he thirsts, because it is the divine will that he should bring freedom and grace to all those who hope in the Lord.

Therefore Jesus rejoices when he sees this man come, in his time of need, to him who can make him rich. He bends over him and bids him take courage; is not all well with those to whom Jesus whispers, Continue reading “the powers God gives to men”