Readings: Psalm 103:10-14, Matthew 9:1-8

This week on Saint Valentine’s Day, we were called not only to remembrance of our romantic relationships, but as Christians to ‘remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return’.

Ash Wednesday began our journeying back into the desert with Jesus – a place of contemplation and fasting – to rediscover our thirst and hunger for God in the wilderness.

This is not an easy journey, as the rain falls on the evil and the good. This fundamental equality unites us not into one homogenised whole, our unity does not deny difference but embraces each in our diversity yet within a unity of purpose, in our common physiological and psychological needs – that is our grounding, but then also in our need to soar like the eagles, to extend our consciousness beyond the visible to a place beyond ourselves, a place heavenward to be united in God. St Paul encourages us to ‘being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.’ (Philippians 2:2).

‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,’ he says (Philippians 2:3). And this is what we see in the faith of the friends of the paralysed man in today’s reading. Jesus saw their faith through their action – how beautiful their love and desire for their friend, made visible in that they carried him through the crowds, lifted him high upon a rooftop, then broke through with their faith, hope and love, to have Jesus see and heal their friend. For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. (Luke 12:23).

And Jesus came to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, release for those imprisoned. (Isaiah 61:1) Captive to the dust that held the paralysed man unable to fulfil his basic needs without help, came the Word of God, the Spirit that breathes life, the touch of His voice like a gentle breeze released from His heart. “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house,” and the man walks.

In this encounter the paralysed man is restored in body and soul, his autonomy, his freedom to move with or against the wind has been restored. No longer a captive to his body but now to have power over it by his free will, his perfect freedom restored.

We were created to have life, to move in and shape the space around us – for us and for our friends, our families, our communities and so on.

This was not to restore some body ideal, but for us to see the hope of heaven to come, that our ideal is in our actuality rather than potentiality. Isaiah foretold the Messiah would have ‘no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.’ The man has instead been restored to the body’s grace.

We cannot suppose why he was given to such suffering for a time, yet through him God’s grace has been made visible for us all to see. If God’s purpose was to punish us, then He would not have sent His only Son into the world to save us. In reconciling us to Himself we are restored to walking with Him, cleansed in the depths of our being to return to Eden in the depths of our hearts. No longer captive to the original sin of Adam and Eve, but now with personal responsibility for our own! Yes, we still walk in the world, but belong also to a chorus of heavenly voices that sing a harmony so sweet in praise for the glory of our Creator.

The humanity within me is the humanity within us all. Henri Nouwen said, “if you believe deeply that God loves you intimately and personally – you will be able to see how much other people are loved.” We do not need to regard ourselves as contemptible for the sake of humility, but instead we regard the capability of our ‘collective’ humanity as that of our own and grieve.

Flight from worldliness, and from self-justification is not necessarily a physical distance, as in fleeing to the mountains in solitude, but a recognition and weeping for the sins of humanity along with our own failings but then taking responsibility for doing something about it – for doing good in the world!

The Brothers Karamazov likewise wrote, “There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan’s pride and murmuring against God.” (Book VI – The Russian Monk, Chapter 3 – Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zosima).

God, the first cause, moved us, gave us this life not so He becomes every cause within our experience for then nothing would be free, freedom itself would be a sham, and without real freedom true love cannot exist.

Love is the voice in our depths that speaks of beauty, it wants us to see who we are, sacred and precious. Love like an echo of relationship at different orders of magnitude, simple and pure – like a gentle whisper across the eternal stillness of a moment, its softness an expression of our deepest being like an embodied touch of rising joy.

We wonder at the stars and up as high as the heavens are above the earth, yet how great is His forgiveness, how wide is His mercy for those who love Him? Our sins and failings may be many, and in times like these the weight of wars fall heavy upon us, yet He does not treat us according to our iniquities.

This is not however a get out of jail free card, for God knew us in our mother’s womb, He has counted all the hairs upon our heads, where can we go and hide from Him who is in all places and beyond? Is a moment past forever true? God promises us forgiveness if we follow Him. In recognising the awfulness of our suffering, whatever that may be, if we truly love our brothers and sisters as ourselves then we would not wish that same suffering upon any other. Jesus paid the price in leading us to freedom so that when we find ourselves at the gates of heaven and we have truly loved He will say ‘welcome friend’, because we made known everything that was revealed to us in the person of Christ.

His presence in every place that we are holds the power of love in our hearts and will shine forever with an eternal fire deep within our souls.

Therefore, as Pope Francis has said, “let us pray together tirelessly, because prayer is effective. May we ask the Lord for the gift of minds and hearts dedicated concretely to peace.” A peace that surpasses all understanding that in a tired and dark world brings out of us the light of hope and truth to those still lost and waiting to be found.

Amen.