Forgiven and Healed

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven...rise, pick up your mat and go home” (Mark 2:5-6, 9)

As a young, struggling attorney, Abraham Lincoln felt honored to be employed on an important case.  The other attorneys on his team were well known for their legal ability and courtroom skill.  As the trial was about to begin, however, one of those attorneys, seeing Lincoln, remarked, “What is that gawky ape doing here?  I refuse to work with him.  Get rid of him.”  Lincoln remained calm and pretended not to hear the deliberate insult.

As the trial proceeded, Lincoln was ignored by his team members.  In fact, he was never even recognized as one of the attorneys at all.  Nonetheless, he listened carefully to the court proceeding and observed his insulter’s masterful handling of the case who won it hands-down.  The next day, Lincoln was quoted as saying, “His brilliant argument was a revelation to me.  He was expertly prepared, fluent in his presentation, and undoubtedly the most professional cross-examiner I have ever witnessed.  I can’t hold a candle to his abilities.  I am going home to study law all over again.”

Years later, when Lincoln had become our 16^th president, that same attorney who had so rudely insulted him became Lincoln’s most outspoken critic.  However, Lincoln never forgot the man’s brilliance.  When an appointment was needed for secretary of war, Lincoln chose Edwin M. Stanton, the very man who had wounded and insulted him.  Lincoln proved his character by offering a forgiving spirit rather than a lifetime grudge.

Shortly thereafter, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth.  Stanton, filled with sorrow and inconsolable grief, sobbed; “Now he belongs to the ages.”

Forgiveness permeates the teaching of Jesus.  It’s enshrined in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s dramatized in his parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son, each of which drives home the point that ours is a forgiving God.

Forgiveness is underscored in his instruction to Peter -- forgive others not just seven times, but seventy times seven times.  And, of course, Jesus practices what he preaches.   He forgives the adulterous woman, the good thief and even his executioners.   And, in today’s gospel he forgives the paralytic, but interestingly, he does it without even being asked to do so before healing him physically, which he is asked to do.  Why?

Jesus understands that people suffering physically also suffer mentally and emotionally and that people depressed or guilt-ridden also suffer physical symptoms, so for him, bodily and spiritual healing are one in the same.  In other words, since he makes no distinction between physical and spiritual wellbeing, his approach toward healing is holistic.

Does anyone doubt the interrelationship between physical and spiritual health?   That what happens to the body affects the soul and vice versa?    

Consider what happens when we refuse to forgive.  We perceive ourselves as victims.  According to this way of thinking, we have a right to demand justice from the person who’s hurt us and justice can only be accomplished by hurting that person back.   It’s only fair, after all, that our tormentor should experience our pain and continue to experience it for a long, long time. 

Only when we’ve had our revenge, we rationalize, will the slate be wiped clean and our pain disappear.  And so we seek vengeance because we expect it to be sweet.  But is it?   How many of us have gone to great lengths to avenge a wrong, only to find that once we do, we’ve accomplished little more than making ourselves loveless and alone – trapped in self-imposed “victim hood?”  Recall at the end of The Godfather movie trilogy, the character Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, on the steps of the Palermo Opera House cradling the dead body of his beloved daughter, screaming in torment.  A life lived according to rules of Sicilian vendetta ending in exquisite anguish!   

Unless you’re a masochist, what satisfaction is there in causing another to suffer if your own pain remains and worsens in the process?   Bearing a grudge/seeking revenge is like drinking poison expecting it to kill your tormentor.  It doesn’t!                       

We forgive because the price we pay for not forgiving is too great.  Not forgiving gives the person who’s hurt us the power to continue to hurt us.  It binds us to him or her as if by a metal chain, while forgiveness breaks the chain and sets us free.

To bear grudges, to harbor hate, to seek revenge, are all self-defeating. They don’t satisfy or heal.  They keep us from moving forward and starting over again.  They bury positive energies in negativity, which serves only to exhaust and deplete us. They keep us suspicious and hesitant to trust or love again. They cause ulcers, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attacks, depression and a host of other physical and emotional ailments. They destroy our creativity, retard our spiritual growth, and make it impossible for us to love God and neighbor.

Do you see why in today’s gospel, Jesus forgives the paralytic’s sin before healing his bodily paralysis?  For your own spiritual and physical well-being, do you need to forgive someone and/or yourself?   If so, what are you waiting for?

Anthony J. Sciolino  

Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25/80;
Corinthians 1:18-22;
Mark 2:1-12. 
7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
February 19, 2006. (Cycle B).