22nd February 2009
If you have ever been seriously ill, or have known somebody who was or is you would know how desperate we become for healing. People in seeking healing go all around the world to the various Marian Shrines; they also try alternative medicine, practice Yoga and similar meditations. Today's gospel talks also about healing, and also about the forgiveness of Sin. You notice how eager the men were to get the paralytic to Jesus that they even tear the roof away from the house. Jesus heals the man but he also forgives him his sins, an indicator to us that healing is not just of a physical kind, to be really healed we often need to be forgiven.
Next Wednesday is the beginning of Lent when we are signed with the ashes and encouraged to turn from sin and be faithful to the gospel, we are also reminded that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. However Lent can also be a joyful time, a time when we get back to basic and examine is the life I lead worthy of being a follower of Christ? Many of us are terribly hurt by life's happenings; some of us are prone to hold grudges, or to refuse to forgive someone who has wronged us in the past. Much of this happens within families and can stretch back from generation to generation, brothers and sisters who fell out decades ago and that bitterness poisons each new generation. That is not the kind of attitude that God wants, in fact we are often reminded to go and be reconciled before we approach him in prayer. That is not to say that forgiveness is easy, it is not, and indeed can take a lifetime. However forgiveness is not beyond us either, it demands effort and a living out of the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
The First Reading from Isaiah reminds us today that God forgives us and that we ourselves cannot merit his love. Perhaps we could keep Isaiah's words close to us this Lent, 'See I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it? Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wild'.
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Homilies Archive
17nd May 2009
26th April 2009
3rd Sunday of Easter
12th April 2009
Easter Sunday
9th April 2009
Holy Thursday
29th March 2009
5th Sunday in Lent
22nd March 2009
4th Sunday in Lent
17th March 2009
St. Patrick's Day
15th March 2009
3rd Sunday in Lent
8th March 2009
2nd Sunday in Lent
1st March 2009
1st Sunday in Lent
25th February 2009
Ash Wednesday
22nd February 2009
8th February 2009
1st February 2009
25th January 2009
18th January 2009
11th January 2009
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
6th January 2009
Feast of the Epiphany
4th January 2009
2008 HOMILIES ARCHIVE
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