The Sánchez Archives SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME Year B

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Consecration in Overalls

Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12

A quick glance at today’s readings will reveal their readily discernible theme. Deutero-Isaiah and Mark have joined forces to remind the gathered assembly that ours is a God of healing and forgiveness. The prophet offers the assurance that God’s forgiveness offers a new beginning to the forgiven and encourages sinners with the promise of divine amnesia. When God forgives, the offense is wiped out; God forgives and forgets. The evangelist invites us to once again encounter Jesus, in whom the healing and forgiving power of God have become incarnate. In a dual act of mercy, the paralytic’s sins were forgiven and his broken body was healed. The man, who had been both spiritually and physically crippled was made whole and holy at a word from Jesus. Suffice it to say, we who recognize our shortcomings and neediness before the Lord will draw strength and comfort from today’s liturgy.

However, there is another, less evident and secondary motif that may warrant some consideration, viz., the faith and friendship of the four people who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus. Obviously, they shared a hope that something could be done for their ailing friend. We may assume that they did not ascribe to the popular notion that the man deserved his plight because of his sinfulness. They did not blame him, accuse him of sin or judge his worthiness or lack thereof to be healed. He was simply their friend who needed their help.

Moreover, they were not deterred by the difficulty of their task. Not only did the four carry the man to meet Jesus, they were willing to brave the crowds and the possible ridicule of others. When they could not gain admittance to Jesus’ presence in the usual way, they took it upon themselves to remove part of the roof and lower the man through the opening. Notice that Jesus attributed their efforts to their faith and their faith proved to be the catalyst for their friend’s spiritual and physical rehabilitation by Jesus. Surprisingly, Mark tells his readers nothing of the paralyzed man’s thoughts or motivations and makes no comment about his faith. Rather, it was the faith of his friends that proved to be the turning point in the man’s life.

At this point in our considerations, we might be inclined to wonder what would have happened to the paralyzed man had it not been for the lived faith and loving friendship of his companions. Would he have met Jesus? Would he have been healed? Would his sins have been forgiven? Or would he have lived out the remainder of his days crippled and unaware of the tender mercies of God? These questions confront us with the responsibility we have for one another both as members of the family of humankind and as brothers and sisters in the faith.

At times I will be the one paralyzed by fear, selfishness, pride, greed, etc… Unaware of the profundity of my own need and unable or unwilling to do anything on my own behalf, I will need you to care for me enough, and to believe in God enough, to carry me where I need to go. I will need your faith to bring me to healing and forgiveness. At other times, you will be the one who needs the strength and support of my faith to sustain you and make you whole. Faith is the network that binds each of us to one another and to Christ. Faith is the parachute that keeps us aloft and the safety net that breaks our fall. In her reflections on this great community-creating virtue, Evelyn Underhill ( The Fruits of the Spirit , London: 1949) described faith as “consecration in overalls.” More than a proclamation of words or creeds, faith is a lived response to the reality of and in God in our midst. As exemplified in the four companions featured in today’s gospel, faith is the reason behind the hard work of friendship and communal caring.

Consecrated to God and to one another, those who have faith recognize their solidarity with one another and live responsibly. In his book, No Man Is An Island (Harcourt Brace & Co., New York: 1955), Thomas Merton underscored this solidarity and its necessity for salvation. What every person looks for in life is their own salvation and the salvation of those they live with. By salvation, I mean first of all the full discovery of who I really am. Then I mean something of the fulfillment of my own God-given powers, in the love of others and the love of God. I mean also the discovery that I cannot find myself in me alone but that I must find who I am in and through others. As Paul has said, “We are all members one of another.” Every other person is a piece of myself, for I am a part and a member of humankind. We are all members of Christ; therefore, no man, no woman is an island.

ISAIAH 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25

In her book entitled, Traits of a Healthy Spirituality, Melannie Svoboda tells the story of H. Jackson Brown. On his fifty-first birthday, Brown decided to jot down some of the life lessons he had learned during his lifetime. He copied the phrase, “I’ve learned that” twenty times on a piece of paper and proceeded to complete the sentences. Brown enjoyed the experience so much that he asked for the input of his friends and acquaintances. Eventually he had enlisted the help of hundreds of people from pre-school students to senior citizens. Their pooled efforts resulted in a book entitled, Live, Learn, and Pass It On. Here are a few of the entries:

A seven-year old: “I’ve learned that you can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.”
A twenty-year old: “I’ve learned that trust is the single most important factor in personal and professional relationships.”
A fifty-two-year old woman: “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a man by the way he deals with three things: a rainy holiday, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
A fifty-four-year old man: “I’ve learned that you can’t hug your kids too much.”
An eighty-two-year old: “I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be a pain.”

Life lessons are precious and practical possessions, drawn from a variety of experiences, and the entire gamut of human emotions. Etched into memory by struggles and suffering, life lessons prompt growth and development and, if we allow them, will help to make us wise and compassionate.

In today’s first reading, the sixth century B.C.E. prophet whom we know simply as Deutero-Isaiah was inviting his contemporaries to recognize the life lessons they were learning as a result of their exile in Babylonia. Shamed and disappointed, they were to learn that they could not rely solely on their own resources but on God. They learned that infidelity to the covenant made them susceptible to defeat. But, more importantly, they learned that theirs was a God whose loving mercy precluded the keeping of grudges. Rather than tally up and record their repeated wrongdoings and render a deserved judgment of punishment, God promised to grant the exiles the gift of a new beginning. Failures of the past would not be remembered; indeed, all their sins would be wiped out. Notice the immediacy with which the prophet speaks for God. Using the present tense, he assures his contemporaries that God is acting on their behalf to do something new now (v. 19). As R.B.Y Scott (The Interpreter’s Bible, Abingdon Press, Nashville: TN 1956) has explained, the prophet is so certain of the truth of what he is saying, so sure of the imminence of redemption that he sees it taking place before his very eyes. He asks his fellow exiles, “Do you not perceive it.” (v.19) Deutero-Isaiah’s faith gives him the vision to see what only faith can see.

Judah’s new beginning (v. 8: “See, I am doing something new!”) would reprise the exodus from Egypt whereby they first entered into a covenant relationship with God and became a nation settled in a land of their own. Walter Brueggemann (Texts For Preaching, John Knox Press, Louisville: 1993) described God’s “new thing” as an active intervention which will transform the circumstances of the exiles and as a miracle whereby judgment becomes promise, exile becomes homecoming, abrasion becomes reconciliation and death becomes life. The past is to be scuttled and forgotten and the displaced people of Judah are to be overwhelmed by God’s generous, gracious, decisive newness.

In lyrical style, the prophet detailed the journey home (vv.19-21). Parched desert expanses would become a well-watered pathway; the transformed earth would be reflecting the transformation of a people whose sins have been forgiven, whose fundamental relationship (with God) has been restored and whose dignity has been renewed. They had indeed, learned a life lesson, viz., God forgives, forgets and forges a new beginning for those who believe.

2 CORINTHIANS 1:18-22

Paul lived large. Although his name (Paulus) means “small one”, there was nothing diminutive about his spiritual stature. He was not afraid or hesitant to speak his mind; after all, he had made his own the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). Never one to mince words, Paul had taken to heart the mandate of Jesus, “Let your “Yes” mean “Yes” and your “No” mean “No” (Matthew 5:37). Therefore, when he was accused by the Corinthians of being less than forthright or inconsistent, Paul responded with a vigor that is still palpable after almost two thousand years.

Evidently, some of the Corinthian believers were upset that Paul had found it necessary to alter his travel plans. In his first letter, he had promised to go to Corinth and spend the winter there after passing through Macedonia (see 1 Corinthians 16:5-6). For reasons that remain unclear, Paul’s promised visit never materialized. His critics accused him of being unstable, cowardly and/or unconcerned for their welfare. Moreover, they reasoned that if Paul could not be trusted to keep his promises, perhaps his preaching of the good news should be held suspect as well. Their accusations, i.e., that he said “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time (2 Corinthians 1:17) echoed the well-known lines of the Roman dramatist Terence, who in his play, The Eunuch, portrayed an insincere scoundrel as saying: “Whatever they say, I praise; if again they say the opposite, I praise that too. If one says no, I say no; if one says yes, I say yes. In fact, I have given orders to myself to agree with them in everything.” The criticisms of the Corinthians prompted a response from Paul in which he defended his decision, his integrity, his commitment to them and to the gospel as he had preached it among them.

Calling on God as his witness and defender and Jesus as his model and mentor, Paul affirmed that whatever he did, even if it entailed a change of itinerary, he was saying yes to God. Therefore, if his plans to visit had to be changed, the Corinthians should understand and accept that Paul was simply obeying the will of God.

Paul reminded his readers of two things. First, it is through Jesus, who is the very “yes” of God to a world in need of salvation, that we say “Amen” or “so be it” to the promise of God. As William Barclay (“Corinthians”, The Daily Study Bible, St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh: 1975) has noted, “Amen” is the word that expresses our confidence that we can pray to God with assurance and hope because Jesus is the guarantee that our prayers will be heard and that all God’s promises are true. Second, Paul made reference to the baptismal gift of the Holy Spirit as an arrabon, or first installment of a payment. A term borrowed from the realms of law and finance, an arrabon was offered as a guarantee that the rest of what was owed would be forthcoming. When Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as an arrabon given us by God, he means that the life into which we have been initiated at baptism is the first installment of the life of heaven and the guarantee that the fullness of eternal life will one day be ours.

As Paul’s defense of himself and his ministry is proclaimed in our hearing today, contemporary believers may find themselves challenged by his integrity. Is my “yes” truly “yes”; is my “no” truly “no”? Thus challenged, we are also to find ourselves encouraged by Paul’s promise that the Holy Spirit is an ever present gift, empowering us to authentic faith and service. Detractors and critics may come and go; their words may wound and sting, but the Holy Spirit abides, enabling us to live in a posture of continually saying “yes” to God.

MARK 2:1-12

Jesus’ encounter with the paralyzed man at Capernaum is the fourth in a series of healings which will be followed by a series of four controversies between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. Contextually, the cure of the paralytic, both spiritually and physically, forms a link between the two series of narratives; the transition from the healing stories to the controversies is bridged by Mark’s mention of the conflict provoked by Jesus’ words and works. Even though they remained unspoken (vv. 6-8), Jesus was aware of his detractors’ thoughts. Basing themselves on their traditions as preserved in their scriptures (Exodus 34:6-9; 2 Samuel 12:3; Isaiah 43:25; Psalm 51), the scribes contended that forgiveness of human sin was solely a divine prerogative. Incensed that Jesus claimed this prerogative as his own, his critics judged him guilty of blasphemy. Such accusations would punctuate Jesus’ entire public ministry and would come to a climax at the trial that led to his execution on the cross (Mark 14:60-64).

As William Barclay (“The Gospel of Mark”, The Daily Study Bible, The St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh: 1975) has pointed out, forgiving the paralyzed man’s sins may seem an odd way to begin a cure. But in Judah at the time of Jesus, it was natural and inevitable. Recall the fact that the Jews associated suffering with sin. Recall also the lengthy saga of Job which explores this issue so vividly. Job’s friends made the case that he must have sinned because the “innocent did not perish” (Job 4:7). The rabbis also had a saying, “There is no sick man healed of his sickness until all his sins have been forgiven him.” Aware of, but not in agreement with contemporary ideas about sin and disease, Jesus forgave the ailing man’s sins and then, as an illustration of his power to grant forgiveness, he cured the man of his paralysis. Seeing that the man was able to pick up his mat and go home as Jesus instructed, the scribes were challenged to draw their own conclusions. Jesus did have the power to forgive sins; the man’s restoration to health was an irrefutable attestation to that fact.

Although Mark makes no comment as to the scribes’ reaction to Jesus’ actions, he tells us that the people who had gathered at Jesus’ home in Capernaum were “awestruck and gave praise to God.” Here, as elsewhere in his gospel, the evangelist underscored Jesus’ unique power and authority (1:27-28; 3:10; 4:41; 5:51). His was not a derived authority. When he taught, he did preface his words with a reference to the law, the prophets or to any other rabbi (as in “Thus it is written in the law,” “This spoke the prophet,” or “Thus said Rabbi ‘so and so’). Jesus spoke with the authority that was rightfully his as Son of God and Messiah: “I say to you….” (v. 11).

Through his acts of power (healing, forgiveness) and by virtue of his own authoritative teaching, Jesus made present the saving reign of God. In every act and through every teaching, Jesus challenged his contemporaries to faith. The paralyzed man was able to meet that challenge by relying on the faith of his four friends. We may assume that after his encounter with Jesus, he returned home with those same friends rejoicing in the gifts of his newfound wholeness and holiness. We can hope that he discovered in himself a faith that echoed that of his friends in responding to God and in leading one another the mutual support that enable faith to grow. We can pray that we might discover or rediscover a similar faith in ourselves.

[NOTE TO USERS: This archive is available for use without charge, but it remains the property of the author and under copyright with Celebrations Publications. Users are permitted to print individual Sunday commentaries for pastoral use, but are prohibited from downloading or copying files or printing any portion of this for sale or distribution.]