THAT beautiful gospel episode about a man with palsy who was
brought to Christ by his friends for a cure in a very dramatic way
(cfr. Lk 5,17-26) teaches us the lessons that a strong faith is needed
for miracles to happen, that miracles are meant more to forgive our
sins and for our salvation rather than just curing an ailment, and
that we have to be wary of our tendency to be fault-finders due to our
unbelief.
Indeed, miracles require a strong faith since they are an
extraordinary divine and supernatural intervention. They are like
asking God to go beyond but not against our natural capabilities that
will always be hounded by our limitations, weaknesses and the
consequences of our sins.
God never abandons us and is always solicitous of our needs.
The problem is simply ours because we tend to ignore him and, worse,
to be weak in our faith or even not to have faith. We need to do
something to address this predicament of ours. Let’s study the
doctrine of faith, start to live it by making many acts of faith
throughout the day, etc.
Let’s remember that if we have faith, Christ assured us that
nothing would be impossible. Let’s relish his words: “If you have
faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain,
Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be
impossible to you.” (Mt 17,20)
Also, we have to realize more deeply that miracles are meant
more for the forgiveness of our sins, for our salvation, rather than
just giving us some cure or remedy to an ailment of ours.
In fact, we can say that any miraculous cure is meant for
the purpose of our salvation. It’s not just to give us some earthly
relief, though there is no doubt that such relief would already
constitute a tremendous favor. We should never miss this aspect of a
miracle that can come to us, otherwise that miracle would go to waste
or would spoil us.
In this particular gospel episode of the man with the palsy,
Christ did not immediately cure him of his ailment. Rather he forgave
the man’s sins which led to some of the unbelieving Jews to question
him. Christ used that occasion to clarify that he has the power to
forgive sins, precisely because he is God who became man to save us.
The miraculous cure served as some kind of proof to his divinity.
We also have to be wary of our tendency to be unbelieving,
especially because we have to contend with spiritual and supernatural
realities that may challenge our understanding. Here, we simply have
to be humble to be able to receive what is told to us by faith. We
have to realize that our life, being a life with God and therefore is
supernatural, needs to be lived by faith more than just by our reason
alone.
We have to constantly struggle against our tendency to be
dependent only on our reason and our feelings. These human faculties
of ours can only capture a part of the reality that governs us. It is
the faith that gives us the global picture of things, since it relates
us to God, our Father and Creator, and tells us everything we need to
know and do to be able to be with God, as our life ought to be.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enteprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
