Friday in the First Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle I
I Sam 8:4-22; Mk 2:1-12
Jean Vanier was once asked the question, “Why so much suffering around us?” He replied by reformulating the question. He said, "I think that what you mean is, 'Why do so many people suffer and it seems as though nobody cares?'" Perhaps the problem is that we think of suffering as their problem, their fault, their fate.
This belief is firmly ingrained in our minds today, and perhaps even more in biblical times. People used to relate illness and disability with sin. Recall how according to Biblical understanding (Jewish hermeneutics) in yesterday's Gospel the man with leprosy was in some way considered in some way to be also a sinner. In the story of the man born blind in the gospel of John (Chapter 9), the people ask Jesus whether it was him who sinned or his parents (yes, they thought that if it were not his parents who sinned, then he must have sinned on his own in his mother's womb!). Even nowadays some still make the mistake of thinking that certain diseases (such as AIDS) are a punishment for certain (sexual) sins, forgetting how many die when it is not their own fault at all (such as HIV-positive babies).
Jesus came to show us what the true meaning of sin as punishment. After all, in Genesis, we read that after Adam and Eve sinned, they too were punished by God (Gen 3:16-19) and St Paul in his letter to the Romans says that the punishment of sin is death (Rm 6:23). So what exactly is going on here?
In the first reading, the sin of the People of Israel is envy. As a People they were not to have a king because God alone is their king. However they soon forget that God is their king and therefore they think that they act as though they so not have one, acting however they please. Instead of coming together and deciding to start all over again, they get envious and jealous of their neighbouring peoples. If they have a king - they say - then why shouldn't we have a king too? After all, having a king brings with it a lot of benefits and riches and power!
However God warns them through Samuel that they will have indeed a king if that is what they want, but there is also a price that they will have to pay. Having a king also means that they are no longer free. Now they their men will have to work his fields, their daughters will have to take care of his palaces, they would have to pay him their dues. In a word they are no longer free. Their own envy has brought on them their own suffering, because they have overlooked God as their king.
However, God writes on our crooked lines. God uses their envy to bring about the plan of salvation for us. It turns out that Samuel anoints indeed a king, Saul. This is in fact another important step towards the building of the Kingdom of David which in turn leads to the coming of Christ.
In the Gospel, a paralysed man is brought in front of Jesus. The Pharisees are still thinking that he is paralysed because he is a sinful man and therefore can never be healed because only God can forgive sins. However Jesus proves that he is God by forgiving his sins and healing the man. This was only possible because of the faith of the four men who brought him before Jesus. Had they the same lack of faith that the Pharisees had, they would not even have gone through the trouble of dismantling the roof (calling the architect, removing the styrofoam ceiling tiles, carefully handling the electricity cables etc etc. Nah forget it! Too complicated!).
Instead, we see a group of paralytics: the Pharisees themselves. Insofar as they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they are paralysed even more than the man is. It is their stubbornness and lack of faith that has brought suffering on themselves, an inability to move forward and to progress in their faith.
If we sit back and condemn others, we are not any different from the Pharisees and we paralyse ourselves and others with us. But we are called to be like the four men who have brought the paralysed man before Jesus. Our faith can bring others closer to Jesus who has come to liberate us from all that oppresses us. Jesus gives us the power to dismantle (no not the styrofoam cieling) the structures which cause so much injustice and paralysis on many around us. Our love towards them can act as balm on the suffering that they endure not because of any sin that they have committed but because of the injustice and lack of sensitivity of others.
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