7 December 2026 · Latin Rite
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“When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”” Luke 5:20
Isaiah 35 is a song of the desert in bloom: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad… Strengthen the weak hands… Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God… He will come and save you.’” Then the eyes of the blind are opened, the lame leap like a deer, and the redeemed walk the Holy Way home with singing.
In the Gospel the prophecy walks into a crowded house. Friends cannot get their paralysed companion near Jesus, so they open the roof and lower him down. “When he saw their faith”, Jesus first forgives his sins, then, to show that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”, tells him to stand up and walk. The deepest healing is forgiveness; the first miracle Advent asks for is a good Confession. St Ambrose, bishop of Milan, preached this mercy and baptised St Augustine at Easter 387.
Theme: “Here is your God.”
God makes the desert bloom, friends carry the paralysed man, Christ forgives.
“Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”” Isaiah 35:3–4
“Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”” Luke 5:26
Apply: Encourage someone who is afraid.
“Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” Isaiah 35:6
“When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”” Luke 5:20
Apply: Pray daily for a friend in need.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” Psalm 103:2–4
“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—he said to the one who was paralyzed—“I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.”” Luke 5:24
Apply: Go to Confession this Advent.
God's coming makes everything bloom.
Let him forgive and raise you up.
Take-home resolution: Bring someone with you to the parish Advent Confession service.
Dear friends, Isaiah paints a picture of joy: the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom. Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart: be strong, do not fear! Here is your God (Isaiah 35:1–4).
He promises that the eyes of the blind will be opened, the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy (Isaiah 35:5–6). These are the signs of the Messiah.
In the Gospel some men bring a paralysed man on a bed to Jesus. The crowd is too great, so they go up on the roof and let him down through the tiles right in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said: friend, your sins are forgiven you (Luke 5:18–20).
Notice: their faith. The paralysed man could not come by himself. His friends carried him, and they did not give up when the door was blocked. Jesus saw their faith and healed their friend. We can carry others to Jesus by our prayer and our love.
Notice too that Jesus first forgives sins, then heals the body. The deepest paralysis is sin. Then he says: stand up, take your bed and go home. And the man went home glorifying God (Luke 5:24–25).
Today we remember St Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who carried many to Christ, among them the young Augustine. Let us think of someone who cannot come to Jesus alone: a relative far from the faith, a sick friend, a struggling neighbour. Let us carry them in prayer this Advent, and not give up when the door seems blocked. Amen.
Children, four friends carried a sick man to Jesus. You can carry your friends to Jesus by praying for them!
Lord Jesus, you saw the faith of the friends and forgave the paralysed man. Strengthen my weak hands, make the dry places of my life bloom, and give me the joy of your forgiveness. Amen.
Isaiah sings of a desert that blooms, of the blind and the lame healed, and of a holy road home. In Luke the song reaches a crowded house: friends open a roof, and Jesus, seeing their faith, forgives a paralysed man and then tells him to walk. Isaiah says, “He will come and save you”; the Gospel shows him doing it, and shows that the deepest wound he heals is sin.
Setting.
This chapter follows a dark vision of judgment on Edom (Isaiah 34), and its language is so close to chapters 40–55 that many scholars see it as closely related to them. It speaks of a road home through a desert transformed. Yesterday we heard the call to build the road (40:3). Today we see who walks on it.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”” (35:4)
“Vengeance” here means that God will set right what was done to his people. Its last word is “save”.
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (35:5)
These are the very signs Jesus names for the disciples of John: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, … the deaf hear” (Matthew 11:5). Today's Gospel gives one of them.
“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (35:10)
Sorrow and sighing are pictured as intruders who run away when the procession arrives. Everything sad has at last been made to leave.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Jesus' healings are messianic signs, which announce a far greater liberation: from the slavery of sin (CCC 549). The Church reads Isaiah 35 in Advent so that we may recognise him when he comes. The Holy Way is now open in Christ, who says, “I am the way” (John 14:6).
Setting.
This is the first time Pharisees appear in Luke, together with teachers of the law from Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem. They are serious, observant men, who have come to find out about a new teacher. The scene opens a series of five disputes (5:17–6:11). Luke is careful to note at the start: “the power of the Lord was with him to heal.”
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”” (5:20)
“Their” faith: Jesus looks at the friends, and the man is healed because of what they did. This is the root of all intercession. Jesus does not say that the man's sickness was his punishment; he goes first to the deepest need.
“Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (5:21)
The question is correct, and their theology is sound: only God forgives sins. The only thing they have not yet seen is who is standing in front of them.
“Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God.” (5:25)
The visible sign supports the invisible gift. The bed that carried him he now carries. He leaves by the door, and he and the crowd end up doing the same thing: glorifying God.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that “only God forgives sins”, and that Jesus, as Son of God, exercises this divine power and gives it to men in his name (CCC 1441). It opens its teaching on the sacraments of healing with this very scene: Christ, physician of soul and body, who forgave the paralytic and restored him, willed that his Church continue this work (CCC 1421). St Ambrose, whose memorial is today, comments on this passage in his book on Luke: how great is the Lord, who forgives some for the merit of others (in substance).
Did the man's paralysis come from his sins?
The text does not say so. Some in that time took sickness to be a punishment for sin, but Jesus rejects this as a general rule (John 9:2–3). He treats both needs because he is the healer of the whole person (CCC 1503). Sin, not paralysis, is the deeper bondage, and that is why it comes first.
St Ambrose (died 397), governor at Milan and still a catechumen, was acclaimed bishop by the people, and was ordained on 7 December 374, the date of today's memorial. He preached so well that he helped bring St Augustine to the faith, and he baptised him at Easter in 387. He is one of the great Doctors of the Latin Church. He wrote the Advent hymn Veni, Redemptor gentium, and he spoke of Mary as a type of the Church (Lumen Gentium 63). His memorial stands just before tomorrow's Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and in a sense he prepares us to keep it: to look at Mary is to see what the Church is called to be.