21 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Son, your sins are forgiven.” Mark 2:5
Jesus is teaching in a crowded house in Capernaum. Four men bring a paralysed friend on a mat, but they cannot get near. So they climb onto the roof, dig through it, and lower him down in front of Jesus. Mark says: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” The faith of the friends opens the way for the sick man.
Everyone expected a healing of the legs. Jesus begins with the heart. The deepest paralysis is sin: it keeps us from walking towards God and towards others. The scribes object: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They are right; and that is exactly the point. Jesus then says: “So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” The visible healing proves the invisible one.
Ezekiel warns of people who listen to the prophet's words like a lovely song and do nothing: “they hear what you say, but they will not do it.” Isaiah cries: “Ah, you who call evil good and good evil.” The paralysis of the soul often begins there: hearing without doing, calling sin by softer names. Lent is the time to stand up and walk.
St Paul gives the reason for our hope: “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” We do not have to cure ourselves first. Like the paralytic, we only need to be brought to Jesus, and to let others carry us when we cannot walk.
Theme: “When Jesus saw their faith.”
A paralysed man cannot reach Jesus by himself. Four friends carry him, break open a roof and lower him down. Jesus sees their faith, forgives the man's sins and raises him up.
“Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set.” Exodus 17:12
“And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.” Mark 2:4
Apply: Carry one person to Jesus this week: pray for them by name and help them practically.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.” Psalm 103:2–3
“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”” Mark 2:5
Apply: Thank God for the times he has forgiven you, and forgive someone who has hurt you.
“As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live.” Ezekiel 33:11
““I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them.” Mark 2:11–12
Apply: Take up one duty you have been avoiding at home, and do it with new heart.
Faith carried the man, mercy forgave him, power raised him.
Let us be friends who carry others, sinners who accept forgiveness, and disciples who rise and walk.
Take-home resolution: Pray each day this week for one person who is spiritually or physically “paralysed”.
Dear brothers and sisters, imagine the scene in Capernaum. Jesus is teaching in a house so crowded that no one can get to the door. Four men arrive carrying a friend who cannot walk. What do they do? They climb onto the roof, dig a hole, and lower their friend down right in front of Jesus. They would not give up.
St Mark says: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” Their faith. Sometimes we cannot bring ourselves to God; others must carry us. And sometimes we are called to carry others: a son who has left the Church, a friend in addiction, a neighbour in despair. Our prayer can open the roof.
Everyone expected Jesus to heal the man's legs. He began with his sins. The deepest paralysis is not in our legs but in our hearts: sin keeps us from walking towards God and others. Only God can forgive sins, said the scribes. Exactly. And to show that he has that authority, Jesus told the man: “Stand up, take your mat and go home.”
Ezekiel warns of people who hear God's word like a beautiful song and then do nothing. Let us not be like that this Lent. Let us make a good Confession, so that we hear Jesus say: “Your sins are forgiven.” And let us become the four friends who carry others to him. Amen.
Children, four friends wanted to bring their friend who could not walk to Jesus. But the house was full of people!
So they climbed onto the roof, made a hole, and lowered their friend down on a mat right in front of Jesus! Jesus forgave his sins and said: “Stand up and walk!” And he walked!
Good friends help each other come to Jesus. Let's say: “Jesus, help me to be a good friend!”
Lord Jesus, you saw the faith of four friends and forgave the sins of the paralytic. Forgive our sins, heal the paralysis of our hearts, and make us friends who carry others to you. Raise us up, that we may walk in your ways. Amen.
The Sundays of the Great Fast in the Malankara Church pass from one healing to the next: last Sunday the leper, today the paralytic, and then the Canaanite woman, the bent woman and the blind. This Sunday asks what the deepest paralysis is, and who can lift it. Ezekiel shows people who enjoy the prophet's voice like a love song and never stir themselves to act. Paul says that Christ died for us “while we still were sinners”, when we could do nothing for ourselves. Mark shows four friends digging through a roof, and a Lord who begins with forgiveness and ends with a man walking home.
The other readings of the day stand around these. The evening Gospel gives Luke's account of the same miracle (Luke 5:17–26). In Deuteronomy, Moses teaches Israel a song that will stand as a witness against forgetfulness (Deuteronomy 31:19–30). Sirach counsels us to choose our companions wisely, with “Do not abandon old friends” (Sirach 9:10–18). Isaiah cries out against those “who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:18–25). In Acts, the people carry their sick into the streets on cots and mats, so that Peter's shadow may fall on them (Acts 5:12–16). The key words today are hearing, forgiveness and rising.
Setting.
Ezekiel was a priest taken to Babylon with the exiles of 597 BC (Ezekiel 1:1–3). For years he warned that Jerusalem would fall, and his own mouth was strangely closed. Just before this reading a fugitive arrives with the news, “The city has fallen”, and Ezekiel's mouth is opened (33:21–22). What he had said has come true, and the people have to decide what they will do with his words now.
The passage looks in two directions. In vv. 23–29 the prophet speaks about those left among the ruins in the land of Israel, who claim the land by appealing to Abraham. In vv. 30–33 he speaks of his fellow exiles in Babylon, who have suddenly become eager to hear him.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.”” (33:24)
It sounds like faith, and it is really a claim. They quote the promise and forget the obedience. All this past week the Genesis readings have shown that Abraham's faith was an obedience. John the Baptist will say something similar: “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’” (Matthew 3:9). The warning applies to every believer: to be baptised and to have Christian grandparents is not yet to live the Gospel.
““Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.”” (33:30)
This is what any preacher would like to hear. People are talking about his preaching by the walls and at the doors. But popularity proves nothing.
“and they hear your words, but they will not obey them.” (33:31)
The Hebrew turns on two verbs, to hear and to do, as in Israel's own words at Sinai (Exodus 24:7). They sit “as my people” and look exactly like the faithful.
“To them you are like a singer of love songs, one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument;” (33:32)
A very modern picture. A person can love sermons, music and beautiful liturgy, and go home unchanged.
“then they shall know that a prophet has been among them.” (33:33)
The same words were said at Ezekiel's call (2:5). God's word does its work whether or not the audience takes it in. And it is better to learn this before events prove it.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says of Jesus' parables that “Words are not enough, deeds are required” (CCC 546). Our Lord says the same: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21), and James says: “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves” (James 1:22). The Second Vatican Council gives this warning to preachers too, quoting St Augustine: ministers of the word must hold fast to the Scriptures by sacred reading and careful study, lest any of them become an empty preacher of the word outwardly who is not a listener inwardly (Dei Verbum 25).
Setting.
Paul writes to the Christians of Rome, a community he has not yet visited, probably from Corinth in the second half of the 50s AD. In chapters 1–4 he has shown that all, Jews and Gentiles alike, need God's grace, and that we are put right with God through faith, with Abraham as the great example (chapter 4). Chapter 5 opens a new stage: what does life look like for those who have been justified? Paul's answer is peace, hope and a love that reaches us when we least deserve it.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (5:1)
A note on the text. The ancient manuscripts differ by one letter in Greek. Many read “we have peace”, as the NRSV does. Others, including some of the oldest, read “let us have peace”, and the Malayalam POC follows that sense (സമാധാനത്തിൽ ആയിരിക്കാം). Taken together they say that peace is God's gift, and that we are to live in it.
“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,” (5:3)
Paul is not saying that suffering is good in itself. He knows from experience (2 Corinthians 11:23–28) that in Christ it can bear fruit. The chain leads to hope, and for that reason suffering does not have the last word.
“and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (5:5)
Chapter 8 of the letter will develop this gift of the Holy Spirit. St Augustine returns to this verse again and again. “Poured” is a word for abundance, and the Greek tense tells of a gift already given that remains.
“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (5:8)
This is the heart of the Letter. God does not wait until we have improved. The love comes first and the change comes from it. This is exactly what happens to the man on the mat in today's Gospel.
“For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” (5:10)
If God did the hard part for his enemies, what will he not do for his friends? His life, as well as his death, saves us: the risen Lord is alive and at work.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism cites v. 8 to teach that God's plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part (CCC 604). It quotes v. 5 to say that love is God's first gift, containing all others (CCC 733). No one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification (CCC 2010). In the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999), Catholics and Lutherans say together that by grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God (n. 15). It is a joy to hear these words shared across a very old division.
Setting.
This is the first of five conflict stories in Mark (2:1–3:6), which end with a plot against Jesus' life (3:6). Up to now Jesus has healed and taught in Galilee, and his fame has spread (1:45). Back at Capernaum he is “at home”, perhaps in the house of Simon (1:29).
A simple house in Galilee had a flat roof, reached by an outside stair, and made of beams and branches packed with earth. So one could literally dig through it, as Mark says. Luke, writing for readers elsewhere, speaks of “tiles” (Luke 5:19), and Malayalam readers will recognise that picture too. It would not be a quiet entrance: dust and earth must have fallen on the crowd while Jesus was speaking.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.” (2:3)
We never learn their names. Each of them has a corner of the mat. This is what intercession looks like, and it is also a picture of a parish.
“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”” (2:5)
“Their” faith. Faith can be seen, here as a hole in a roof. It seems that the faith of others can carry one who cannot walk by himself, as the Church does for an infant at Baptism. And the man who came for his legs is given more than he had asked for.
““Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”” (2:7)
Their theology is correct. Only God can forgive sins. The Greek “God alone”, literally “God who is one”, recalls the great confession of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4). The scribes reason as careful teachers of the Law, and they arrive exactly at the right question. Mark leaves us to answer it.
“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’?” (2:9)
Either is easy to say. The second can be checked by everyone in the room. Jesus allows the visible healing to bear witness to the invisible one.
“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins … “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”” (2:10–11)
Three commands, and the man obeys all three. He is sent home, back into his family and his village, restored in body, in soul and in his place among people.
“so that they were all amazed and glorified God,” (2:12)
Everyone, Mark says. The story ends in praise, not in winning an argument. Today's reading never tells us what the four friends said, or whether they repaired the roof.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude, and when he forgave sins (CCC 589). It teaches that only God forgives sins, and that since he is the Son of God, Jesus can say of himself that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive (CCC 1441). And it opens its teaching on the sacraments of healing with this very scene: “The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health”, has willed that his Church continue his work of healing and salvation, in Penance and in the Anointing of the Sick (CCC 1421). St Ambrose, commenting on Luke's account, marvels at a Lord who pardons some for the sake of others' merit (in substance).
Does this story mean that sickness is a punishment for sin?
No. Jesus says plainly of the man born blind, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned” (John 9:3). The Catechism notes the mysterious link of illness with sin and evil that Israel experienced, and says that God's forgiveness begins the healing (CCC 1502). In this story Jesus goes to the deepest need, but he does not say that the man's illness came from his sins. Nobody should tell a sick person that God is punishing them.
If only God can forgive, how can a priest give absolution?
Because Christ himself willed to share this ministry. On the evening of Easter he breathed on the apostles and said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them” (John 20:23). He entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry (CCC 1442), and bishops and priests forgive in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (CCC 1461). The priest does not forgive by his own power. The crowd in Matthew's account glorified God for giving “such authority to human beings” (Matthew 9:8).
If we are justified by faith as a gift, why do we fast?
Not to earn what has already been given. We fast as a response to it, and to open ourselves to receive more of it. The Catechism says that Jesus' call to conversion aims first at the conversion of the heart, and that without this, penances remain sterile and false (CCC 1430–1431). After the initial grace, moved by the Holy Spirit, we can grow in grace and charity (CCC 2010). So the Fast is the love of Romans 5:5 finding its way into the body.
The Malankara calendar today also remembers Mar Eustathios, Patriarch of Antioch, and it is the name-day of Kuriakose Mar Eusthathios. In the West Syriac tradition of the Malankara Church, several Sundays of the Great Fast are named for those who came to Christ for healing, and M'shario takes its name from the paralytic. The Fast thus appears as a time of healing, not only of self-denial. The Holy Qurbono itself is full of prayers for the forgiveness of debts and sins, and this is a good Sunday to hear them as the words of Jesus to the man on the mat. It is also a good time to go to Confession, to seek the Anointing for those who are seriously ill, and to ask a practical question: who is there in our parish, among the elderly, the housebound or those who have drifted away, who cannot get to Christ unless four of us carry them?