Healing Faith

“When Jesus saw their faith…”

These words are from the Gospel of Matthew 9: 2 which reads, “He got back in the boat, crossed the water and came back to his home town. And suddenly some people brought him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Take comfort, my child, your sins are forgiven.’ And now some scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is being blasphemous.’ Knowing what was in their minds, Jesus said, ‘why do you have such wicked thoughts in your hearts?’”

“Seeing their faith…” Why these words from Matthew? And almost similar wordings in Mark Chapter 2, verse 5?

Why would Jesus need to see “the faith of some people” before pardoning the paralytic?

The reason might be to show the faith of the paralytic’s friends in opposition to the lack of faith of the pharisees who question the action of Jesus as an act of blasphemy, not an act of mercy. But there is more to these words of Matthew and Mark.

One is we are co-healers with Jesus when our faith is alive as we bring to Jesus the other’s need of healing. It applies to us priests and those helpful people who sacrifice their time and resources to bring the needs of the sick, the needy, the infirm, and the marginalized and oppressed, to the sacramental and prophetic powers of Christ’s Body, the Church.

The other reason is we are a community. We work and pray and heal as a community just like any Trinitarian activity. This is why we begin and end every activity with “In the name of the Father…”