Daily Gospel Reflection

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December 11, 2023

Monday of the Second Week of Advent
Lk 5:17-26
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One day as Jesus was teaching,
Pharisees and teachers of the law,
who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem,
were sitting there,
and the power of the Lord was with him for healing.
And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed;
they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence.
But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd,
they went up on the roof
and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles
into the middle in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said,
“As for you, your sins are forgiven.”

Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves,
“Who is this who speaks blasphemies?
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply,
“What are you thinking in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
But 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, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

He stood up immediately before them,
picked up what he had been lying on,
and went home, glorifying God.
Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God,
and, struck with awe, they said,
“We have seen incredible things today.”

Reflection

Ashley Logsdon '14, M.Ed.
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Jesus is a master teacher. Unfazed by the rooftop interruption, Jesus deviates from his lesson plan and turns the unexpected arrival into an unforgettable teaching moment. By healing the paralyzed man, Jesus enacts a pedagogy familiar to any scientist: he uses a demonstration to teach a tough concept.

As a biology teacher, I loved doing lab experiments with my students. Bubbling solutions change color, genetically modified bacteria glow, and Brassica rapa plants sprout with green and purple stems in Mendelian ratios. Abstract ideas like metabolic rate and genetic inheritance become concrete and understandable in the lab thanks to such transformations. Best of all is when something finally “clicks” for a student: the gasp of surprise, the sudden grin.

In today’s gospel, Jesus faces an audience even more challenging than modern teenagers: teachers. Pharisees, scribes, and legal scholars have convened for what looks like a district-wide professional development day. When the keynote talk is interrupted, the scribes and Pharisees grumble, but they also ask an excellent question: Who is this? The experts are (understandably) puzzled because they know that only God can forgive sins.

Jesus needs to nudge his class to the next level of understanding, so he pulls a science teacher’s trick. Since the Pharisees couldn’t see that Jesus really could forgive sins, he performed a more conspicuous miracle: Jesus healed the man physically. The wobbly first steps of the no-longer-paralyzed man dramatically demonstrate Jesus’ authority and his true identity as the Son of God.

And it works! Luke says, “astonishment seized them all and they glorified God.” More talented than any science teacher, Jesus transforms people. Even his most skeptical students are awed, exclaiming, “We have seen incredible things today.”

Will we let Jesus challenge our misconceptions and transform us?

Prayer

Rev. Thomas McNally, C.S.C.

Lord, how wonderful is the power you manifest in today’s gospel. You not only healed the paralyzed man of his physical infirmity, but you also healed him of his sins by forgiving him. May you heal us of everything that separates us from you and help us to serve you as faithfully as the friends of the paralytic served him by carrying his stretcher and placing it at your feet. Amen.

Saint of the Day

St. Daniel the Stylite

St. Daniel the Stylite is a famous monastic figure who is honored by both Eastern and Western Christian churches.

Daniel was born around 409 in the north of what is now modern-day Iraq. Daniel entered a nearby monastery at the age of twelve and lived in this same monastery until he was thirty-eight. During a voyage that Daniel made with his abbot to Antioch, he passed by the pillar where the famous St. Simeon the Stylite lived.

A stylite was a monk who offered his life by forsaking the world quite literally by forsaking earth and climbing on top of a pillar where he would live for the rest of his life.

With his abbot, Daniel visited many convents and holy sites. Daniel finally retired in 451 A.D. into the ruins of a pagan temple and established his own pillar north of Constantinople.

Daniel had not consulted the owner of the land where he placed his pillar. Thus, the land’s rightful owner appealed to both the emperor and patriarch to dislodge Daniel. Neither budged to displace the Stylite, thus practically coining the phrase: ask forgiveness, not permission.

In fact, the patriarch Gennadius, instead of ousting Daniel, ordained him as a priest, administering the Eucharist to Daniel and receiving the Eucharist from the newly ordained priest by the means of a ladder.

Daniel lived on the pillar for thirty-three years. Due to continuous standing, his feet were reportedly covered with sores, cuts, and ulcers, and the winds of Thrace sometimes completely stripped him of his scanty monastic clothing. Despite having no parlor, Daniel received many impressive visitors, among them the emperors Leo I and Zeno. Even from the top of his pillar, he engaged in theological debate and took a strong stance against Monophysitism.

Daniel quickly became a pious tourist attraction for the people. From his pillar, Daniel celebrated the Eucharist, preached sermons, dispensed spiritual advice, and cured the sick who were brought up to him. Daniel finally died at the ripe old age of eighty-four in the year 493.

St. Daniel the Stylite, who lived with evangelical poverty, simplicity, and boldness—pray for us!


Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Daniel the Stylite is in the public domain. Last accessed November 1, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.