PARALYZED - AS METAPHOR

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday in the First Week of the Year is, “Paralyzed - As Metaphor.”

How many times in our lives have we said, “I was paralyzed. I was stuck. I found myself unable to do anything. I just froze”?

That’s being “Paralyzed - As Metaphor.”

IN JESUS’ TIME

Here is Jesus  in today's gospel - Mark 2: 1-12 - experiencing a man who was paralyzed.

Jesus is preaching and surprise this man is being lowered down through a hole in the roof - right in front of him.

Mark who is known for details - certainly details a great story for all of us. We can picture the scene. We can picture the faces of the great crowd surrounding Jesus. Everyone's mouth must have been wide open big.

Being up front here in this church or any church - looking out - I can see how many people in church watch people walk  down the aisle during a reading or a sermon or after the Mass starts. I’m used to it - and I realize that the person coming down the aisle probably doesn’t see the crowd watching him or her. 

For example, last Sunday there was a guy - ¾ back in St. Malry's church - center aisle. I could see him standing up and turning around -  during my sermon. Obviously, he was looking for someone in the back. Finally they came in. I could see him getting out into the main aisle and going back to them. Then he marched them down the main aisle like an usher to where he had been sitting - and got them all into that bench. A good many folks in the back of the church were watching all this. I was watching all this as well. 

It didn’t paralyze me. It didn’t make me speechless. I’m used to it. I’ve seen some priests get miffed - and frustrated - at scenes like that. 

Or about two months ago -a guy fainted in a bench on my right. It was during the first reading.  I realized the whole back of the church was watching the doctors and nurses and then the EMT’s getting into that bench to help him. Finally, he was wheeled him out on a gurney. Later on, I jokingly said, “For those in the back who want to hear my sermon, I’ll repeat it after Mass.”

Those in front, who didn’t see all this, didn’t know what I was talking about.

Back to today's gospel.... Obviously, Jesus was way, way, way, way cleverer and quicker than us preachers. He moved away from whatever he was preaching or talking about to what was taking place right in front of him. He went with the obvious - going from paralysis of the body to paralysis of the spirit.

And then some of  the listeners - who were watching all this - hearing all this - became paralyzed - because they could not accept Jesus’ message about the ability to be forgiven.

As priest, as human, I have met all kinds of people who go through life paralyzed - with a limp in their personality - with a hurt in their memory - with a sore on their soul - that they won’t let heal.

They made a mistake and they can’t let it go. It wears them out. Something they did when they were 17 or 27 or 37 is still weighing them down at 57, 67 or 77.

PET PEEVES

Then there are those other things that bother us - and then paralyze us. 

What’s on your list of pet peeves? 

One that grabs me is translators of documents. For example today’s gospel for years translated Mark 2:8 this way: “Why do you harbor these thoughts?” Now they have Jesus saying - all this in  English mind you, “Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts?” I liked the metaphor - the image - of “harbor” - but someone dropped that translation.

Well I harbor the beauty of the use of the word “harbor” in this text. 

So that’s one of my pet peeves. So I can get paralyzed or stuck about - translators. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

So enough. Move on.

CONCLUSION

The title and theme and thought of my homily for today is: “Paralyzed - As Metaphor.”

I’m asking: where do we get paralyzed, stuck, frozen? Is it sins? Is it the past? Is it others? Is it the iddy biddy?

Where do we hear Jesus saying to us, “Let it go. Let it go. Be forgiven. Give others a chance to be different or what have you. Pick yourself up and get moving. Amen.”

OOOOO

Painting on top: The Palsied Man Let Down Through the Roof [1886-1896] by James Tissot [1839-1902].