Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 29 2025

The Real Agenda—Forgiveness of Sins

When Jesus came preaching, teaching, healing, and exorcising, the response was amazement and wonder. He was a “crowd magnet,” as we see in today’s Gospel. When Jesus showed up, it was standing room only. What would be the next miracle? So when the paralytic came down, there might even have been a little “ho-hum” in the air. “Didn’t he do something along these lines that night outside Simon’s mother-in-law’s house?”

But healing the body and casting out demons were only the first steps in the new creation God had in mind. The next step went to the heart of the matter— salvation. “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Alarms went off, at least in the heads of some of the legal experts present. “Did he just say? . . . No, not possible . . . Only God can . . . .” But Jesus, who really could hear people thinking, had no trouble saying it again: “That you may know the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins on earth . . . ” then he turned to the paralytic: “Get up and go.” And the man got up and went.

All the other things Jesus had been doing were acceptable, except when he did them on a Sabbath, for this was crossing a clearly defined line in the law of Moses. Forgiving sin? Only God could do that. Yes, that was the point. And still is. So don’t let past actions—even God’s, much less yours—lock you in or keep God out. God remains at work in Jesus offering forgiveness, reconciliation, atonement to all who realize they need it.

Consider/Discuss

How do you feel when you hear Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven”?
Do you trust God to do new things? For you? In you? Through you?
Do you accept that God has put the Spirit in our hearts “as a first installment” of God’s desire for total communion?

Responding to the Word

Creator God, in giving us Jesus, you began the final move of a new creation in us and in the world. We thank you for offering through your Son the gift of forgiveness for our sins. May we accept this gift of grace and work to bring others to know its healing power. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

Israel’s faith was based on the liberating events of the past. So Isaiah’s words, “Remember not . . . consider not,” must have been unsettling. The prophet was probably calling the people away from inordinate dependence on the past, a dependence that prevented them from seeing the astonishing new thing that God was accomplishing before their very eyes. Faithful reverence for tradition is one thing, but insistent absorption in it is quite another. While the new way that stretched out before them was truly astounding, most amazing was the transformation that took place within them. Though sinners, the merciful God wiped away their guilt, and once forgiven, they were recreated.

Paul is forced to defend the merit of his apostolic ministry. He does so by basing his defense on the trustworthiness of God. He argues strenuously that his ministry never demonstrated such inconsistency. He offers three examples of God’s faithfulness. First, Christ is the center of his preaching. Since there is no inconsistency in Christ, there is no inconsistency in his preaching. Second, all of God’s past promises have been fulfilled in Christ. And third, those baptized have been sealed with the Spirit of God. This presentation of God’s plan serves as an argument in defense of Paul’s ministry.

Jesus’ forgiveness of the man who came to him to be healed sets up the conflict between Jesus and the scribes who were present in the witnessing crowd. While they are correct in believing that only God can forgive, they are blind in not recognizing the power of divine forgiveness active in the person of Jesus. Knowing what the incredulous scribes are thinking, Jesus challenges their silent condemnation of him. He points out that forgiving sin is more difficult than healing, so the healing is merely an external sign of internal transformation. The man is sent home forgiven and healed; the crowds are astounded and give glory to God. Only the scribes remain unbelieving.

Jan 14 2025

Being Holy

A 2006 movie called Love, Actually has one of the best openings in recent years. It begins with two young people running toward each other and falling into each other’s arms, kissing joyfully. Then you see a mother being hugged by her two little girls, then two older women, perhaps sisters, embracing. As these scenes give way to others, you become aware all this takes place in an airport at the arrivals gate. Accompanying these images is a voiceover.

Whenever he feels down about the condition of the world, the speaker goes to the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport in London. Despite the fact that there is so much hatred and greed in the world, he says, Heathrow is one place where things seem different. At Heathrow love is everywhere.

All the while you hear this voice, you are watching people rush into each other’s arms. For a full minute you see the world as a welcoming, warm, loving place. You know it’s something of a set-up because who goes to meet people at airports other than family, good friends, people in a loving relationship? But isn’t this God’s plan for the world, what God wants most from us: love God; love one another.

The voiceover concludes by noting that right before the planes hit the Twin Towers in New York City, all the calls that went out were messages of love. People chose to have their final words be professions of love. Making that choice on a daily basis is what makes us perfect—that is, full-grown, complete, holy.

Consider/Discuss

Do you accept Jesus’ idea of what it means to be “perfect”?
If there is someone who has given me reason not to love them, can I pray for them?

Responding to the Word

We pray to God to continue to pour the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we can love with God’s own love, when our own ability to love fails us. We pray that we can grow into that full maturity that we see in Jesus, who prayed for his enemies from the cross.

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

A life of holiness is patterned after the holiness of God. It requires integrity, honesty, and faithfulness. To be holy as God is holy, we must refrain from nursing hatred in our hearts; we must rebuke wrongdoers or we will share their guilt; we must not entertain vengeance; and we must love others as we love ourselves. These very demanding directives give us a glimpse into the holiness of God. Furthermore, they are all communal in nature. In other words, our likeness to God is determined by the way we relate to others.

For Paul, the temple is the collection of people who gather in God’s name. Just as the presence of God made the Jerusalem temple holy, so the Spirit’s presence in the people makes this new temple holy. Paul returns to an earlier discussion about the wisdom of this world (see last Sunday’s second reading). As valuable as human insight might be, it is nothing compared with God’s wisdom. Boasting refers to the false pride that the Corinthians took in identifying with various religious leaders. Such boasting is evidence of the wisdom of the world, a wisdom that threatened the unity of the Corinthian community.

Jesus addresses the way that disciples are to interact in any strained relationships. He instructs his disciples to offer no resistance when someone tries to take advantage of them. He employs Near Eastern exaggeration to make his point. The disciples are told to disarm others with their willingness to go beyond what is required of them. Jesus then reinterprets the law of love in a most radical manner, telling his disciples that they must love their enemies. He insists that the disciples’ love must be patterned after God’s love, which is given unquestioningly to the just and the unjust alike. The final exhortation succinctly sets the standard for life in the kingdom of heaven. “[B]e perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). It is this standard that makes Jesus’ interpretation of the law so radical.

Jan 08 2025

Be Holy as the Lord Is Holy

When I taught high school theology, on the first day of the semester, I had a student proudly walk into my sophomore morality class with a colorfully decorated binder. She showed off to me her cover picture of Moses holding two stone tablets. On the tablets was written, “The Ten Suggestions.” She grinned at me as only a teenager can, whimsically testing, as if to ask, “What do you, teacher, think about my cleverness in re-casting the Ten Commandments?” with a shrug of the shoulder of “Who do you think you are to tell me what I should do?” Having lived with teenagers at my house for the previous twenty years, I just nodded and smiled. It was going to be an interesting semester.

In the world in which we live, what are we to do with ethical laws and commandments? Are they just “suggestions”? Are there any absolutes? Is anything always wrong? Is anything always right? Is there anyone to Whom we are accountable? Is there really a test at the end of life, or is God such a “nice guy” that no one goes to hell? Who is in charge anyway?

My fifteen-year-old student presumed a world that was kind and benevolent. She may never have experienced killing and war and infidelity and betrayal. Her parents were probably good people. Her friends may have been, too. If that were the case, then why did we need the ten “ethical suggestions”? Our access to God comes through Jesus and does not rely on our perfection, right?

Right, but the flourishing of life certainly does. Forming the heart to love and be generous and prayerful and forgiving—this bears fruit, fruit that lasts, in relationships that are solid and enduring. A holy life is a life worth living.

Consider/Discuss

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out clear principles for holy living, commanding us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Similarly, the Levitical holiness code reveals how to be holy as God is holy. What does holiness look like in your life? Why does it matter to you?
Does someone you love dismiss ethical laws as though they were just “suggestions”? What life stories could you tell to respond to that person?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, sometimes, we throw up our hands at what is happening in our world. There are so many things that we cannot control. Help us to make an impact in the small world in which we live, by living lives of holiness and goodness and prayer. With your grace, please help us. And bless all those who do not believe in you or follow you, for you send blessings on the just and the unjust. We entrust all of that to you—it is not ours, but yours. Thank you for taking this world and carrying it for us.