Do you Believe in God?

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In today’s reading in the Gospel of Mark (Chapter 2:1-12) we are drawn into a scene where Jesus was home, preaching to people.  So many people gathered around him that they were running out of room. Because of this, some had to open up a roof above Jesus and break through, letting a paralytic down through the roof on his mat.

When Jesus saw the man, he recognized his faith, and said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

The scribes who were watching questioned what Jesus had done and challenged him.  Jesus, knowing what they were thinking, gave them the proof they needed, going beyond the forgiveness of his sins through the power of his spoken word to a physical healing they could actually see. 

He said to the man, “Rise, pick up your mat and walk” to show them that the forgiveness he had given did take place and the man, who had been carried in, walked away as everyone looked on.

Naturally, everyone was surprised and their response was to glorify God. If Jesus could heal the man physically, then the power of his words to forgive must be solid as well.

What we do not want to miss in all of this is the scribes need to see before they could believe.  Conversely, Jesus calls us to believe without seeing.  If that were not so, he would have given the physical healing first.

This can, naturally, be challenging for us even today, but the reality is, belief without seeing is an important, necessary part of our sacramental life.  With each sacrament in the Catholic Church (there are seven sacraments), Christ is truly present, even though we do not see him in his human body with our human eyes.

Take for instance, the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  When we receive Holy Communion, we know that is the real presence of Christ.  What we see is consecrated bread and consecrated wine.

God uses tangible elements that we can see and touch to reveal the reality of what we cannot see, but believe.

I hope you will think about this because in a day and age when so many people doubt the existence of God, recognizing the necessity of belief is critical.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com

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