Take Courage

For most of us, it’s easy to pray to God for things like a physical healing or the like.  We may find it quite easy to ask for favors and blessings from God.  But how easy is it for us to ask for forgiveness?  This may be harder to do for many because it requires an initial act of humility on our part.  It requires that we first acknowledge we are sinners in need of forgiveness.

Jesus is God and fully human.  Becoming fully human means He laughed, He cried, He worried, He rejoiced.  Because He was fully human, He died for our sins.  It couldn’t have been easy to be God and man; as human, He must have been annoyed or frustrated.  Yet He mostly was patient and kind.  But that didn’t mean He avoided asking His followers and those who doubted Him tough questions.

His followers had the faith and the belief that this man who called Himself the Son of God was just that. They couldn’t really understand, but they had faith in Jesus.  When the followers brought the paralytic man to Jesus, He “saw their faith” and forgave the sins of the man.  Jesus told him to “Rise, pick up your stretcher and go home.” (Matthew 9:1-8) I love the simplicity of that.  It reminds me a lot of the feeling I had one time after one of my own confessions.

I confessed to what I consider some pretty serious sins and I was taken aback a little by the penance I was given.  I was told to say one “Our Father”.  I thought to myself “That’s it?  Wasn’t Father listening?”  Then I was relieved that it was only saying a prayer and not something like I’ve had in the past like pulling out the prayer of St. Francis when I get angry at others (a sin I seem to confess to a lot, I’m ashamed to say).  That was actually one of the hardest penances I’ve ever received.  Do you realize how hard it is to remember to pull up a prayer on the smart phone or out of a wallet when you’re focused on anger?  Let’s just say I had to confess to not completing my previous penance once.  Reflecting on my penance of just one Our Father that day, and Matthew’s account of the paralytic man today, drives home the fact that we can all share in the same mercy and forgiveness earned for us by Christ on the Cross.  We just have to ask for it and act on it.

Being God and human, Jesus must have always had an idea of what the scribes were thinking.  In this case (the Gospel in Matthew), He calls them out for what they’re muttering to themselves and reminds them of His authority.  We all need to be reminded of that authority of the Son of God from time to time.  Jesus can forgive our sins and allow us to walk in the light.  Jesus tells the paralyzed man: “Courage.”  It takes courage to believe as Jesus’s followers did.  It takes courage to take that leap of faith.  Let the miracle in our life be the faith of His followers.  Ask for the grace to believe and ask for the forgiveness of sins.  Ask for the grace to glorify God and to show gratitude for God’s presence in our life.  Pray for the courage to continue to take the leap of faith and live out that faith every day.

Acknowledging our need for forgiveness takes courage, but this courage is a great virtue and reveals a great strength of character on our part.  Coming to Jesus to seek His mercy and forgiveness in our lives is the most important prayer we can pray and the foundation of all the rest of our prayers.