FRIDAY OF THE 1ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

14TH JANUARY 2022

1 Sam 8:4-7, 10-22a, Psms 89, Mark 2:1-12

Forgiveness: Key to Wholeness and Good Health

“Child, your sins are forgiven” Mark 2:5

• The healing of the paralytic, in today’s Gospel, brings to focus the relation between sin and sickness and between forgiveness and healing. Many sicknesses are recognized today as having at least an aggravating component in the emotions of the person. Guilt, lack of forgiveness, hatred, anger, bitterness, vengeance. ..etc, can lead to or increase the illness.

• In the time of Jesus, sin was considered to cause sickness. So Jesus first forgives the sins of the paralytic; “Child, your sins are forgiven”. By so doing, he removes the root cause of sickness, as per the popular thought of the people of his time, and brings healing and wholeness to the paralytic.

• The paralytic needed a spiritual restoration, more than physical healing. Spiritual restoration led to physical restoration.

• It is easy for us to grieve about our physical illness and troubles while ignoring our inner conditions. Our physical illness can be aggravated by our inner condition, such as lack of forgiveness and keeping feelings of bitterness, anger and the like in our hearts and minds.

• The only cure for such deformities is repentance and forgiveness. We need to seek forgiveness of our sins; we need to seek forgiveness with one another. These leads

to restoration of the lost harmony with God who is the ultimate healer, and with our neighbour.

• According to research, people who forgive are more likely to have; fewer episodes of depression, higher selfesteem, more friends, healthier relationships, longer marriages, less anxiety and stress, closer relationships, better immune system function, lower risk of alcohol and substance abuse and greater spiritual and psychological well-being.

• Those who readily forgive and ask for forgiveness are more likely to be happy, serene, empathetic, hopeful and agreeable.

• Consider;

- the value of forgiveness and its importance in life

- how forgiveness can lead you down the path of physical, emotional and spiritual well-being

- how un-forgiveness can affect your life, health and well-being.

• Forgiveness is the key to wholeness and good health

• Let us remove the roof of our closed selves and let ourselves down into the presence of Jesus and ask for forgiveness for our sins and the courage to forgive those who have ever hurt us.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”

Isaiah 43:18