Friday, January 15, 2016

A Community of the Paralyzed


Friday of Week One in Ordinary Time
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, 'Child, your sins are forgiven.'

A few days ago I was talking about this parable with a friend; we each had different reasons for it being our current “favorite”.  For her it was the universal understanding of what it feels like to be emotionally paralyzed in one way or another.  Paralyzed by our inability to control a situation or an outcome.  Paralyzed by fear of failure.  Paralyzed by ----fill in the blank----.  And for me, at least this morning, it is Jesus taking account of a small faith community doing what it takes to un-paralyze a loved one.  Jesus saw their faith, he saw a community of concern and care.  He saw one person’s struggle being taken up by all.  And the fact that forgiveness comes first and then the physical healing universalizes this for me.  I am not physically paralyzed.  I am paralyzed by un-forgiven-ness more often than I realize.  I need the commitment of the other’s prayer and concern.  And they need mine.  And Jesus sees and forgives.

Several years ago I wrote this litany of paralysis…of offended and offender…for a parish communal reconciliation service…there is something about that communal space…I’m never sure if I’m working to break open the roof tiles or if I’m the one being lowered…I suppose I’m always a little of both:

Lord, I am paralyzed by disappointment…time after time when I dare to expect more…it fails to come.  Life is so unfair…Come to my aid

Lord, I am so quick to make promises and quick to break them…I convince myself that what I don’t do  can’t be that important…my failures don’t really hurt anyone else…teach me

Lord, I am rejected.  My life is empty …I am not enough for anybody…the rejection is so painful…I am paralyzed by it…Come and stay with me

Lord, How quickly I judge another’s worth…praising their good looks and talents and smarts.  Help me to see freshly, not through my blurred vision but through yours…seeing what you see:  Sons and Daughters of God

Lord, I am paralyzed by humiliation…I have been pierced at my very core…I lock myself in a prison of protection…release me

Lord, I have so easily given up on people…leaving them alone in their pain and emptiness…Change me

Lord…How abandoned and alone I am.  Where are my friends?  Where are you?  I can’t hold back my rising bitterness and resentment…Find me

Lord, How convenient is my forgetfulness…How easy it is, in my IMPORTANT busyness, to put so many relationships on the back shelf…where not even my second thoughts go.  Break into my life and awaken in me the ministry of listening

Lord…I am ridiculed and laughed at…Oh the names they shout…they play over and over in my mind…these words…they kill…I am paralyzed…Raise me up

Lord, Lead me away from the maddening crowd that knows itself only in relation to those it rejects and scorns.  Strengthen me to stand with the one left out…the one most in need of your loving presence

Lord, I have no home and I am so hungry…I hang on by only a sliver of hope…don’t let it break

Lord, Shake me up, release me from the grip of luxury and comfort and teach me the language of poverty and hunger

Lord, My world is overcome with violence…family abuse, sexual abuse, gangs and war…I know no other way…show me a way

Lord, You call the peacemakers “Blessed”…give me the faith to speak your Word of peace…everyday and every where that I encounter building resentment and mounting tensions



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