Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
January 14, 2022
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Mark 2:1-12
The second chapter of Mark begins with a complex narrative. First, Jesus forgives the sins of the man who had taken such unusual measures to get in touch with him. The paralytic and his friends left no means untried to reach Jesus, and Jesus responds by giving the man a greater gift than he had been seeking. He forgives his sins.
Jesus’ action elicits negative comments from the scribes. This was the beginning of the tensions that would lead to Jesus’ death. Finally Jesus returns to what the paralytic had been after all along. He cures him and sends him home.
In Jesus’ actions there’s generally more than meets the eye. It was so in Capernaum that day, and it’s still so now.
