Today’s gospel presents us with one of my favorite healings of Jesus. A big part of the appeal of this account is the scene it presents. Jesus is in a house, and the house is packed full of people listening to him teach.
Mass in Siberia
This reminds me of the two summers I spent in Siberia, that vast, lightly-populated stretch of Russia that extends from the Ural Mountains to the borders of the Pacific states of Russia. I was a seminarian visiting Russia shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Foreigners were allowed in, and I was working with a German priest and a few sisters from a mostly German community in a largely German region of Siberia.
The priest would make the rounds of six different villages every Friday to Monday. We would celebrate Mass in the homes of a family of each village. Sometimes we would celebrate Mass outside, but usually, as it always seemed to be threatening rain there, we would pack ourselves inside.
We would set up the altar in the largest room, then the people would crowd into the other rooms—kitchen and bedrooms (no bathrooms, because there were separate structures for outhouse and bathhouse). Such was the eagerness of people who had been deprived of Mass for over forty years.
The Crowd in the House
So I can imagine the scene of the gospel. The people are avid in their desire to listen to the teachings of Jesus. A paralyzed man is brought by a group of friends determined to help him. They cannot get into the house because of the crowd, so they take apart the roof and lower him into the house.
Here the comparison with Siberia ends. Houses there are built to keep in heat, and roofs are certainly not detachable. In today’s gospel, I imagine that at least two men would have to stand on the beams of the roof, taking off the light material in between. Then they would have to lift and lower again their friend with ropes or something.
Response to Healing
Sometimes when our Lord heals someone, he expects a response afterward. Sometimes he demands a response to grace beforehand, and this response creates a situation in which Jesus heals someone. I guess the difference is that in the first case someone could be healed physically but miss out on spiritual growth, whereas in the second case the person would also miss out on the physical healing if they did not respond to grace.
I think that here the faith and charity of the paralyzed man’s friends represent a response to God’s grace beforehand. When Jesus sees this, he blesses them with a healing, but also a teaching.
As we know, many of Jesus’ healings involve a teaching. This calls forth a further response of the person healed and the bystanders. As this happens early in the Gospel of Luke, we see the dichotomy between the scribes and Pharisees, who begin questioning Jesus’ actions, and the majority of the people who rejoice at the marvel they have seen.
Today we have the gospels. We have our Catholic faith. We know much more about Jesus than the people of today’s gospel. But do we have the strong desire to follow Jesus that fills houses, that detaches roofs in pursuit of Jesus’ gifts?
Thanks for sharing a glimpse of celebrating Mass in Siberia, Fr Mike. Enjoyed this reflection. God bless.