Pick Up Your Mat!

Reflection for
This Month's Recollection
Mark 2: 1-12
18 September 2005

I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go...

I have been a Jesuit for the past four years. One of the things that I realized is – it is far easier to remain on my mat, on my comfort zone. Nothing can be more soothing than being guarded and protected even by my own hurts and pains. At times, I can reason to myself, "he did me wrong… so I will no longer reach out to him." Or, "I was offended with what she did to me… I will make her feel that she does not exist." It is easier for me to remain on my mat, in the comfort of my own pain. It is just hard to forgive the wrong things others did to us. But if there is one grace that I would beg for, it is the deep realization of God's forgiveness.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven."

I think what made it easier for the paralytic to rise and walk is the assurance from Christ that his sins were forgiven.

How many times have I not forgiven others?
How many times have I not forgiven myself?

Probably, I can look at Christ like that of the paralytic's and hear the Lord say to us, "Your sins are forgiven."