Courage, child, your sins are forgiven

Reading Matthew’s Gospel, we see the great power possessed by Jesus—over sickness, over nature, over demons—and now even over sin. Clearly, Jesus has divine power that belongs only to God. The onlookers are amazed and wonder who He is. Who but God alone can forgive sin? Indeed, Jesus’ “greatest miracle” is that He has freed us from sin and made us children of God. We “share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21).

According to Pope Francis (July 4, 2013), this freedom “is Jesus’ great miracle. He sets us free who were slaves to sin. It does us good to think about this and to think how lovely it is to be children… Now we can understand that word of Jesus: ‘Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.’ That’s the root of our courage: I am free, I am a child; my Father loves me and I love the Father. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to understand well this work of His… We are saved in Jesus Christ and no one can ever take that grace away from us.”

Gospel • MATTHEW 9:1-8

After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into His own town.

And there people brought to Him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This Man is blaspheming.” Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to men.