Parade of Faith

Offering Jesus the gifts of faith and friendship

12/10/2018

Luke 5:17-26 One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "As for you, your sins are forgiven." Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?" Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, "What are you thinking in your hearts? 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 said to the one who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

Yesterday we conducted our annual pilgrimage of Our Lady of Guadalupe and as usual it was both exhausting and exhilarating for me. It’s never fun to walk 4.9 miles in the freezing cold, praying the rosary with numb fingers and singing with a scratchy voice. Teams of four took turns carrying a life-sized statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary while walking behind a police escort – always better to have the police in front of you than behind you. And we watched Aztec dancers performing to the drumbeat rapping out an ancient rhythm. Along the way, the procession of nearly 300 Hispanic people carrying both a Mexican flag and an American flag was seen by lots of surprised Fort Smith residents. Maybe some of them thought we were protesting the president’s border wall, but it was really a parade of faith.

The highlight for me was when we stopped briefly before a parishioner’s home. The family brought out a table on which we placed the Our Lady of Guadalupe statue. Then the father carried out his son – who must have been in his 30’s – and who was completely paralyzed and wrapped in a blanket like a burrito. Clearly the young man had a severely debilitating disease. The father held the young man’s head close enough that he could kiss the statue. As I stood nearby I prayed with all my heart for a miracle of healing, but it didn’t happen. When the father carried his crippled son inside, I hugged the mother who had tears in her eyes. But I could tell her faith had not flinched. Not for a second did she doubt the power of Mary’s intercession, or the love and mercy of Jesus. To be sure, this was a parade of faith, not the protest of a fence.

We see something very similar occur in the gospel today, a veritable parade of faith. Four men carry a paralyzed man and break through a roof, and lower him before Jesus, a lot like how yesterday the father brought his paralyzed son before Mary. What I find most fascinating is what Jesus says first, before the miracle. We read: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said ‘As for you, your sins are forgiven.’” Notice Jesus did not make a move to heal the man until he observed the Pharisees lack of faith and sense their doubt about his divine power. The healing miracle wasn’t so much for the man as it was for the Pharisees and their lack of faith. In other words, the main thing Jesus wants the people to experience with him is sincere faith and genuine friendship, and not just to use him as a miracle-worker. We all want friends who love us for who we are, not just for what we can do for them. It seems Jesus was also both exhausted and exhilarated by a parade of faith.

I think Christmas is a time to be especially careful why we come to Christ. Do we come with faith or just for a miracle? One mother told me recently her 18 year old son announced that he was an atheist, and no longer believed in God. Later he asked her for a new phone for Christmas. The mother answered: “If you don’t believe in God, then you don’t believe in the real meaning of Christmas – the birthday of the Son of God – so you do not get any gifts.” The son got mad and stomped away, and couldn’t understand why he shouldn’t get any Christmas presents. The experiences of that Hispanic couple of the paralyzed man on the pilgrimage and this young 18 year old atheist were the same: they did not get what they asked for from Jesus. But that Hispanic couple gave Jesus a great gift: the gift of their faith and their friendship. Faith and friendship have little to do with what we get and a lot to do with what we can give.  And that is also the real meaning of Christmas.

How many people all over the world are celebrating Christmas this year without any awareness of Christ? We all love to watch Christmas parades, but they are usually not parades of faith.

Praised be Jesus Christ!