Excerpt from Today’s Reading:
"Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God,
and, struck with awe, they said,
“We have seen incredible things today.”
Luke 5:26

I recently attended mass for the first time in months.  I left New York this past year and miss the community I had at St. Paul's.  Finding or creating community doesn't usually happen overnight, but as I listened to the pastor give his homily, I was reminded of the gratitude that I should keep at the forefront as I face every day and of the agency I have to make change in my life and in the lives of those around me.  The world we face today is overwhelming - an ongoing pandemic, acts of violence and hate tearing apart neighbors and our very democracy, and a looming climate catastrophe.  It can be hard some days to find hope, to find God.  The fear and grief we carry every day can be paralyzing and this is how I can see myself in today's gospel.  The afflicted man and those who care for him act out in desperation brazenly lowering him through the roof of the home just so he can get close to Jesus.  Despite the outcries of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus not only forgives the man of his sins but tells him to rise and walk.  A dramatic miracle that has perhaps been cheapened by storytellers and televangelists over the years but continues to give people fantastical hope.  What would have become of the man if he (and those caring for him) had not pushed forward, not asked for forgiveness, not fought with those bits of urgent desperate faith.  It gives me hope in the face of pain and fear - Jesus can forgive our moments of hopelessness, our moments of inaction, our moments of paralysis.  Jesus rewards not only the afflicted man but his caregivers who advocated for him.  And those small acts of faith can make all the difference.  I call on myself to keep that flicker of faith alive in the hope of a better future ahead.

Tim J.