The most advanced medicine today cannot instantly cure any illness. It takes time and effort of the physician, the cooperation of the patient and the working of any medicine or procedure to achieve a cure. Yet in today’s Gospel, the cure of the paralytic was done instantly, at the word of Jesus. Nobody can cure instantly, except God. The teachers of the Law were correct in thinking that only God can forgive sins.

Sin and forgiveness, while real, are not concrete tangible realities. Thus, when, because of the faith of the paralytic and of those who brought him, Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, the teachers of the Law saw him as one committing blasphemy, doing or pretending to do what only God could do.

Did the teachers of the Law believe that Jesus was indeed God when he cured the paralytic by his instant word, “but now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”?

In the Church, Christ has given us the Sacrament of Reconciliation where, through the action of a priest, God forgives sins. We thank God for his merciful love for us and for his never ending readiness and graciousness to forgive us.