Forgiveness of Sin

Monday of the Second Week of Advent A-1

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Jer 31:10; Is 35:4 Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; declare it to the distant lands: Behold, our Savior will come; you need no longer fear.

Collect May our prayer of petition rise before you, we pray, O Lord, that, with purity unblemished, we, your servants, may come, as we desire, to celebrate the great mystery of the Incarnation of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 85:9ab and 10-14; Luke 5:17-26

It came to pass on a certain day, as he sat teaching, that there were also Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, who had come from every town of Galilee, and Judea and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal. And behold, certain persons brought on a bed a man who had the palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. And when they could not find a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up on the roof, and let him down through the tiles with his bed into the middle in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith he said: Man, your sins are forgiven. And the scribes and Pharisees began to think, saying: Who is this who utters blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in answer: what is it you are thinking in your hearts? Which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven you; or to say, Arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (he said to the one with the palsy,) I say to you, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. And immediately rising up before them, he took up the bed on which he lay; and he went away to his own house, glorifying God. And all were astonished; and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying: We have seen wonderful things today. (Luke 5:17-26)

Forgiveness of Sin One of the distinctive features of the religion of the Old Testament is the concern for sin that pervades its pages. God is a God hostile to sin and immorality — immorality is not just wrong but it is sinful. That is to say, it is offensive to the holiness of God. The chosen people were gradually educated by God as to sin and their own sinfulness, and various rites and measures were in place and practised to obtain the forgiveness of sins. While there were indeed sin offerings and heartfelt prayers for the forgiveness of sins, no prophet or religious figure in the Old Testament presumed to forgive the sins of another, nor presumed to do so with effortless readiness. John the Baptist’s baptism for repentance was clearly a rite he instituted to express repentance and to appeal to God for his pardon. He did not presume to forgive the sins of others — indeed, he pointed to our Lord as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Where is there any parallel in the Old Testament to what we read in our Gospel passage today? Our Lord was suddenly presented with a man paralysed on a stretcher, lowered from the roof by his companions. Then, without being requested to do so, and without concern for the surprise and hostility his initiative would arouse in the hearts of the scribes and the Pharisees who were present and observing, Our Lord proceeded immediately to forgive the sick man’s sins. There was no hesitation, no bother with what his audience might think, no steps to prepare the minds of people with some explanation other than the fact of his manifest authority as it was being revealed in his works and words and person. Our Lord obviously saw in the heart of the paralysed man acknowledgment of his sins and an attitude of repentance. Perhaps his physical condition had prompted these more spiritual dispositions. In any case, our Lord who, (as we read in the Gospel of St John) could read the hearts of men, forthwith forgave him his sins and thus revealed a new aspect of his spiritual authority, setting him beyond the prophets of old.

This was not the only occasion on which our Lord did this. He forgave the sins of the woman with a bad reputation — once again in the presence of the Pharisees — because “she loved much.” Now, just as our Lord unambiguously forgave the sins of others during his public ministry, so he passed on this power to certain others. As we read in the Gospel of St John, on the day he rose from the dead he appeared in the room before his fearful disciples, showing them that he had indeed physically risen. Then he breathed on them the gift of the Holy Spirit, commissioning them to go out, just as the Father had sent him. The task he immediately gave them? It was to forgive sins. He had suffered, died and risen from the dead as the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, and now he was sending out his Apostles with the gift of the Holy Spirit empowering them to forgive sins. Whoever’s sins you forgive they are forgiven them, he told them. Whoever’s sins you retain, they are retained. From the beginning, by virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders transmitted from bishop to bishop and from bishop to priest, that power and authority to forgive sins has been exercised by the ordained pastors of the Church which Christ founded on Peter and the Apostles. Every truly ordained priest has this spiritual charism of being an instrument of the living Jesus whereby through him Christ forgives the sins of others. That is to say, just as in our Gospel passage today Christ forgave the sins of the sick man in full view of the scribes, the Pharisees and the people, so too he continues to forgive sins through his ordained priest. On the very day of his resurrection Christ passed on this ministry that he himself had exercised. It was one of his very first and therefore one of his most important acts as risen from the dead. It means that one of the most fundamental and important ministries of the Church which Christ founded and sustains is the forgiveness of sin. It is one of the greatest gifts that the Church offers and brings to the world, and a principal reason for membership in the Church.

Let us think prayerfully of Christ’s action in today’s Gospel. It shows his consciousness of being divine and the immense importance of the forgiveness of sins. It was the first thing Christ chose to do for the paralysed man. It is the first thing we ought seek from Christ with a spirit of true repentance, and this we do both by our personal prayer for forgiveness and by our seeking it in the Sacrament of Penance in the ministry of the Church.

(E.J.Tyler)

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