Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
Reflecting on Mark 2:1-2
My friends Mary and Jim had been high school sweethearts, and they had kept their romance going through college while on opposite sides of the country. But for a short time during the spring of their sophomore year they were a mere ninety miles away from each other. And one night James Taylor showed up unexpectedly to give an impromptu concert to hundreds of astonished students in a little field on the Denver University campus.
That’s when the agony started, because Jim was right there and Mary was at college in Fort Collins. Jim had a front-row stump (there were no chairs in the field) watching James Taylor sing all the songs that he and Mary loved, and he spent the whole time longing for Mary to be there to share the experience with him. That’s the thing about love.
I think about that as I relish the love that those four friends had for the paralytic in today’s Gospel. Whatever it took, even carrying him across town and dropping him down through the roof, they were going to get their sick friend into the presence of Jesus. The Healer was there, and they couldn’t be happy until their friend was touched by him. That’s the thing about love.
At some point in our lives, someone brought us to Jesus. Perhaps it was our parents, who brought us to the doors of the church for baptism. Perhaps it was a friend, who said “Come and see.” Thanks be to God for their kindness, for now we too can say, “Oh, Jesus. How sweet it is to be loved by you.”
Who are the friends in your life who would carry you across town to meet Jesus?
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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).