Homily for Monday of the 2nd Week of Advent

At times, we face various obstacles in our lives that we must overcome to achieve our goals. During such times, it is easy to lose sight of our objective and give up.

In today's Gospel passage, a paralyzed man's friends wanted to bring him to Jesus but found that the crowd was blocking their way. Rather than giving up, they climbed onto the roof with their friend and lowered him down through the tiles before Jesus. Jesus was deeply moved by their faith and the unwavering persistence of their efforts.

There was a small community of faith consisting of the paralytic and his friends. They were determined to reach the Lord despite the obstacles and challenges they faced along the way, and remained steadfast in their faith as they journeyed towards him.

In many ways, this small community of faith can inspire us this Advent season when we are called to keep journeying toward the LORD and focus on Him despite whatever obstacles may be at work in our lives that could keep us from Him. Jesus surprised them all by first saying to the man, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” The paralytic needed spiritual as well as physical healing, and his spiritual healing took priority.

As we focus on the LORD this Advent, let us look to Him for our spiritual healing.