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Gospel Reflection – January 16, 2026
“Get Up”
Contrary to what many think, God does not want to subdue us; He wants to liberate us. He doesn’t want subjects on their knees; He wants children who learn to walk on their own. God’s call is not to slavery, but to true freedom.
The anti-monarchy current present in the Old Testament (of which the first reading is a very clear example) is a protest against seeking security in exchange for losing freedom. It’s not that God is jealous of a rival king; rather, He sees this movement for a monarchy “like the other nations” as a rejection of God’s sovereignty—the very sovereignty that freed them from slavery in Egypt. God challenges them to an authentic, and therefore risky, freedom.
If God finally gives in to the people’s desires, it is because He uses our weakness to guide us pedagogically toward that freedom the people seem to reject. Saul won’t be the true king of Israel, nor even David. It will be Jesus. He brings the Kingdom of God—which is not a political reign based on power, but a reign of love realized in service. That is why Jesus is always in the midst of the people, always in an attitude of service: teaching, forgiving, healing. Jesus doesn’t found a political regime; He founds a family: the children of God.
But doesn’t this religious attitude fall into a kind of childishness that prevents us from reaching true autonomy and maturity? If we put aside prejudices and simplistic views of the Christian faith and look at how Jesus acts, we will see that is not the case at all.
What enslaves us most is inside us: sin. And Jesus liberates us by forgiving us. Furthermore, if we are paralyzed for any reason, He doesn’t tell us to be resigned or passive. On the contrary, He calls us to stand up and walk on our own—to be autonomous.
It is curious that today Jesus tells the paralytic to stand up, pick up his mat, and go home. Why did he need the mat anymore? On one hand, the mat is a sign of true freedom, which is responsibility, and responsibility carries weight. But since God calls us to freedom for the sake of good, it’s also possible that, just as compassionate, faith-filled men carried the sick man to Jesus on that mat, Jesus was indicating that he should now go and do the same for others.