Today, 23rd of March, we celebrate
Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo
First Reading: Hebrews 4:1-5, 11
Let us be on our guard
while the promise of entering into his rest remains,
that none of you seem to have failed.
For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did.
But the word that they heard did not profit them,
for they were not united in faith with those who listened.
For we who believed enter into that rest,
just as he has said:
As I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter into my rest,”
and yet his works were accomplished
at the foundation of the world.
For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner,
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works;
and again, in the previously mentioned place,
They shall not enter into my rest.
Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest,
so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 78:3 and 4bc, 6c-7, 8
R./ Do not forget the works of the Lord!
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
we will declare to the generation to come
The glorious deeds of the Lord and his strength.
R/ Do not forget the works of the Lord!
That they too may rise and declare to their sons
that they should put their hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of God
but keep his commands.
R/ Do not forget the works of the Lord!
And not be like their fathers,
a generation wayward and rebellious,
A generation that kept not its heart steadfast
nor its spirit faithful toward God.
R/ Do not forget the works of the Lord!
Gospel Reading: Mark 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
“Child, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what
they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”
–he said to the paralytic,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
What’s at stake in this Gospel story isn’t so much whether Jesus can heal or not. The real question is whether He can forgive sins. That’s where those listening to Him find what they consider blasphemy—a radical offense against God. Only God can forgive sins! Only God holds the key to free a person from the weight of their mistakes and allow them to start anew. Anyone who claims that power is, by their standards, blaspheming against God. And here’s the implication: if only God can forgive sins, then I am not obligated to forgive my brother or sister—that’s God’s job.
We might use this story to respond to such claims: it’s clear that Jesus could forgive sins because Jesus is God. The problem was that His listeners hadn’t yet made the leap of faith to recognize His divinity. We believe in that divinity, and that’s why we find in Jesus the forgiveness of our sins and the path to salvation, once we’ve left behind our guilt. This forgiveness is embodied in the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation—penance, confession—which seems to be the moment when God forgives our sins.
But I think we need to go further. Our God is a Father who loves, forgives, and reconciles, who always offers us new paths and new hopes. What we celebrate in the sacrament of reconciliation isn’t just the forgiveness of specific sins—those we’ve committed since our last confession—but rather the ongoing forgiveness of God that is always with us. Always. Always.
And we can go even further. In Jesus, the ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to all of us. We are all carriers of God’s forgiveness, both for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters. Paul says it clearly in his second letter to the Corinthians: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). Jesus can forgive sins, and so can we, His disciples. That is precisely the ministry we’ve been given: to free, forgive, reconcile, and open paths to hope. Never to condemn, exclude, or reject, but to welcome and save.
Fernando Torres, cmf
