Second Sunday of the Great Fast: St. Gregory Palamas. Octoechos Tone 6. Our Holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople (806).
Great Fast Day 14. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Hebrews 1:10-2:3. Mark 2:1-12.
Read Mark 2:1-12
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Jesus’s initial response to the paralytic and his four friend’s expression of faith was not the one they ripped the roof off for. They eventually received what they came for, but what was Jesus there for?
“He was preaching the word to them.”
Sorting out wants vs. needs is a lifelong journey. Even while our needs are met (“God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19), we can still experience want. We yearn for our loving heavenly Father’s future blessings to touch our hopes in this world.
Delayed gratification is resistance to the desire for an immediate good in the hope of obtaining a greater reward in the long-term. The life of faith is one of turning away from the temptation to reach illegitimately for what we are not yet being given, and living in gratitude for what we have and in love while we do without.
Jesus was not providing healing to everyone. Yet. Jesus points beyond our immediate experience of living to eternity: “He said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven.’” Jesus made his healing a sign that he came to address that cause of which the paralytic’s condition was but a symptom of a fallen world.
“Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)