Today's Gospel is the story of the paralytic man who was lowered through the roof down to Jesus where He forgave the man's sins and allowed him to walk. I was all prepared to write a reflection on surrounding yourself with people who will lead you to Jesus, but I was actually struck by something new as I read the passage.
"Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them."
If Jesus was still walking the streets and preaching like He did in Capernaum so many years ago, how would the world look different? How would you look different?
I was so struck by the vision of so many people crowded around a room just for the opportunity to hear Jesus speak. People brought their infirm to Him just for the chance that they'd catch His attention and heal them. These people BELIEVED in Jesus. His words affected them and resonated within them.
Jesus said that it is better that He goes (John 16:7) because He will leave us the Holy Spirit. It's hard to believe that what we have now is better than Jesus actually walking our streets. Our churches aren't crowded in an attempt to see the Eucharistic Lord. I really think that if people
really believed,
really knew what the Eucharist was, there wouldn't be a church large enough to contain the masses of people crowded in to see Him.
This begs the question of ourselves. Jesus walks the streets today in a different way. Jesus feeds the masses in a different way. Jesus still performs miracles every day, but do we even realize? There don't need to be masses of people for us to show up.
Do we follow Jesus like the people of Capernaum? Do we reorder our lives so that we can hear what He's saying and live it out? Have we been profoundly changed by Him?