Dear Friend,

Monday of the Second Week of Advent   December 5, 2022

Luke 5:17-26

Reflection by Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly

Each time I hear today’s Gospel of the paralytic being lowered through the roof, I am taken back to my second year in seminary, when I heard a deacon preach a homily based upon this passage.  To this day, I can still recall how he began: “Pick up your mat and go home.”  He had a clear and powerful voice.  After a few moments of silence, he asked us the question, “Why?”.  What was the need for the mat if the man had been healed?  Keeping things tidy?  Merely being respectful of others by taking with you what you brought in?  The deacon proposed something more than that, something deeper and more significant, something that brought to mind the life-changing encounter that had just taken place.

The deacon suggested that Jesus instructed the man to take his mat with him and bring it home so that he would never forget what the Lord had done for him in his mercy by healing him.   So the mat was a reminder, day in and day out, of this moment, of this encounter.  It was not something to be tucked away in a hall closet or up in the attic, like a relic from the past.  Rather, catching sight of it in the living room or perhaps by the door of the house would immediately bring to heart and mind all the Lord had done for him in his mercy.  A kind of icon, if you will.  A door to the sacred.  Painted by the Divine Artist himself. 

All of us are paralyzed in so many ways – fears and anxieties, patterns of weakness and sin, or merely a low self-image, refusing to believe that God (or anyone else for that matter) could possibly see any good in  us.  These Advent days are an invitation for each one of us to move beyond these crippling lies.  As Isaiah reminds us: “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: be strong, fear not!  Here is your God … he comes to save you.”  Jesus invites us during this time not to cling to the ways in which we are held bound or trapped but instead to focus on the manner in which he desires to set us free. 

His manner is mercy. “Pick up your mat and go home.”  His manner is mercy.  Over and again, Jesus enters into the chaos and messiness of our lives and liberates us and restores us to life.  He does so out of love for us and because he wants us to experience his life here and now.  And to never forget all that God has done for us – to heal us and to make us whole. 

The image for today’s reflection is from the University Chapel, of the tabernacle beneath the crucifix and before the image of Our Blessed Mother.  Mary is the perfect model of one who lived her entire life in recollection of what God had done for her.  May you and I strive to do the same, especially during these holy days of Advent. 

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, as I come before you today, I ask that you heal me and restore my life.  Help me to spend some time today remembering the manner of your mercy in my own life.  Never let me forget that you came to bring me life, and life to the full.  May I never shy away from your life-giving mercy.

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Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly, S.T.L., Ph.D., former Rector/Dean, Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. He holds a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, a licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) from Pontificio Istituto Teresianum, Rome, and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Fordham University. He has served as a member of the Archdiocesan Priest Personnel Board, the Advisory Committee on Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, the Archdiocesan Vocations Board, and the Board of Trustees of Seton Hall University. Pope John Paul II named him a Chaplain to His Holiness in 2005, with the title of Reverend Monsignor. In 2016 during the Holy Year of Mercy, the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization sought priests who were living signs "of the Father's welcome to all those in search of His forgiveness." He was the only priest from the Archdiocese of Newark formally commissioned as a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis.