Rise up!

RISE UP!

Mario D’Couto

       The incident in which Jesus encounters the paralyzed man tells us something which we can all relate with (John 5: 5 – 9). When Jesus saw the man who had been ill, He said, “Rise up, take up your mat and walk” (John 5:8). Apparently, this may seem like some physical healing but on reading between the lines, we will find that it is something that it is much deeper, something that touches us in a personal way. 

             

             Whenever Our Blessed Lord healed anyone, He did not just heal the physical or the emotional or the spiritual or the psychological aspect of their lives but He healed them in their entirety. His healing is integral and this is what we see in this incident in the Gospel. When a person is physically handicapped, it is not just that the person goes through physical agony but his or her agony is something much more. For instance when a person is physically handicapped, he or she can experience a lot of frustrations from within. Christ heals us in our entirety and that is why He became one like us. He could have healed us or saved us from our sin by merely saying a word but He chose not to do it. He become one like us in all things except sin and therefore He too experienced the pain, hunger, suffering, frustration, anger and isolation that we all go through. Yet, Our Lord showed us that there is a way out of it and that is through Him for ultimately He took upon Himself all our sins and paid the penalty for our sins through His death on the Cross.

            Socrates once said, “The unreflected life is not worth living” and while it is true that reflecting over one’s life is indeed a necessity for one to live life fully, it could lead one to become overtly scrupulous with one’s self and at times, it can become frustrating. For instance, imagine a person who tries hard to live a virtuous life but due to circumstances he or she is not able to do so. St. Julian of Norwich, an English mystic of the 13^th century has some practical advice in this regard.

            She exhorts us to move beyond sloth and despair. She writes, “God wants us to forgive our sin instead of falling into a false meekness that is really a foul blindness and weakness due to fear.” She cautions us against too much self – accusation, “God says, ‘Do not accuse yourself too much, allowing your tribulations and woe to seem all your fault; for it is not My will that you be heavy or sorrowful imprudently.’” It is our failure to see God in all things that leads to our despair and self – berating. We often fail to see God and then we fall into ourselves and feel there is something wrong with us – that we are perverse and responsible for the entrance of sin into the world and all subsequent sins. The solution to such despair is a rekindling of power, wisdom and goodness on our part. Because we were ‘loved from the beginning’ and ‘made for love’, sin does not have the last word any more than it had the first word. Love is love and not wrathful.

           Self – esteem and knowing our own beauty are the cure to our weakness, St. Julian insisted, “We are not certain that God hears us because we consider ourselves worthless and as nothing. This is ridiculous and the cause of our weakness. I have felt this way myself.” She put sin in the larger context of blessing when she taught that “my own sin will not hinder the working of God’s goodness.” We ought not to dwell on sinfulness, “As long as we are in this life and find ourselves foolishly dwelling on sinfulness, our God tenderly touches us and joyfully calls us saying, ‘Let all your love be, My child. Turn to me, I am everything you need. Enjoy Me and your liberation.’” St. Julian wanted to move beyond sin as guilt, “God showed me that we should not feel guilty because of sin, for sin is valuable.”  There is much to learn from sin and much to learn from being emptied by mistakes. Sin is what causes pain and this pain purges us and makes us know ourselves and to ask forgiveness and mercy.

            In one of the parts of the liturgy of the Holy Eucharist, there is a part where the priest says, “Look not on your sins but on the faith of your Church.” This sentence brings to mind as to what too much of focus on one’s negativity can do. It is said that of the chief means by which the devil brings about our downfall is not so much by the greatest temptation, but it is through discouragement. Yes you got that right! It’s through discouragement that he brings us down. As subtle and shrewd that he is, he tricks us into sin and once we are fallen, he starts throwing these thoughts in our head that we are not capable of God’s forgiveness. No wonder he is known as “The accuser”. But God Almighty does not condemn us but gives us life in abundance (John 10:10).

            Our Blessed Lord came down on earth to give us hope and a second chance to start all over again. In fact, whenever we fall down, He is waiting for us to rise so that He can ‘walk’ with us. For Meister Eckhart, sin cannot truly put distance between God and us. He would say, “A person should never in any way think of himself or herself as far from God, either because of some sin or weakness or for any other reason. If at any time your great sin drives you away, so that you cannot feel to be near God, you should nevertheless feel that God’s near you. God never goes far; He always remains standing near and if He cannot remain within He still doesn’t go further away than just outside the door.” This is, indeed, a consolation for all of us on the path of virtue. It is not the falling but the rising after having fallen that matters.

            As we are already midway in the season of Lent, this is a good time to reflect on the fact that our God is a God of love, a God who wants to be with us and reveal Himself to us more than we can imagine. It’s not so much by our effort that we become holy but it is by His grace. The only thing we can do is reach out to Him with open arms saying, “Lord here I am, a poor sinner”.