7TH Sunday in Ordinary time. Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25. 2nd Cor.1:18-22 Mark 2:1-12.

"Sin is the root of all evil", this is a saying that is very common among us. People sin as far as they are living. People make mistakes, we say the things that we shouldn’t say, and we do the things that we shouldn’t do. This is sin, because it not pleasant in the eyes of the Lord. How do we feel when we realize that we are not on the right path, that we are not doing what God wants? Sometimes we feel miserable and downcast. We tell ourselves that we are not worth who we are because of what we have done.

Our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah encourages us. God wants to encourage His people by telling them that they should not recall the past. Things have been done and they are gone now. He says it this way "Yes I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wild." Then he continued by saying that the people he had formed, will sing God’s praises. Can a sinner sing God’s praises? These were encouraging words indeed. God wants to show us that He wants to forgive us our sins. Indeed that is what He said. He says, "I it is, I it is who must blot out everything and not remember your sins".

We see the same thing been done in the Gospel reading according to Mark. We see Jesus forgiving the sins of this pathetic man who was totally paralyzed. Jesus saw his suffering and how he felt about himself and thinking, (like we always do) that it’s better for me to die, He said to him, "your sins are forgiving". This was more relieving than curing him. Why? It’s because he was cured spiritually and that was far more important than the physical healing. Jesus knew this and so he gave him that peaceful mind.

We all know that when we have our sins forgiving we surely do have a peaceful mind. This is where God wants to begin with us. He wants to assure us that whatever the case with us, whoever we may be, he has given us this chance of having our sins being blotted out. Remember what he said in the first reading. He told Jacob, "you have not invoked me; you have not troubled yourself, Israel, on your behalf. Instead you have burdened me with your sins and troubled me with your iniquities." Then he said "for your sins I will blot them out and remember them no more".

This indeed is an assurance of peace. We all want to be forgiven, we all want peace. We must then be like St. Paul who says in the Second Reading that with the Lord it should be Yes always. He says this writing to the Corinthians, "with him (the Lord) it is always yes, and how ever many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in Him". He added that because of this, we say Amen to the praise of God. So if we want God’s favour to be on us, if we want our sins forgiven, we must have faith in God and say ‘Yes’ to all his cause and ‘Amen’ to his praises.