Trust in the Lord: The Paralytic, Forgiveness, and Mary Presenting the Sinners

**Quote:**> “And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Confide, son, your sins are forgiven you.'” (Matthew 9:2)**Text:**The healing of the paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8) is the first episode in the second sequence of miracles in Matthew’s Gospel (Chapter 9) and one that opens up the most radical question about Jesus’ ministry: his authority to forgive sins. “Who can forgive sins but God?” (Matthew 9:3, implied in the accusation of blasphemy by the scribes) is the right question, with the answer demonstrating visibly that he who made the paralytic walk has also the invisible power to forgive. The physical healing serves as a sign that verifies what is not directly verifiable: the forgiveness of sins.Matthew recounts this scene with notable brevity. Luke (Luke 5:17-26) and Mark (Mark 2:1-12) describe the friends who made an opening in the roof to lower the paralytic, a bold act of faith that Matthew omits to focus on the essential: “seeing their faith” (Matthew 9:2), Jesus responds. The faith Jesus “saw” is the faith of those who carried the paralytic, not explicitly mentioning the paralytic’s own faith. This theological detail is precious: the healing/forgiveness of the paralytic was mediated by the faith of others who brought him to Jesus. Intercession—bringing others into the presence of Jesus—is a condition for healing.**I. “Seeing their faith”: Intercession that Heals**“Videns fidem illorum,” “seeing their faith” (in the plural), is one of the most notable formulations in the Gospels about intercession. Jesus did not ask the paralytic if he believed; he did not assess his spiritual state before acting. He saw the faith of those who carried him and acted. The scene’s structure is that of pure intercession: someone in need, unable to present themselves, carried by others who believe, presented to the healer who responds to the faith of the presenter.This structure serves as a theological model for Marian intercession. Mary does not substitute for the believer’s faith; she cannot believe for anyone else. But she can “carry” those who, due to spiritual weakness, sin’s paralysis, or distance from faith, cannot present themselves. “They have no wine” (John 2:3) is the canonical formula for this intercessory presentation: Mary presents to the Son the needs of those who cannot or do not know how to present themselves. Like the friends of the paralytic, Mary “carries” to Jesus those whom their own weakness prevents from walking to the Healer.The theology of “intercession of saints” has a solid evangelical foundation in this episode. If Jesus responded to the faith of the paralytic’s friends, the divine action structure includes the mediation of others’ faith as a condition for benefit to the sick. This does not mean God is incapable of acting without mediation, as seen with the centurion (Matthew 8:8), he can act at a distance without visible intercession. But the scene with the paralytic reveals another possibility: that the faith of those who intercede may be the pathway through which grace reaches those lacking sufficient faith to walk to the Healer.

The communal dimension of this intercession is also significant: their “faith” is shared faith, not individual faith. The Body of Christ, the Church, is the space where one person’s faith carries the weakness of another. The community’s intercessory prayer for sick or absent members is the ecclesial equivalent of the friends of the paralytic: bringing Jesus to those who, because of their condition, are unable to rise and walk through prayer and presence.

II. «Your sins are forgiven»: the scandal of priority

Jesus’ response to the paralytic is unexpected: not “rise and walk” but “your sins are forgiven” (Mt 9:2). Physical healing comes after, as a response to the scandal of the scribes. This order of priorities—first forgiveness, then healing—reveals what Jesus considers most urgent: not the physical suffering of the paralytic (real and visible) but his spiritual condition (invisible). Forgiveness of sins is the deepest cure. Mobility of the legs is the sign of this deeper cure.

“Some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘He is blaspheming'” (Mt 9:3), the accusation is technically correct within the Jewish theological framework: only God can forgive sins (because sins are offenses against God, and only the party offended can forgive). What the scribes fail to see is that the premise of their accusation confirms what Jesus is asserting: if only God can forgive and Jesus forgives, either Jesus blasphemes or Jesus is God. The scribes chose the first option. The Church, instructed by the Risen One, chose the second.

“To show you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home” (Mt 9:6), physical healing is an apologetic demonstration of invisible forgiveness. Jesus uses the verifiable (the paralytic walking) as proof of the unverifiable (forgiveness). This structure—visible as a sign of invisible—is the sacramental structure: baptismal water as a sign of baptismal grace, bread and wine as signs of the presence in the Eucharist, vocal absolution as a sign of sacramental forgiveness.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is, in the patristic tradition, the New Testament equivalent of this healing of the paralytic. Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo developed the reading of the paralytic’s healing as a type of the sacrament of penance: the “paralysis of sin” that prevents spiritual walking, presentation to the Healer through the mediation of those who bear the penitent (the community, the Church), and the double gift of forgiveness and ability to walk again in Christian life.

III. «Courage, son»: the tenderness of forgiveness

“Have courage, son” (Mt 9:2, “tharsei, teknon”), before speaking of forgiveness, Jesus addresses the paralytic with an expression of tenderness and encouragement. “Teknon” (“son,” “child”) is a form of address that evokes a parental relationship. Jesus does not forgive coldly, like a judge pronouncing absolution. He forgives with the tenderness of one who knows the weight of what the paralytic has carried. “Courage” is not an injunction to force of will: it is the communication that the situation has changed, that what seemed impossible is now happening.

**The Tender Mercy of Forgiveness**This aspect of forgiveness is one of the least visible yet most crucial in Matthew’s soteriology. Salvation is not a cold transaction between a sinner and a tribunal, but the restoration of a relationship between Father and Son. “Courage, son” echoes the parable of the prodigal son from Luke, the father running to meet his son before he has finished his repentance speech. Jesus’ forgiveness precedes the account of the paralytic, we do not know if he confessed his sins, or promised to change. Jesus forgave because He saw the faith of those who brought him forward.**Devotion to Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus**In this “Confide, fili” (Trust, son), Mary finds one of her favorite texts: the heart that Jesus offers is not that of an indifferent judge but of one who says “courage, son” to humanity carried to Him. Mary, who knew this heart more intimately than anyone else, who carried it in her womb, fed it, and accompanied it to Calvary, is the one who can, through her intercession, lead spiritual children to experience “Confide, fili” that she herself heard throughout her life.**Refuge of Sinners**“Refugium Peccatorum,” Refuge of Sinners, is the Marian title that captures the aspect of her intercession on behalf of those burdened by sin. Mary is the refuge, not forgiveness itself (which is Christ’s gift in the sacrament), but the space of welcome where the sinner finds security to be “carried” to Jesus. Like the friends of the paralytic who did not abandon their friend in his paralysis, Mary does not leave her children in their incapacity: she presents them to the Son who has power to forgive and make walk.**IV. The Crowd that Glorified God: The Fruit of Forgiveness**“And seeing this, the crowds were filled with awe and glorified God, who had given such power to men” (Mt 9:8). The incident ends not with the joy of the healed man but with collective glorification of God. Healing a man has community effects: the witness to forgiveness and healing becomes a reason for praise for those who bear witness. Salvation is not a private event between Jesus and the paralytic; it overflows into the community that glorifies the God who “gave such power to men.”The formulation “gave such power to men” (Mt 9:8) is ecclesiological: Matthew does not simply say “to Jesus” but “to men.” This extension of forgiving power to humanity anticipates Mt 18:18 (“Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven”) and Jn 20:23 (“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”). The power to forgive demonstrated by Jesus over the paralytic was passed on to the Church, and it is in this transmission that the Sacrament of Reconciliation finds its direct theological foundation.The role of Mary in the ecclesiastic dimension of forgiveness is that of being the first to experience the “remission of sins” in the broadest sense: the preservation of her Immaculate Conception and the redemptive action of the Son who sprang from her are the sources of the sacrament administered by the Church. When Mary intercedes for penitents in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, through the Rosary before confession, or through veneration of Our Lady of Perpetual Help as an icon of mercy, she does not compete with Christ but presents to the Son those who his spiritual paralysis prevents from walking to the confessional on their own.