January 17, 2025

Human beings are driven to keep the elements in their bodies together and to preserve themselves intact, as one separate whole, within the boundaries of “themselves.” This same survival instinct motivates all animals, plants, insects – all living beings. On the other hand there is the vastness of space and the continuity of all creation. This vastness beyond our boundaries can cause fear and anxiety, fear of dissolution and anxiety about what unexpected events may befall us.  Yet we can let go into this vastness of God’s presence without fear. We too can be part of the infinite. Infinite peace.

That is the lesson for today.

Mark 2:1-12

When Jesus walked the earth, he brought together that human condition of bodiliness, and that Godly condition of infinity.  Because of this merger, all things were possible for him, including healing the paralytic as in today’s Gospel story. There in the dust of Israel was the vastness of God’s power and love; God’s love is both bodily and vast. As the crowd said, glorifying God, “We have never seen anything like this.”  Indeed, they had not. Amen.