Healing stories in the New Testament often focus on one person who places hope and trust in Jesus in asking for a cure. The story of the paralytic, however, takes a different turn. Notice that he never asks anything of Jesus. Nor do the four members of his faith community who help him. Rather, with unspoken hope and trust, they simply take bold action for their neighbor. They force their way through the crowd and rooftop into the presence of Jesus. As soon as they arrive, Jesus acknowledges their combined show of faith and immediately heals the man in a complete sense—first from his sins and then from his paralysis.
This story reveals two aspects of faith that we often overlook: one, faith connects us to each other, and two, faith transforms us into actors. As to how faith connects us, this story shows that we can do more together in faith than we can do alone. Obviously, the paralytic had his own faith in the healing power Jesus. Otherwise, he would not have sought help from Jesus. He could not act alone, however. He needed others to help him realize the full expression of his faith. Therefore, those from his faith community who provided the needed assistance also shared the paralytic’s faith in the healing power of Jesus. Otherwise, they would not have brought him to Jesus for healing. Thus, their faith connected them.
This combined effort of faith demonstrates that faith is more than a solo, private experience of God. This is true because “Christ is not simply the one in whom we believe…Christ is the one with whom we are united precisely in order to believe” (Lumen Fidei, 18, 22). By this definition, faith does not function in isolation. Faith by its nature is meant to be lived in and through a community of believers. Faith connects us to each other.
The second aspect of this story is that faith transforms us into actors. Faith is not a passive experience born of rational analysis and mere assent of mind and heart. Rather, faith finds expression in words and deeds based on the love of Christ. Because Christ lives in complete and constant union with the Father, Christ is the supreme manifestation of God’s love, and the one who makes God known to us (cf. Jn 1:18). As a result, when we live in union with Jesus, faith allows us to see things as Christ sees them, through the eyes of love, because this is how God sees things (1 Jn 4:7-9; LF 18).
From this perspective, faith working through love motivates us to imitate the deeds of Jesus. In fact, Jesus declares that those who believe in him will do the works that he does and even grater ones (Jn 14:12). This is why Paul declares that, “In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Gal 5:6).
In short, the story about the paralytic reveals the difference that faith makes in our lives. When we open our hearts to the faith and love offered by Jesus, faith connects us to each other in a way that transforms our hearts into an expression of his love. Faith and love working together then enlarge and expand our lives in ways that we could never achieve on our own (LF 21). Paul describes the ultimate consequences of faith on these terms when he says "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). In this same spirit, may our faith in Jesus Christ always keep us connected to each other and inspire us to action grounded in his love (Eph 3:17).
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