Being paralysed means having no feelings, being insensitive to pain, and touch…can be temporary or permanent, depending on what causes it. Death means our soul leaves our body and our body is insensitive, cold, and stiff. Once the soul leaves the body, it is no longer referred to as Mr.X or Ms.Y…it is just a piece of flesh soon to decay. Blind means to not be conscious of something or to be unable to notice something obvious to others. We were not born blind, paralysed or dead, and it happened as we grew up to be someone we were not meant to be. How long have we been paralysed, blind, partially deaf (or with selective hearing ), or dead? How long have we been insensitive and cold to everyone around us? How long have we ignored lives around us and never cared? How long have we acted that we couldn’t hear the pleas? Even when others tried to touch us, cry out loud to us, how long have we laid there, not bothering to be sensitive? How strong and hard has our heart become, for us to stay paralysed, deaf, blind, or for our soul to stay away from us?  I wonder if the paralysed man requested his friends to take him to Jesus or did his friends do it without his permission.

This lent season is asking us whether we want to be healed of our state of being paralysed, and blind or whether we want to resurrect like Lazarus. Understand what state we are in, be honest to ourselves, and if we wish to be healed, cry out to Jesus. Unless we realise the state, we are in, things could get hard for ourselves and others around us. God can get us to start feeling for others, seeing other’s pain and suffering, and feeling good about the people around us but cry out our paralysed and blind hearts to Jesus. Should we wish to be healed, the Holy Body of Christ, which we take every week, should heal us. Taking the body of Christ means we are no longer the same us but have to display the life of Christ. The reason why there are more people ditching religion is because we cannot bear the life of Christ, but we preach a Christ who is far from ourselves …a Christ who lived in Israel 2000 years ago and not a Christ who lives within us.

• By Member of STPPMIOC