Msgr. Pope on What Our Savior Offers

"The Gospel for last Monday's Mass (Monday of the Second Week of Advent) is the well-known story of the paralytic. There are many wonderful details that I could discuss (e.g., the four friends who bring him to Jesus - talk about great friends!), but I’d like to focus today on Jesus' command: 'Rise, take up your stretcher, and go home.' It is a small picture of the grace unto salvation offered to us by the Lord. Here is a man who is powerless to help or heal himself, so the Lord helps and heals him. Though 'dead in his sins,' he now rises and lays hold of a whole new life.

"This is a mid-Advent picture of why we need a Savior, and what He offers. . . ."

In a recent commentary, Monsignor Charles Pope (pastor of Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Parish, Washington, DC) reflected on the opportunity, through our Savior, to receive new life, new capacities; to "take up the authority He has rightly granted us and command our soul in justice and truth," and to return to our true home in the Kingdom of God.

To access Msgr. Pope's complete post, please visit:

Community in Mission: A Mid-Advent Picture of What Our Savior Offers (9 DEC 20)