Jesus knows you
In 325 AD, a council of bishops gathered in the city of Nicaea, in what is now Turkey, for a council of fundamental importance. At the heart of the discussion was a fundamental question: Is Jesus God, just like the Father, or is He merely a “lesser god,” a secondary being, a creature who had a beginning? A few years earlier, an Egyptian presbyter named Arius had begun insisting that Jesus was merely a creature. The bishops at Nicaea, however, saw that Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is God: He is not the Father, but He is God. He is a man, but He is also God. And so, the Council of Nicaea arrived at a formulation that we still repeat at every Mass today: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God… [who] for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven … and was made man.”
Today’s Gospel offers us two clear demonstrations of Jesus’ divinity. First, we see that Jesus knows the thoughts of every heart: He sees THE FAITH of the paralytic and his friends, and He knows THE THOUGHTS of the scribes. Very often, the prophets were unable to understand what was in people’s hearts. When they did know, it was because God had revealed it to them. In Jesus’ case, however, no such revelation is necessary: He sees everything that is in the human heart.
This means that He sees what is in my heart and yours. And far too often, what He sees is not good: pride, hatred, irritation, anger, contempt, lust, slander, lack of faith… If we are honest with ourselves, there are many, far too many, times when we see evil in our hearts, and if we could, we would tear it out of our chests, horrified by the evil within us. (Although, of course, that would make no difference!) How often would Jesus have the right to ask us the same question He asked the scribes: “WHY DO YOU THINK EVIL IN YOUR HEARTS? Why do you think that way about your brother, your sister, your family, your God?”
No one wants to be exposed before others, yet we are constantly laid bare before God. His eyes see everything; there is no sin, no mistake, no wickedness in our thoughts that is not clearer to Him than it is even to us. God sees just how profoundly crooked we are.
And yet, Christ responds to these thoughts in a completely unexpected way. He forgives the paralytic’s sins—the second indication of Christ’s divinity! Even when the scribes entertain evil thoughts, He urges them to reconsider and to recognize the authority Jesus possesses as the Son of Man. I believe that if we knew one another’s every thought, we would never forgive each other; there is too much filth in each of our hearts. Probably, if we knew everything that was in our own hearts, we would not be able to sleep at night.
Jesus, however, knows it all. And how does He respond? With forgiveness. What happens here in Rome every Saturday evening? That same Jesus, who knows everything and sees everything, listens to our confession. And how does He respond? “I know. I have seen all the evil within you. But TAKE HEART, MY CHILD: YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN.”
What happens when we approach the altar? Jesus answers us: “I know you. I see clearly who you are, and I want you to grow and become better. But precisely for this reason, I enter into a marriage covenant with you. I bind Myself to you as a husband binds himself to his wife. At this table, I give you Myself as food and drink. I will be your forgiveness. I will be the strength that gradually drives sin out of your life, and on the Last Day, I will be the life that raises you from the dead, glorious and unchanging. I see you, I know you, and I desire to make you Mine—Mine forever.”