Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened; then the lame shall leap like a stag, and the mute tongue sing for joy. [Isaiah 35: 1-10]
"I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." He stood up immediately, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. [Luke 5: 17-26]
Jesus speaks the above words to a paralytic whose friends bring him to Jesus for help. They were determined because they had to go up on the roof, tear off part of the roof and lower the stretcher, with the paralytic on it, down in front of Jesus! It is quite a dramatic effort. Indeed, Jesus responds to THEIR faith in helping the paralytic, who becomes a living example of Isaiah's prophecy about the day of the Lord. But we must not overlook those determined friends.
Many of us have heard the expression, "It takes a village to..." The example of a faithful group can indeed bring someone paralyzed in their own faith and introduce them to Jesus. In doing this, we bring the kingdom to others and not just be the spectators in the room who witness the healing. How can we do this in our own parish or faith community? Advent may be the season of liturgical preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but that does not mean we suspend "putting skin on" the kingdom. To the extent that we as a community bear witness, and not just as individuals, we give witness to the kingdom just as those stretcher bearers did, and we enable Jesus to do what he does in healing. AMEN