Which Is Easier? Teaching with a Miracle

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Mark 2: 1-12- 'The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.'

Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:

- 1502-1503 ('The Sick person before God') - Illness becomes a way to conversion; God’s forgiveness initiates the healing...Jesus has the power not only to heal, but also to forgive sins; he has come to heal the whole man, soul and body; he is the physician the sick have need of (abbreviated)

- 1421 (in 'The Sacraments of Healing') - The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

- 1441 (in 'Only God forgives sin') - Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercises this divine power: “Your sins are forgiven.” Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.

- 430 (in 'Jesus') - Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man, “will save his people from their sins.” (abbreviated)

- 1484 (in 'The Celebration of the Sacrament of Penance') - Christ is at work in each of the sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner: “My son, your sins are forgiven'' (abbreviated)

- 2616 (in 'Jesus hears our prayer') - Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman) (abbreviated)

- 574 (in 'Jesus & Israel') - Because of certain of his acts— expelling demons, forgiving sins, healing on the sabbath day, his novel interpretation of the precepts of the Law regarding purity, and his familiarity with tax collectors and public sinners—some ill-intentioned persons suspected Jesus of demonic possession. He is accused of blasphemy and false prophecy, religious crimes which the Law punished with death by stoning.

- 589 (in 'Jesus & Israel's faith in the one God and Saviour') - Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God’s own attitude toward them He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet. But it was most especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man who made himself God’s equal or is speaking the truth, and his person really does make present and reveal God’s name.

- 473 (in 'Christ's Soul & his human knowledge') - The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts (abbreviated)

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