I visit an assisted living home where people range from in their 70s to in their 90s. Most of the residents are women and they differ considerably in their physical ailments.

But more surprising is how much difference there is in their mental outlook on life. One lady is one of the most holy persons I have ever met. She prays for everything and everyone. At the other end of the spectrum of attitudes are some ladies who can be very crabby about life.

Some of these ladies are unhappy because they are still at war with someone in their family, often one of their own children. Although all the residents need some form of physical healing, some of them need to forgive others or to be forgiven themselves before they can move on with their lives. Some wait until just before death to forgive; then suddenly their crabbiness wanes and they approach the end of life with great peace.

In the first reading today from Isaiah, the Lord says, "Remember not the events of the past...I am doing something new." If we get stuck in an unforgiving situation, we will be blinded to what the Lord is doing that is new in our lives. We may never get to the last part of the reading where the Lord says, "Your sins I remember no more." Since we are made in the image of God, we too must not remember the sins of others. Also, we must forgive ourselves, as God does, so that we can move on with our lives.

Sometimes we get stuck in life because of mortal sin, a sin in which we prefer some inferior good to God. But our loving Jesus tells us, as he did the paralytic, that "The Son of God has authority to forgive sins on earth." Since Jesus ascended into heaven, he passed on his authority to forgive sins to the Apostles, who then passed it on to the bishops, who also gave the authority to our priests. When we get stuck in life, all we have to do is visit one of our priests to have our sins forgiven so that we can move on in our life and see something new.

In today's gospel reading, the crowd saw the apparent external needs of the paralyzed man. But, Jesus looked deeper and saw the spiritual pain of the man who had not only sinned, but who also had been branded by the crowd as carrying terrible sin. What life-changing relief it must have been for this man to hear that God forgave him and that his illness did not mean God hated him.

The gospel tugs at me today to pray for vision like Jesus. I want to look and see both apparent needs and hidden unspoken hurts. I want to know how to seek and find the pains that cripple the hearts and spirits of those I encounter.

All of us need to draw one another back into the life of the Body of Christ. Let me try to explain this with a story.

"A young girl broke her grandma's beautiful nativity-scene snow globe. The little girl ran away crying and hid, desperate to have broken a special possession of the grandma whom she loved very much. Only the power of being assured of Grandma's forgiveness drew her back into family life."

Who needs us to look more deeply at their pain? What cripples our heart or spirit now? Who do we need to forgive? From whom do we need to ask forgiveness?

By forgiving and being forgiven, then we will be ready to see what the Lord is doing that is new!