The necessity for ritual cleanliness finds a place in every religious tradition. Even today, mosques are built with fountains in their courtyards so that the faithful can wash before prayer. Jewish washing and kosher requirements are well known and Catholics bless themselves with holy water whenever they enter a church.

Within the context of Holy Week, we have a slight twist on the significance of washing. In the story of the Passion read on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the most obvious description of washing of hands is the action of Pilate washing his hands of guilt after handing Jesus over to be crucified. In fact, in the old Tridentine rite, where every action of the priest was described as symbolic of the story of the Passion, the washing of hands was described as symbolic of the washing of Pilate’s hands. Modern church historians and liturgists have disputed this analogy since the priest as ‘alter Christus’ cannot at the same time be ‘alter’ Pilate. Historians will add that the washing of hands came about in the early Church because, at the time of the preparation of the gifts, the priests would bless things, accept gifts (food, livestock, etc.) for the Church, etc. and so needed to wash up afterwards.

The continued practice during the preparation of the gifts, however, is not just a vestige of a practical liturgical action that was done in the early Church. The Church maintains the practice of the washing of hands as a sign of the ritual purity of the priest, and by extension, the priestly people who are celebrating the Eucharist, the sacrifice
of Thanksgiving and can be a reminder of the cleansing of sin at baptism. This meaning of the washing of hands is demonstrated by the words of the priest during the washing, “Lord, wash me of my iniquity, cleanse me of my sins.” It is actually a practice that goes back to the rituals of the Temple of Jerusalem where Jesus would have
witnessed the exposition of the ‘showbread’ every Passover of his life. The washing of the priests’ hands during Mass at the preparation of the gifts is the symbolic washing of everyone's hands, a symbolic washing of the iniquity and sins of all of God’s priestly people. This action is always connected with the preparation of the gifts.

Our Gospel this Sunday presents a dramatic encounter between Jesus and a paralytic. Jesus was at home in Capernaum, surrounded by disciples listening to his teaching. Four men who were carrying a paralyzed man appeared, hoping to have Jesus cure him. Finding the room where Jesus was teaching too full, they used a rather creative method for getting their friend to Jesus, opening the roof of the room in order to lower the man down.

Two things, other than the ruined roof, are interesting in this encounter. The first is Jesus’ initial response to the paralytic. “Child, your sins are forgiven.” I am sure that was the last thing the four carriers expected or hoped to hear from Jesus. They certainly had not carried the man from wherever they were from, hoisted him up to the roof of the building, tore apart the roof and then lowered him down before Jesus in order for his sins to be forgiven. What kind of sins could a paralytic have committed? The question should not have been “Who but God alone can forgive sins?” but rather who but God alone would know that the man had sins to forgive?

The second surprising thing about this encounter is that the paralytic has no speaking part. We are sure of the faith of the four carriers but do not know anything about the paralytic until he actually does what Jesus tells him to do: pick up his mat and walk. His active expression of faith is every bit as powerful as that of the four men who had helped him. For the paralytic, the power to overcome the doubt and fear that he would not be able to do just as Jesus said was a great witness to the disciples who had gathered to hear Jesus’ words.

In our lives, many of us have experienced times of paralysis, times when we have not known where to turn, times when we had to rely on the faith of those around us to sustain and carry us forward. There are other times when we have been that person who carried a friend in their time of need. In all of these experiences, it is Jesus who stands before us to both accept us as we are and challenge us to move forward in faith and trust; to take up our
mats and walk. Our response is, itself, a blessing of God.