A Redeemed Soul is Like a Desert Flower in Bloom

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Mass Readings for Today

The grace of redemption could be described to work very much like a microwave oven.  The deposit of the grace of adoption we receive in baptism is given to the inmost soul and begins to spread outward from there to the rest of the faculties so that one's mind is illumined, one's will is strengthened, one's passions are subdued, even one's personality is balanced and perfected.

Although one's nature is fallen in the midst of this desert God begins to sew the seeds of his beauty, his fragrance, his presence, so that the interior of redeemed man there begins to be a wonderful oasis in which God begins to walk in friendship with the soul.  In today's readings we hear,

The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom.  They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song.

This also describes the inner experience of one's soul in the Sacrament of confession.  We also read,

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; Then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.

Is this not what happens when a souls is reunited with the Lord in his great kindness of the Sacrament of Mercy?  The Gospel is an excellent theological explanation of the Sacrament of Penance.  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1441) we see that the pharisees were correct in their statement as we read in today's Gospel:

"Only God can forgive sin" (Luke 5:21)

Yet what they did not recognize is that Jesus is God.  The Catechism (1441) continues:

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. 

Also that Jesus Christ, because he is God almighty has the power to pass on the capacity to forgive sins to his Church through the sacred priesthood.


We are all called to be like the friends who let the paralytic down from the roof.  Mostly by a holy life of prayer, penance, and our own joyful participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, do we draw others through the rooftop of the Church and the commotion and crowd that sometimes surronds Jesus like a packed room of listeners.


May Our Lady, who is also a like a desert flower in bloom help us to bring many souls to Jesus Christ this Advent and always, and may she obtain for us the grace to be an oasis for others in the desert of mankind.