They are said to be redeemed with respect to the captivity of diabolical servitude: Daniel 4: "Redeem your sins with almsgiving"; and the Psalm: "From usury and iniquity he shall redeem their souls."
49. (Verse 21). Now there is added secondly the discernment of thoughts in the mind of the blasphemers, when it is said: And the scribes and Pharisees began to think, vain and harmful thoughts: Romans 1: "They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened." And the expression of the thought follows, when he adds: saying, namely in their hearts, according to that of the Psalm: "The things you say in your hearts, upon your beds be moved to compunction."
Who is this, who speaks blasphemy? In which thought they despise the Savior as base, in this, that they say: Who is this? Sirach thirteen: "The poor man spoke, and they say: Who is this"? against that which is said in Sirach eleven: "Do not despise a man by his appearance".
They reprove Him as a sinner in this, that they charge Him with blasphemy. Now to blaspheme is to inflict injury upon God, which happens in three ways: either when there is attributed to God what does not befit Him, or when there is removed from Him what does befit Him, or when there is attributed to a creature what properly befits God. Whence, when Christ attributed Divinity to Himself, they believed Him to blaspheme, as in Mark fourteen: "What further need have we of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy"; in John ten the Savior said to the Jews: "Him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, you say blasphemes, because I said: I am the Son of God"? Likewise they believed Him to blaspheme when He attributed to Himself what is proper to God, namely to forgive sins. Whence it is added: Who can forgive sins but God alone? And in this they speak truly; Isaiah forty-three: "I am He who blots out your iniquities for my own sake." But certainly, while they themselves charged Christ with blasphemy, in their own hearts they were blaspheming; Isaiah forty-six: "To whom have you likened me and made me equal and compared me and made me similar"?
50. (Verse 22). And since by thinking these things they were blaspheming, therefore they are detected and reproved, when it is added: But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, as God, because, Sirach twenty-three, "the eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, surveying all the ways of men and the depth of the abyss and beholding the hearts of men." Nor is this a wonder, because He is the Word of God, of whom in Hebrews four: "The word of God is living and effective and more penetrating than any two-edged sword, and a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
Nor does He only detect and discern, but He also reproves: Answering, He said to them: Why do you think evil in your hearts? as if to say that of Isaiah one: "Take away the evil of your thoughts from before my eyes." For He Himself saw and reproved; Jeremiah four: "How long shall harmful thoughts dwell within you"? For such are perverse thoughts, of which in Wisdom one: "For perverse thoughts separate from God." Therefore Isaiah twenty-nine: "Woe to you who are deep of heart, so as to hide your counsel from the Lord"; and it continues: "This thought of yours is perverse, as if the clay should think against the potter, and the work should say to its maker: You did not make me; and the thing formed should say to its fashioner: You do not understand." But certainly it can be said of them that of Wisdom two: "These things they thought and erred, for their malice blinded them."
51. (Vers. 23.). There is added thirdly the refutation of errors of those thinking wrongly, in what follows: Which is easier to say etc. For he constructs an argument in which he shows that he is true God and can forgive sins, and consequently that they err. And the argument is as follows: everyone who can free a paralytic by a word alone can by a word alone forgive sins. Of this reasoning, however, he first sets forth the proof of the major proposition, subjoins the assumption and interposes the conclusion. Of the major proposition he first sets forth the proof in what he says: Which is easier to say: Your sins are forgiven you, or to say: Rise and walk? As if to say: They are of equal ease; therefore he who can do the one can also do the other; and this was the major proposition. Whence the Gloss on that passage of Matthew 9: "Through the remission of punishment, understand the remission of guilt." Now this is understood through that as through something similar and better known. And this is what is said in Jeremiah 32: "No word shall be difficult for you, who show mercy to thousands"; whence Wisdom 11: "But you spare all, O Lord, because you can do all things."
52. (Vers. 24.). He interposes the conclusion in what he adds: But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. For this is what he intends to conclude finally; and it is true according to the testimony of John 1: "Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world"; and Revelation 1: "He loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood."
The assumption he subjoins when he adds: He said to the paralytic: I say to you: Rise, take up your bed etc.
And note that the preceding words are the Savior's and so are the following; but this phrase, which says: He said to the paralytic, is the word of the Evangelist, which he interposes because the first words were of the Lord to the Pharisees, namely the proposition and the conclusion: but the assumption he spoke by turning his speech to the paralytic, to whom he commands an act that can befit only a healthy person, namely to rise, when he says: Rise: just as Peter said to the lame man in Acts 3: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk."
53. He commands him to take up his bed, when he says: Take up your bed. A grabatum, however, is the bed of the poor who are sick, on which nothing is spread except at the head; whence it is called from graba, which means head. So in John 5 he commands that man who had been sick for thirty-eight years: "Rise, take up your bed and walk."
He commands him to walk and go to his house, when he adds: And walk and go to your house, so that, namely, you may rejoice with your own, as in Mark 5: "Go to your house, to your own, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you." - In these three things is included perfect health against the three evils which the sickness of paralysis causes. For it renders one unfit for standing and more unfit for working and most unfit for walking: and conversely he commands uprightness of posture, strength of action and readiness of movement: which once obtained, one is made perfectly healthy.
54. (Verse 25). There is lastly subjoined the strengthening of the weakened members in what follows: And immediately rising up before them, etc. For the members of the paralytic were strengthened by the word of Christ with respect to the sustaining, operative, and motive power. For he arose, now no longer needing the support of a bed or a staff, and this by the power of the hand of almighty God; Daniel 10: "Behold, a hand touched me and raised me upon my knees and upon the joints of my hands."
He took up the bed on which he had been lying, now no longer needing to be carried by another, and thus that word of Amos 3 seems to be fulfilled: "The children of Israel who dwell in Samaria shall be rescued, in the corner of a bed and on a Damascus couch."
And he went to his house, glorifying God: now being able to move easily, just as that lame man healed by Peter, Acts 3, "entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God." Whence he was glorifying God both by praising him and by recounting his miracles and by inviting others to praise him; whence he could say: "Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." He could also sing with the Virgin: "My soul magnifies the Lord. And my spirit has rejoiced," etc.
55. (Verse 26). And amazement seized all, etc. Here thirdly, after the occasion for performing the miracle and the completeness of the deed performed, he subjoins the renown of its publication, through which the divine power in Christ was made manifest, since from the consideration of the present miracle the power of Christ was shown to be admirable and venerable, formidable and worthy of proclamation.
56. Admirable, I say, it was shown to be from the impossibility of comprehending it: on account of which he says: And amazement seized all, that is, the innocent, unto believing: Job 17: "The just shall be amazed at this, and the innocent shall be stirred up against the hypocrite"; for the Pharisees, who are hypocrites, were confounded, and Christ was made admirable. It seized the malicious unto confounding them: Job 12: "He leads counselors to a foolish end and judges to amazement."
57. Venerable indeed is shown from the impossibility of imitating: on account of which it is said: And they magnified God, namely in his work, so that they could say that word of the Psalm: "How magnificent are your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom"; and Isaiah thirty-three: "The Lord is magnified, because he has dwelt on high and filled Sion with justice and judgment." So those three youths at the sight of the miracle; Daniel three: "These three with one mouth praised and magnified and blessed God."
58. Formidable indeed the power in Christ is shown from the impossibility of escaping; whence is added: And they were filled with fear, considering the immensity of the power which no one can escape: below in chapter twelve: "I will show you whom you should fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell." This power Job feared, in chapter thirty-one: "I always feared God as swelling waves over me, and I could not bear his weight."
59. Worthy of proclamation moreover is shown from the impossibility of contradicting: on account of which is added: Saying: For we have seen wondrous things today: and now there is no room for contradicting: whence Acts four: "Seeing the constancy of Peter and John, they marveled and recognized them, that they had been with Jesus; and seeing also the man who had been healed, they could say nothing against it"; whence Peter and John said in Acts four: "We cannot but speak the things we have heard and seen."
He therefore who after seeing these signs contradicts the Lord is excluded from the people of God and the inheritance of the kingdom, according to that passage of Numbers fourteen: "The men who have seen my majesty and the signs that I worked in Egypt, and have tempted me, shall not see the land for which I swore to their fathers."
60. Spiritually moreover three things are to be considered here: what this disease is that is healed; what house in which the healing takes place; and what the manner of healing is. —This disease of paralysis designates original sin, just as leprosy designates actual sin. For paralysis takes away sensation and motion: so original sin takes away the sense of knowledge through ignorance: Tobit five: "What joy is there for me, who sit in darkness and do not see the light of heaven"! It also takes away right motion through concupiscence, which renders one trembling as does paralysis: Romans seven: "To will is present with me, but to accomplish I do not find"; whence is also added: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind," etc. Whence Hugh says: "The vice of human corruption infected human nature in two ways, namely ignorance the mind and concupiscence the flesh." Concerning these two in the Psalm: "My strength has forsaken me, and the light of my eyes"; and Exodus ten: "There came darkness over Egypt, and for three days no man moved from his place."
61. The house in which the healing takes place is the Church, of which Proverbs 9: "Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn out seven pillars"; these pillars are the seven Sacraments. The door of this house is the priestly power, the authority of which power resides with Peter; whence Matthew 16: "To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." But when this door is filled with the throngs of earthly solicitudes, then it does not afford access to Jesus, because they do not care for souls, which belong to Christ, but for the advancement of their own advantage: Philippians 2: "All seek the things that are their own, not the things of Jesus Christ."
62. The manner of healing is through the assistance of another and through divine command. As regards the healing from original sin, there concurs the power of another's faith and the power of the divine Sacrament. Whence the bearers designate the godparents, who present the child: Isaiah 49: "They shall carry your sons in their arms and bear your daughters upon their shoulders." Christ indeed, healing by command, designates the office of the Sacrament, through which there occurs the remission of guilt, when it is said: Your sins are forgiven you: Acts 2: "Let each one of you be baptized for the remission of sins." There also occurs a healing of the consequences; on account of which he says: Arise and take up your pallet, etc.: Acts 12, the Angel said to Peter lying in chains: "Arise quickly. And immediately the chains fell from his hands." Arise, that is, raise yourself upward to see the light, against ignorance: Ephesians 5: "Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you"; Isaiah 60: "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for your light has come." — Take up your pallet, against infirmity: Matthew 11: "Come to me, all you who labor"; and after: "Take my yoke upon you." — And walk, against malice: Genesis 17: "Walk before me, and be perfect"; Ephesians 5: "Walk in love, as Christ also loved us," etc.
Go into your house, against concupiscence: Sirach 32: "But hasten first into your house and there pursue your designs, and not in sins." He goes into his own house who loves interior goods: Wisdom 8: "Entering into my house I shall find rest," etc.; into another's house, he who desires worldly things: Sirach 29: "The wretched life of lodging from house to house."