July 2, 2026  // Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8 

Reflect on the Word // 

The kids’ bedroom door closes behind me with a soft “click,” and I let out a long sigh. The boys are asleep at last, and now it’s time for all the day’s mistakes to begin clamoring for my attention. 

The nightly self-accusations are wearyingly similar:

I lost my temper too many times to count. 

I said unkind things I can’t take back. 

I whined and complained instead of thanking God for His countless blessings.  

There are so many wrongs I can’t right, and some nights the weight of my failings presses down so heavily, I feel spiritually paralyzed. 

Then I hear Jesus’ words to the paralytic in today’s Gospel: “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2). 

I know God’s mercy is infinite, an “abyss” as He described it to Saint Faustina (Diary 1777). Yet somehow, deep down, I’m always afraid that I will eventually run out of chances. My own spiritual paralysis terrifies me, and instead of throwing myself on His mercy, I beat myself up: I should be better by now; I should have conquered these habits. 

But here, laid out on my stretcher and unable to move, I see the Lord gazing down at me with love. And I know that I do not have to be afraid. 

Courage. We have only to look at Him, not at ourselves. We are helpless, laid low by our sins, but He “has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). The only thing that keeps Him from working miracles in and through us is our fear—the fear that says, God can’t possibly keep forgiving me . . . He must be so disappointed in me.

We can have complete confidence in this: Jesus is not afraid of our sin. He’s not scandalized by our weaknesses and daily failings. He only wants us to let Him come close and lift us to our feet. And He will happily do so again and again and again, as long as we do not lose courage—the courage that comes from trust in Him. 

Relate to the Lord // Spend a moment in imaginative prayer as the paralytic on the mat. Look up at Jesus and ask Him for what you need.