Homily for Thursday in the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time (feast of Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin, Martyr), delivered in Chanel College Chapel, Gladstone, Qld.

"God put Abraham to the test. ‘Abraham, Abraham’ he called. ‘Here I am’ he replied. ‘Take your son,’ God said ‘your only child Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him as a burnt offering, on a mountain I will point out to you.’" (cf. Gen 22).

"I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living." (cf. Ps 116).

"Jesus got in the boat, crossed the water and came to his own town. Then some people appeared, bringing him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Courage, my child, your sins are forgiven.’ And at this some scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ Knowing what was in their minds Jesus said, ‘Why do you have such wicked thoughts in your hearts...?'" (cf. Mt 9).

Artwork: "Christus heilet einen Gichtbrüchigen" (Healing the paralytic at Capernaum), by Bernhard Rode (c. 1780).