What do we mean when we say, "I believe"? To say, "I believe in God ... I believe in Jesus"?
The idea of faith can be a kind of vague one. We as Christians don't claim to have some scientific proof for the existence of God or some sort of irrefutable evidence of who Jesus really is; BUT we do claim that what we believe is true.
We aren't Catholics because it makes our lives easy! What's easy about knowing that I'm not perfect and that, no matter how much I try, I'm still going to make mistakes? What's so pleasant about abstaining from meet on these Fridays coming up in Lent? Personally, I hate fish!
No, we're not Catholic because it solves all our problems.
We are Catholic because we believe what the Church teaches is true. We have faith.
And our faith is not something unreasonable. We have witnesses that stretch back to Jesus himself.
The scriptures, which tell us about the life of Jesus and his followers, were written by the Church based on the testimony of eyewitnesses - people who were there.
Then we have two thousand years of tradition, of men and women seeking God and studying what we believe, applying it to the times they lived in.
We have miraculous examples of God acting in the world to this day, especially through his mother in places like Lourdes and Fatima and even here in the US in Wisconsin.
What it comes down to is that we believe in Jesus because we believe that he is who he says he is.
That's what our Gospel is really about today: faith.
And whose faith? We don't really know anything about the man who was paralyzed. He could have been bitter about the way his life had turned out. He could have been in despair.
What we do know is that he had some real friends. Besides the fact that they carried him to the house where Jesus was staying and even broke through the roof when they couldn't get in the door, they had faith.
Faith that, if anyone could help their friend, it was Jesus. It was because of their faith that Jesus helps the paralyzed man.
That tells us something very important. We probably all know someone who has fallen away from the Church, or someone who is living in despair because of an illness or a broken relationship or something that's happened to them.
Maybe we can't solve their problems - but we can have faith for them. We can bring them to Jesus, tearing the roof apart if we have to.
Because, if our faith is real, then God is with us, whether it feels like it or not.
He's there when we're suffering or a loved one is suffering.
Here's there when we doubt and when we just don't feel like being "religious."
That's the faith that saved the paralyzed man. First, and most importantly, his sins were forgiven. Then, to show the doubters that Jesus really was someone who could forgive sins, he was set free from his affliction.
When we come to Jesus in faith, in a trust that what he said is true, he forgives our sins - because he really is God, one with the Father. And he heals our paralyzed souls so that we can walk and live and rejoice in him.
That's our faith - the faith our parents or we professed when we were baptized and that we profess again every weekend at Mass.
The faith that God's promises come true. That when we pray, he hears us. That when the priest gives absolution, our sins are forgiven. That when we gather hear for the Eucharist, what looks like bread and wine is really Jesus in our presence.
Yes, it is partly what we believe - the truths handed down to us from Jesus, to the apostles, through the Church all the way to this present day.
But it is also our trust, our hope, our steadfast attitude of relying on God and knowing that he has not abandoned us and never will.
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