It’s said that, at one time, King Louis XI of France (1423-1483) fell seriously ill and summoned a priest to say intercessory prayers for his recovery. Apart from the supplication ‘for health’, the priest also prayed ‘for the forgiveness and remission’ of the king’s sins. By and large, Louis was a kindly person who had welcomed many Roman [i.e. ‘Byzantine’] refugees after the fall of Constantinople, but he was annoyed by this and interrupted the priest, saying: ‘Father, don’t confuse matters. Now just ask God to make me well. We’ll see about the rest later’.
Prioritization of requests
Fortunately, the paralytic in today’s Gospel reading and those people who brought him to Christ didn’t react in the same way when they heard the Lord say to him: ‘Be of good courage. Your sins are forgiven’. They certainly didn’t have the shallow mind of the French king, who didn’t realize that the confusion didn’t lie in the words of the priest, but in his own…
