The dramatic circumstances of this incident show us that Christ wanted it to be understood clearly by all that one of His great purposes on earth was to relieve men of that oppressive uncertainty about their guilt in the sight of, God. The primary purpose of His coming upon earth is indicated in the name announced by the angel: Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. The most touching scenes in His earthly existence reveal His compassion and mercy for weak and sinful humanity, So marked was Christ's consideration and mercy towards sinners, that the pharisees complained to the disciples, saying Why doth thy Master eat with publicans and sinners? But Jesus, hearing it, said: They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill, Go, then, and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, For I am not camp to call the just, but sinners: nile In the light of the evidence presented in the gospels, no fair-minded person can doubt the fact that Christ had and exercised the power to forgive sins, and that the primary purpose of His ministry on earth was to reconcile sinners to their God, In view of those facts a few lofrical questions present themselves. Was that power to cease with His death on Calvary? Was Christ interested only in reconciling the sinner of His day, or was it His intention to restore all mankind to the friendship of God? Was He the Saviour of all mankind, or the Saviour of a few chosen souls?
If He is the Saviour of all mankind, we would naturally expect Him to provide means whereby all men, at all times and in all places would be as assuredly and as certainly freed from the guilt of sin as they were when He walked the earth, Certainly we would have reason to complain if He treated us differently, or ifthe deprived us of the most consoling part of His ministrations—thy sins are forgiven thee, Till the end of time He would continue to repeat those consoling words, He would speak with a human voice, the voice of His mystical Body, the Church. Through His Mystical' Body He reconciles the sinner and re-establishes him in the friendship and the sonship of the Father: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, He had the power. He gave it explicitly to His Church, And
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.