NOTES for Mar 2:1-12
People often ask whether one may pray for the unbaptized or for those who have taken their own lives. Even for the Church, the question of funeral rites for those who commit suicide is difficult. But let us reflect on today's reading. We know that faith is needed for a miracle to occur. But what if faith is absent, or if there was so little faith that a person decided to take his own life—is ruin then inevitable? This is what the Gospel tells us today: in that case, faith alone is not enough; love is also needed. The faith of some, their love for others—and then a miracle is worked upon those others, even if they have no faith, even if they show no signs of spiritual or any other life, as though paralyzed or perhaps already dead. Love becomes, as it were, a conductor carrying faith from one person to another, and that person receives its saving power. We must always remember this and therefore be sure to pray for those who, for one reason or another—and there are very many such people in the world—cannot pray for themselves.