As Christians we all seek a direct, personal relationship with Jesus. Without that, all we have is a set of beliefs or a moral code which is not different in kind from the thinking of the great pagan philosophers of Jesus' day, and of our day. Without that relataionship we're just following a set of rules. Without that relationship we're operating solely on logic or reason-- helpful as they are but insufficient on their own. So we might ask ourselves how we establish, maintain and grow a relationship with Christ. What does it take? What might we do to deepen our connection with Jesus? Today's Gospel (Mk 2: 1-12) gives us something to consider in that regard. Note the way the paralytic who is healed gets into relationship with Jesus. He doesn't do it on his own. In fact, given the circumstances, he couldn't do it on his own. The crowd that surrounded Christ was so large, and so compact, that a paralyzed person couldn't possible have gotten through it. But the paralytic is fortunate-- very fortunate-- to have four friends who will do pretty-much anything to bring him into Christ's presence. They literally climb on the roof of the house where Jesus is staying, rip a hole in the roof, and lower their friend down so that he can connect to Christ and be healed. Talk about a radical way to bring someone to Christ! I suppose there are some people-- hermits, maybe-- who can connect with Christ without any help from someone else. Through prayer and fasting and meditation they can grow in that personal connection that we all seek. But I wonder if most of us need the help of others, like the four friends who helped the paralytic. Maybe we need to have conversations with others that help grow our connection with Jesus. Maybe we need listen to talks and podcasts and interviews that turn our mind to Christ. Maybe we need Mass or the sacraments or other liturgical events. Maybe a good concert moves us in the right direction. Sometimes we need to be carried, almost literally, in the direction of Jesus. Of course, there are two actors in this analogy-- those who carry and those who are carried. While I've been talking about the "being carried" part of the story, let's not forget that sometimes we have the opportunity-- the duty, really-- to help carry someone else, to be one of the four friends. That "carrying" part involves work, taking risks, radical thinking (at least that's what we see in the Gospel story today). Are we open to that? Are there people in our lives who need to be carried? Are we willing to do whatever it takes to get them to Jesus? Would we tear open the roof to enable them to make that connection? Carrying and being carried-- that's how life works. And sometimes, when we think we're helping to carry someone else, it turns out that they are really carrying us in the direction of Jesus.