It is frustrating whenever we have a bout of insomnia.
We are lying there in bed and yet we cannot sleep.
Our minds are somehow not at rest, and maybe our hearts are not at peace too.
So even if the conditions for a good rest are there, it may not mean that we are physically and mentally relaxed.
For the paralytic in the gospel passage, he had been lying in his stretcher for long enough.
He was wasting away, and when he and his friends heard about Jesus, they knew that it was time for the paralytic to get up and get going.
When Jesus cured the paralytic, it meant that he was mobile once more, and it meant that he would have to get on with making a living and labour for his bread.
But he would be at peace and be happy, and his mind and heart would be at rest.
The 1st reading also mentions about a place of rest that God promises us.
But in order to reach that promised place of rest, we must get up and walk on and do everything to reach it.
Jesus has raised us up so that we can keep walking in faith to that promised place of rest.
May we not rest from our labours of faith and keep our hope in that eternal rest.