"When Jesus saw their faithˇK." The gospel says it was the faith of the people who brought the paralytic man to Jesus that moved Him to say to the handicapped man, "Courage, your sins are forgiven." And when challenged by some of the scribes, He went further and told the man to get up, pick up his stretcher and go home. That man was surely blessed in his friends as well as in the miracles of grace and healing he received from Jesus in response to their faith, and (presumably) to his own faith too.

Faith is never a purely 'private' thing, for ourselves alone. At the very least, the Lord knows and sees. Other people also can do so, if our faith is alive, just as we too can 'see' the faith of others. Faith is a witness, that shows itself in attitudes, in behaviour, in relationships, in the hope that inspires us and that we bring to others, in the love, generosity, kindness that we share.

Faith is also an influence and encouragement: we influence and are influenced by the faith of those around us. We may never know just exactly how our faith has helped others, especially people we don't even know personally. Likewise, how much we've been helped and blessed by the faith of others, not only by people known to us.

Like the paralytic Jesus spoke to, we all have many friends in the Lord whose faith encourages and sustains our own. So let us be grateful to them too whenever we pray.