Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
This Week’s Intention: For all who are standing up for justice, especially those who are persecuted for their courage, that God will continue to strengthen them and that their sacrifices may bear redeeming fruit.
Today’s Gospel | John 5:1-16
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk?’” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
Lenten Reflection
The Gospel account of Jesus healing of the man at Bethesda is a miracle story with a twist. In the story, Jesus approaches a man who has been living with serious afflictions for decades. He is so incapacitated that he cannot even make his way into a mineral pool for relief. Then, Jesus asks him what would seem to be a very strange question: “Do you want to be well?” In fact, the question serves to reveal what lies at the heart of God’s healing.
Jesus’ healing miracles are moments in which the power of God’s Kingdom breaks dramatically and intensely into the human condition. In the Kingdom, what is wrong is set right, what is broken is made whole. If redemption is a restoration of our wholeness, then it cannot place us in a position devoid of dignity. By setting before us a choice and then entrusting us with the authority to make our own decision, God invites us to be his cooperators in his grace. The invitation opens the door to us experiencing the gift of salvation not as helpless spectators, but as empowered participants.
And so, at Bethesda, Jesus asked, “Do you want to be well?” In other words, will you rise to the occasion of your own return to fullness? Will you say yes to me? During Lent, we might reflect on what is our own answer to that question. Do we have faith enough that we are prepared to accept God’s gift of healing? Are we humble enough to admit to our need for God’s help, and yet strong enough to overcome our doubts and fears, and then stand up and walk?
Prayer
Eternal Father, you sent your Son to teach us the way to eternal life, to help us overcome our trials and our weaknesses. In this holy time of Lent, help us to be strong and face whatever challenges the future might bring. When we are tired, bring us strength. When we are discouraged, bring us hope. Help us to overcome our doubts and our ignorance and be cooperators with you in the building of your Kingdom. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us.
Live Jesus in our hearts forever.