Gospel Reflection For The 12th day of March in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
John 5:1-16
1 After these things was a festival day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered; waiting for the moving of the water. 4 And an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole, of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. 5 And there was a certain man there, that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity.
6 Him when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith to him: Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The infirm man answered him: Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond. For whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith to him: Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole: and he took up his bed, and walked. And it was the sabbath that day. 10 The Jews therefore said to him that was healed: It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed.
11 He answered them: He that made me whole, he said to me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 12 They asked him therefore: Who is that man who said to thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? 13 But he who was healed, knew not who it was; for Jesus went aside from the multitude standing in the place. 14 Afterwards, Jesus findeth him in the temple, and saith to him: Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee. 15 The man went his way, and told the Jews, that it was Jesus who had made him whole.
16 Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath.
This is a very full passage. A couple of years ago, I wrote a book about the Christian history of herbal medicine. This required a lot of research into pre-Christian history and, as I have mentioned before, I learned about an ancient Jewish legend that the Archangel Raphael was said to have taught Moses all about medicinal herbs following the flood. This same angel appears again in the Book of Tobit to bring healing to a devout blind man. Also, according to legend, the pool referenced in this Gospel was believed to give healing when the Archangel Raphael “stirred up the waters.” This Archangel healed the Jews through the power of God. Now, Jesus was present and He too, healed with the power of God.
Through our first parent’s sin, sickness and death entered the world. Sickness then, is the “penalty for sin.” But, as our Lord explained in several passages, that sickness is not always due to personal sin. Just like our fallen nature is common to all, so is sickness and death. While God may use a physical illness to heal our souls, bringing us into deep repentance and devotion, certainly this is not always the case – children, for instance, who are born with deformities or contract deadly childhood diseases are not guilty of sin. The ancient Jews though, believed that a child who was sick was suffering for the sins of his or her parents. But, this is only true in a much broader sense in terms of Original Sin. Perhaps for this reason though, the religious officials of the Temple lacked compassion for the sick, lame and blind. If the condition was the fault of the sinner, then he deserved to suffer by their logic. To be healed was a dramatic sign of God’s mercy in forgiving sins.
Here was Jesus, showing that very dramatic sign. He had already scandalized them by forgiving a man’s sin, which they considered blasphemy, and now He was again violating the Sabbath according to their strict and myopic understanding. Jesus was showing the mercy of God. This was yet another dramatic sign that He was the Messiah. Lacking compassion though, the religious officials condemned Him. But, there is another aspect to this story. Showing that He is not merely a savior in the general sense, Jesus finds the man who did not even know who healed him. Our Lord, personally, counsels the man, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you." Jesus went out of His way to be the personal Savior of that one man. Jesus is willing to do this for every individual on earth, until the end of time. To facilitate this after His resurrection, He charged His priests in the Catholic Church to do the same in His stead. Through the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick the priest forgives our sins, provides us the opportunity for miraculous healing and counsels us regarding sin to ensure our eternal salvation. If it is for our best, God will heal us. If it is better for our eternal salvation that we suffer, we will. God’s promise is that He works all things for our good. We cannot know His mind. But through faith in His promises and obedience to His will, we will be saved.
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.