12 MARCH, 2024
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT.
Ezek 47:1-9.12
Psalm 46
John.5:1-3,5-16
Dear friends, in yesterday's gospel, Jn.4:43-54, we saw that the royal official approached Jesus and begged him for the healing of his dying son. It is almost general that in the gospels, people who are sick or in some kind of great need often look for and approach Jesus for help, and he responds to them. Jesus himself told the Pharisees in the gospel of Matthew, that the one who is sick is the one who goes to the hospital looking for a doctor. But in this morning’s gospel reading, we find a man in great need, a "terminally" sick man, suffering with a paralysis for thirty eight years, that is thirteen thousand, eight hundred and seventy (13,870) days. These thirty eight years would have probably been the best part of a lifetime for anyone: He would have been settled down in a good and well furnished house,
with a beautiful wife, lovely kids, reliable job, and steady sources of income, but here he was, lying paralysed with no one to help him. We notice that this man, unlike many other incidents in the gospels, did not approach Jesus for help, but, rather, it was Jesus who took the initiative towards him. Jesus saw him and engaged him in a conversation, asking him a seemingly useless and anger-provoking question: "Do you want to be well again?" For crying out loud, who will see a man in the condition of paralysis for thirty eight years, who will not know that his priority is to get well again? But Jesus still asked that question probably to test the paralysed man's faith, just as he asked the lepers who approached him for cleansing: "what do you want me to do for you?"
Dear friends, in our situations in life, Jesus can ask us the same or similar question that could be very annoying, in order to test our faith and to give us the opportunity to pronounce what we really and truly want from him. We often approach the Lord in our need, but this morning, we have come to realize that the Lord himself knows our needs and also approaches us, without waiting for us to approach him. Our reaction to his approach could determine what we get from him. The Lord does not only engage with us in response to our engaging with him. He makes the first move, he often takes some initiative towards us without our doing anything to make it happen. How long have you been in the difficult condition? How long has your loved one been sick and it seem as if there is no hope? How long have you been jobless? Just keep hanging on, keep the faith alive, keep waiting on Jesus, for he will surely approach you and your situations. Be patient as the paralysed man who waited for the right time for Jesus to appear with healing. This morning gospel suggests that Jesus also comes to knock on our doors without waiting for us to knock on his. This calls for a different kind of prayer to the prayer of petition that we all know and are so used to. It is the prayer of listening, the prayer of attentiveness to the Lord, the prayer of waiting on the Lord’s coming, the prayer for the grace to open up when he comes knocking. Sometimes, we spend all our time asking, knocking, banging at heaven's door without listening, so that even when Jesus says "Yes, come in the door is not locked", we do not hear. When we ask, let us also be patiently attentive to hear and have Jesus' response.
Let's go back to the question Jesus puts to the man who had been sick and paralysed for thirty eight years. This question sounds very strange and insulting to the ears: ‘Do you want to be well again?’ Why would the sick man be near a pool known for its healing properties if he didn’t want to be healed and well again? What would a sick man be finding in the hospital if not healing? However, it is possible that this sick man had begun to lose all hope of everything, including being well again, having been there in that condition for that long. He may have lost the will to be better again, the will to live. By his question, Jesus wanted to arouse in him the hope for healing that he once had and cherished at the earliest period of his sickness. He had obviously been disappointed many times. This is pictured in what he said to Jesus; ‘I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on my way, someone else gets there before me’. From this response, we can understand here that the disturbed pool permits and admits just one person at a time for healing whenever it is troubled. In life, if people are repeatedly disappointed, they can easily lose hope. By asking, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ Jesus was inviting him to rediscover his desire to be well. In disappointing situations like this, we can all be tempted to lose hope and give up, especially in these depressing times in our society and nation, when we witness on our news and television screens innocent people being slaughtered in their homes and villages, insecurity, awfully bad governance, hard times, and a crumbling economy. We can easily get despondent, lose our quest for life, and lose our hope of something better. But in all these, the Lord is always at work among us to renew our hope, to help us recover our desire for that fullness of life that the Lord desires for us all. By asking his question, Jesus sought to heal the paralyzed man’s despondency, to heal him psychologically before he could really heal him physically.
Friends, have we also noticed that some of our sicknesses, predicaments and other negative situations in life are as a result of our disobedience to, and sin against God, our neighbours and humanity? See what Christ told the once sick and paralysed man, now healed, when he saw him again at the temple: "Now that you are well again, be sure not to sin anymore or something worse may happen to you". Let us be guided by this and take caution too, to be completely healed of some sicknesses, we need to repent, forgive others, and stop sinning. Brethren, even when we are physically well and strong, we can all need that deeper and inner healing, that renewing of our hopes especially in our crumbling circumstances, and Jesus is always approaching us to renew our hope. Humanity is sick and paralysed, and our individual and collective desire for our country and all of humanity is to be well again. Hope is more than optimism; it is the work of the Spirit of the Lord among us and within us. Writing his letter to the Romans, St. Paul says ‘Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’. Never give up, because Jesus is approaching you and he is so close to you.
We pray that we are able to give Jesus a chance, be attentive and open to him when he approaches us, when he comes knocking. Amen.
-PadreCharlesLwanga.
Post a Comment