Câu chuyện trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay cho chúng ta thấy một người bại liệt nằm chờ cho song bên bờ hồ Bếtdatha. Có lẽ chúng ta đang sống một cuộc sống chẳng khác gì như người bại liệt này. Chúng ta như đang sống một cuộc sống hầu như chỉ biết chấp nhận những gì mà thế giớivật chất này đã mang lại cho chúng ta và chúng ta chỉ biết chờ đợi cho một sự may rủi hay mộtlúc nào đó khi có ai đến giúp chúng ta đem vào hồ Nước Bếtdatha để được ơn chữa lành. Chúng ta đang chờ đợi một người nào đó để họ vào cuộc sống của chúng ta, để làm thay đổi tình trạngkhó khăn bế tắc trong cuộc sống hiện tại của chúng ta, hay giúp chúng ta thoát khỏi được nhữngsự khó khăn của chúng ta.
Cuộc đời con người chúng ta rất ngắn, chúng ta không thể chờ đợi một ai đó đến và có thểgiúp chúng ta. Hôm nay Chúa Giêsu nói với chúng ta rằng Ngài có thể chữa lành cho chúng ta vàNgài muốn giúp chúng ta trong mọi tình thế phức tạp hiện tại của chúng ta. Nhưng chúng ta đãkhông nhận ra được ơn lành và sức mạnh nơi Đức Giêsu Kitô. Chúng ta không biết là Ngài sẽđến cứu chữa tất cả các bệnh tật ở nơi chúng ta. Nhưng một điều duy nhất mà chúng ta cần phải làm đó là cầu xin với một tấm lòng kiên trì, thành thật, đơn sơ và tin tưởng.
Today's gospel talks about a man who is sick and cannot move freely by himself. He has been waiting for 38 years to be able to get into the pool when the angel of the Lord touches it so he can be healed, but because of his condition he is unable to do so. Then one day, Jesus comes and heals him, just like that, because he wanted to.
We all live our lives like this sick man. We go through life just accepting what has been handed to us by the world and just waiting for the moment when something or someone will come to help us to go into the pool to be healed. We are waiting for someone to come into our lives to change our situation, to help us out of our difficulties, for someone to give us the money to pay off a debt, for someone to discover a cure for the cancer we have, or for someone to give the answer to the board exam so we can finally pass it and start earning a lot.
Let us not wait for someone to come and help us. Today Jesus is telling us that he can heal us and he wants to help us in our present situation. We do not realize that our healing (not only physical but emotional and spiritual as well) comes from Jesus Christ. All we need to do is ask.
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?” John 5:5–6
Only those who have been crippled for many years could understand what this man endured in life. He was crippled and unable to walk for thirty-eight years. The pool he was laying next to was believed to have the power of healing. Therefore, many who were sick and crippled would sit by the pool and try to be the first to enter it when the waters were stirred up. From time to time, that person was said to have received a healing.
Jesus sees this man and clearly perceives his desire for healing after so many years. Most likely, his desire for healing was the dominant desire in his life. Without the ability to walk, he could not work and provide for himself. He would have had to rely upon begging and the generosity of others. Thinking about this man, his sufferings and his ongoing attempts for healing from this pool should move any heart to compassion. And since Jesus’ heart was one that was full of compassion, He was moved to offer this man not only the healing he so deeply desired but so much more.
One virtue in the heart of this man that would have especially moved Jesus to compassion is the virtue of patient endurance. This virtue is an ability to have hope in the midst of some ongoing and lengthy trial. It is also referred to as “longsuffering” or “longanimity.” Usually, when one faces a difficulty, the immediate reaction is to look for a way out. As time moves on and that difficulty is not removed, it’s easy to fall into discouragement and even despair. Patient endurance is the cure for this temptation. When one can patiently endure anything and everything they suffer in life, there is a spiritual strength within them that benefits them in numerous ways. Other little challenges are more easily endured. Hope is born within them to a powerful degree. Even joy comes with this virtue despite the ongoing struggle.
When Jesus saw this virtue alive in this man, He was moved to reach out and heal him. And the primary reason Jesus healed this man was not just to help him physically but so that the man would come to believe in Jesus and follow Him.
Reflect, today, upon this beautiful virtue of patient endurance. The trials of life should ideally be seen not in a negative way but as an invitation to patient endurance. Ponder the way you endure your own trials. Is it with deep and ongoing patience, hope and joy? Or is it with anger, bitterness and despair. Pray for the gift of this virtue and seek to imitate this crippled man.
My Lord of all hope, You endured so much in life and persevered through it all in perfect obedience to the will of the Father. Give me strength in the midst of the trials of life so that I can grow strong in the hope and the joy that comes with that strength. May I turn away from sin and turn to You in complete trust. Jesus, I trust in You.
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I am like the blind and lame in the Gospel. I need you and your healing touch. I need to see with eyes of faith and need to be strengthened to walk in your ways. Search for me when I am lost, comfort me when I am found.
Encountering the Word of God
1. The Third Sign: Today’s Gospel narrates the third sign in John’s Gospel – the healing of the paralytic – so that we may believe in Christ and in believing have eternal life. The healing is accompanied by references to water and the forgiveness of sins. The First Reading brings out the theme of water. The prophet Ezekiel sees water flowing from the new Temple that God will establish. This recalls the river that flowed out of the first temple, the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10), and looks forward to the New Jerusalem and its “river of the water of life” (Revelation 22:1). The river in Ezekiel flows from the altar of God; the river in Revelation flows from the Throne of God and the Lamb. In Revelation, then, the distinction between the throne of God in the temple and the throne of God in heaven has been overcome – which is part of the reason why there is no need for a separate temple in the New Jerusalem. The river in Ezekiel flows into the Dead Sea: the waters we are told empty into the sea, the salt waters. The Edenic Paradise of Genesis is restored and outdone: along the stream’s banks flourish not one tree of life but whole groves of them. And when the stream enters the Dead Sea, it is transformed into a sea teaming with life.
2. Water in John’s Gospel: Water is an important theme in John’s Gospel. The Gospel opens with John baptizing the people in the Jordan River and calling them to repentance. In Chapter Three, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the condition for entering the Kingdom of God is being born again of water and the Spirit. In Chapter Four, Jesus then offers the gift of living water to the Samaritan woman. Whoever drinks this water, Jesus says, will never be thirsty again. Today we read in Chapter Five that Jesus accomplishes for the sick man what the man had hoped to receive from the healing water of Bethesda. In Chapter Seven, Jesus proclaims on the Feast of Tabernacles: “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-39). John identifies this living water flowing from us with the Holy Spirit. Chapter Nine tells us that Jesus commanded the man born blind to wash in the Pool of Siloam: “The whole chapter turns out to be an interpretation of Baptism, which enables us to see. Christ is the giver of light, and he opens our eyes through the mediation of the sacrament” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 242). At the Last Supper, Jesus pours water into a bowl and washes the feet of the disciples. Being washed by Jesus enables us to share in him and his divine life. Finally, when Jesus’ side is pierced, “there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Jesus’ risen body, the New Temple, will become the source of living water and eternal life for us. The physical water of creation cleanses and sustains earthly life. The spiritual water of recreation cleanses us from sin, enlightens our minds with faith, and sustains our eternal life.
3. Jesus as the New Moses: Jesus is the new Moses who gives us bread from heaven and living water from the rock. He is the true bread and the life-giving rock (1 Corinthians 10:3). Our deep thirst for eternal life is only able to be satisfied by God: “Faith in Jesus is the way we drink the living water, the way we drink life that is no longer threatened by death” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 245). In the Gospel, Jesus heals the paralytic in his body, but also commands him to sin no more. We need to realize that being paralyzed spiritually is worse than being paralyzed physically. We can look at our own lives today, see where we are paralyzed, and ask Jesus to heal us.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, give me to drink the living waters you offer from your side. Wash me and purify me with your love. Help me today to bring others to share this life-giving water.
Living the Word of God: The healing of spiritual paralysis, after Baptism, often takes place in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is where, like the paralyzed man, we tell God with simplicity and contrition what sins we have committed against God and against our brothers, what afflicts us, and what keeps us from following him more closely. And like the paralyzed man, we too will be told, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” If I have not gone to the Sacrament of Reconciliation yet this Lent, when can I make time to go? If I have already gone, how have I lived since that encounter with God’s mercy?
Opening Prayer: Almighty Father in heaven, you sent your Son to encounter me. Help me to open my heart to his loving invitations in my life. Bless me with a deep understanding of your love for me as I pray with these words of the Gospel.
Seek and You Will Find: Why did Jesus pick an encounter with this man? There were a large number of others who had infirmities of all types. For Christ, each one of us is an individual who needs his love. While we may sometimes feel ourselves lost among the many, Christ sees each of us and knows our whole story—every detail. When we seek him, we can be confident, whether we feel his presence or not, that he is blessing us with all the graces we need, according to his holy will.
Câu chuyện trong bài Tin Mừng hôm cho chúng ta thấy một người bại liệt nằm chờ cho sóng trong hồ Bếtdatha nổi dậy để được chữa bệnh trong 38 năm năm qua, nhưng anh ta vẫn không có được một cơ hội lội xuống hồ nước trước người khác mỗi khi thiên thần của Thiên Chúa làm cho hồ nổi sóng để anh ta có thể được chữa lành, nhưng vì tình trạng bại liệt hết cả thân người của anh ta, anh ta không thể nào lội xuống nước một mình được. Như chúng ta biết rồi một ngày đó, Chúa Giêsu ghé qua, thấy cảnh thương tâm và lòng kiên nhẫn 38 năm chờ đợi của anh, Chúa Giêsu đã đến và chữa lành cho anh, chỉ đơn giản như thế, bởi vì Chúa muốn .
Tất cả chúng ta đang sống một cuộc sống chẳng khác gì như người đàn ông bị bệnh bại liệt này. Chúng ta như đang sống qua một cuộc sống hầu như chỉ biết chấp nhận những gì mà thế giới vật chất này đã giao ban cho chúng ta và chỉ biết chờ đợi cho một sự may rủi hay một thời điểm nào đó khi có một cái gì đó hoặc có ai đó sẽ đến để giúp chúng ta để đem chúng ta vào hồ Nước Bếtthada để được ơn chữa lành. Chúng ta đang chờ đợi một người nào đó để họ vào cuộc sống của chúng ta để làm thay đổi tình trạng khó khăn bế tắc trong cuộc sống hiện tại của chúng ta, hay giúp chúng ta thoát khỏi được những sự khó khăn của chúng ta, chẳng hạn một người nào đó sẵn sàng giúp cho chúng ta một số tiền để trả nợ, Hay mong chờ một người nào đó phát minh ra phương pháp chữa bệnh ung thư mới mà chúng ta đang mắc phải.
Cuộc đời con người chúng ta rất ngắn, chúng ta không thể chờ đợi một ai đó đến và có thể giúp chúng ta. Hôm nay Chúa Giêsu nói với chúng ta rằng Ngài có thể chữa lành cho chúng ta và Ngài muốn giúp chúng ta trong các tình hình phức tạp hiện tại của chúng ta. Nhưng chúng ta đã không nhận ra được ơn lành và sức mạnh nơi Đức Giêsu Kitô. Ngài sẽ cứu chữa chúng ta tất cả các bệnh tật (không những chỉ có về thể chất nhưng cũng còn cả tình cảm và tinh thần). Nhưng một điều duy nhất mà chúng ta cần phải làm đó là cầu xin với một tấm lòng kiên trì, thành thật, đơn sơ và tin tưởng.
Today's gospel talks about a man who is sick and cannot move freely by himself. He has been waiting for 38 years to be able to get into the pool when the angel of the Lord touches it so he can be healed, but because of his condition he is unable to do so. Then one day, Jesus comes and heals him, just like that, because he wanted to.
We all live our lives like this sick man. We go through life just accepting what has been handed to us by the world and just waiting for the moment when something or someone will come to help us to go into the pool to be healed. We are waiting for someone to come into our lives to change our situation, to help us out of our difficulties, for someone to give us the money to pay off a debt, for someone to discover a cure for the cancer we have, or for someone to give the answer to the board exam so we can finally pass it and start earning a lot.
Let us not wait for someone to come and help us. Today Jesus is telling us that he can heal us and he wants to help us in our present situation. We do not realize that our healing (not only physical but emotional and spiritual as well) comes from Jesus Christ. All we need to do is ask.
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