Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent
[Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 and John 5:1-16]"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....."
This incident from the Gospel of John serves the purpose of illustrating that Jesus' power may be manifested even when the person or group being helped does not first show any faith in him! We are told simply that Jesus is motivated by the sight of the man and the knowledge that the sick man had been sick a long time. The man's reply to Jesus seems strange but since almost everyone around the pool was probably interested in being helped, this guy simply says why he cannot get to the pool. (There was a legend that if the water began to move, the first person to get in the pool would be healed. One can only imagine a stampede!) One might speculate that the guy had probably made his living begging there and the loss of his disability would mean strangely the loss of his livelihood. All of this remains speculation. The event shows that Jesus has power that is greater than human suffering, and it also serves the purpose of building the tension between Jesus and the religious authorities because the incident takes place on a Sabbath. My thoughts on this include the sight of the "malades" at Lourdes being pushed in wheelchairs in the daily procession by those who assist them in getting to the famous healing baths there. Tomorrow evening, here in Ponchatoula, LA, I will have the final service of a parish mission which is usually dedicated to healing. We are all empowered to heal by our baptism. We have to discard the notion that what we do in this regard will be spectacular. It may be only that we help people get to what they need, which can be powerful enough. We may need to remember that the faith of the person needing help should not be a controlling factor. We may need to remember that there will always be someone who will criticize the efforts we make. But we have a powerful example in Jesus' actions and those actions must be our motivation. AMEN
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