Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - 4th Week of Lent - Tues
[Ezek 47:1-9, 12 and John 5:1-3a, 5-16]"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; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."
Anyone who has ever visited the famous shrine at Lourdes, France, and witnessed the procession of the "malades" (or even gone there to bathe in the waters) would know that these folks want to be well. Some of them have been sick a long time. Others have just gotten news that they are in for a hard battle against a particular illness. It is a very orderly place and there is no mad scramble to get to the waters when they have been "stirred up" as in the story from the Gospel of John today. However, the response of the sick man to Jesus' question is ambiguous! When Jesus asks him, "Do you want to be well?" the man doesn't say, "Of course!" He gives a response that is part explanation, part excuse. One is left to wonder if the man would prefer to stay where he is since for 38 years he has made a living by begging. Indeed he goes and "tattles" to the authorities about who it is that has healed him. Their reaction, of course, is not to marvel but to be angry because this happened on a sabbath!
As in so many of the dialogs in the Gospel of John, Jesus' words speak to more than the particular material situation! "Do you want to be well?" is more than to be simply cured of an illness, even if this illness defined much of the victim's life. It also means coming to faith in Jesus. The victim is offered an opportunity and we are left to wonder if he takes full advantage of it in the long term. We could also wonder about our own response. The victim had a "way of life" that pretty much defined him. Now he has to find a whole new way of "being." If Jesus offered us the same opportunity, would we prefer to "remain as we are?" In fact, we are continually offered this opportunity to get rid of the "old way of being" that may be weighing us down. One could write the words of Jesus: "Do you want to be well?" on a sign and hang them outside any place where the Sacrament of Reonciliation is offered! Do we say, "Yes!" or do we take refuge in an excuse or explanation? AMEN
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