Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - 4th Week of Lent - Tues
[Ezek 47:1-9, 12 and John 5:1-3a, 5-16]After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath. [John]
Jesus healed a man who had been ill at the Pool of Siloam for thirty-eight years. When he did so, he commanded the man to "Rise, take up your mat and walk." As a result, two violations of the Mosaic Law occurred. The first was the healing itself and the second was the man carrying his mat. Both of these constituted work in the eyes of the Jewish authorities and thus were violations of the sabbath. In the Gospel of John, almost everything is calculated to contribute to a drama of conflict between Jesus and "the Jews" (basically the Chief Priests and some of the Pharisees at the time of the incident, and not all Jews, but also reflecting later controversy). The man who was healed goes and tells the authorities, perhaps to get back in their graces after being criticized for carrying his mat after being healed! (No good deed goes unpunished!)
This gospel incident can call our attention first of all to Lent as a time of preparing for Easter not just as a personal thing but as a participation in the gathering drama of tension that leads to Holy Week. On the personal level, we could ask ourselves about the various conflicts that we experience between our faith and what our culture offers that is incompatible with it. On the level of participation, we can place ourselves more and more in the scenes of the gospel and examine our own feelings about what is taking place. Our Lenten "penances" will make a lot more sense as a result! AMEN