Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 12, 2024 - 4th Week of Lent - Tues
[Ezek 47:1-9, 12 and John 5:1-3a, 5-16]Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. 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]
The setting for this encounter can be visited even today in Jerusalem. The pool of water was believed to have healing powers only when an angel would occasionally "stir" it. One can imagine the stampede and the frustration of the crippled beggar. At the same time, one may wonder why, in thirty-eight years, he had been unsuccessful in getting there first. Some have suggested that he had made a pretty good living at begging and that is why he gives Jesus an indirect response to the question, "Do you want to be well?"
The larger context is the sabbath and Jesus' conflict with the Jewish authorities. The once-crippled beggar is walking around carrying his mat, which would have been construed as "work," and Jesus' healing would also have been construed as "work." The encounter is followed by a "discourse" on what Jesus calls his "work" as the work of his Father.
The season of Lent, however, offers us a chance to ponder Jesus' question: "Do you want to be well?" Do we have settled patterns of faults or sins that have been with us for as long as we can remember? Are we satisfied with going to confession for "guilt relief" and not doing anything to correct the behavior, despite saying an "act of contrition" to the effect that we "firmly resolve, with the help of God's grace, to do penance and to amend our lives?" The three "Hail Mary's" and three "Our Fathers" are not likely to address deep seated destructive patterns. Do we really want to be well? Addressing a bad habit takes effort that can be truly penitential, especially if that bad habit is a sinful one. God's mercy is not a license for repetition of bad conduct. "Giving up" that bad pattern or conduct may do more for us than the customary item we choose for Lent. Jesus' question remains: "Do you WANT to be well?" AMEN