Reflection for TUESDAY, 4th Week of Lent.

By

Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Director, Social Action Movement, Don Bosco Bidar

Today's gospel verses 

John 5:1-3, 5-16    

The healing at the pool of Bethesda

There was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now at the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem there is a building, called Bethzatha in Hebrew, consisting of five porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people – blind, lame, paralysed – waiting for the water to move. One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in this condition for a long time, he said, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ ‘Sir,’ replied the sick man ‘I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets there before me.’ Jesus said, ‘Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.’ The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.

Now that day happened to be the sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.’ He replied, ‘But the man who cured me told me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”’ They asked, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Pick up your mat and walk”?’ The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled the place. After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, ‘Now you are well again, be sure not to sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.’ The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. It was because he did things like this on the sabbath that the Jews began to persecute Jesus.

 Today's reflection on the readings 

There are many images of the Church as a sign of salvation.

It can be like a ship in tumultuous water.

It can be like a lamp shining in the dark.

It can be like an anchor that will be needed to keep a ship stable.

The 1st reading gives the image of the Temple with a stream that came out from under the Temple threshold, with waters flowing.

As the waters flow towards the sea, animals drink of it.

Fish is plentiful, the waters bring health, and life teems wherever the waters flow.

Fruit trees grow on either side of the banks, with fruits good and plentiful and even the leaves are medicinal.

It is a wonderful image of the Church as a sign of salvation, and with God’s blessings flowing from the Church to all those who seek for salvation.

But it must also be remembered that there are some people, like the man with the illness and lying on his mat for 38 years, who are unable, for some reason, to encounter and experience the saving love of Jesus.

May we be sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to know who they are and to lead them to Jesus so that they will experience the joy of salvation.


       GOD BLESS YOU

Good morning. Have a nice day.