"Stirring the Pool of Life-giving Water"

In today's Gospel, John 5: 1-16, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem and finds blind, lame, and crippled persons going down to the Bethesda pool. The first person to enter the pool when the waters are stirred up is healed. Jesus notices a man 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, said to him, 'Do you want to be well?'"  He answered: "'Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on the way, someone else gets down there before me.'  Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your mat, and walk.' Immediately the man became well, took up his mat and walked."

Jesus noticed the man's inability to get to the pool first and, knowing that he had been ill for a long time, had pity on him. He asks him: "Do you want to be well?"  Jesus asks us the same question. "Do you want to healed" of that which  holds us back from being made whole, of becoming well so that we, too, can participate fully in life around  us!  What is crippling us? Do we know? And do we want to be healed?  Just sitting around, when other options are possible, is an option but there are other ones if we accept Jesus' invitation!

What is holding you and I back from the pool of graces available to us on a daily basis?  What prevents us from "stirring the pool" that will give live to others and to ourselves?

Confidence in God through Christ Jesus

In today’s first reading, 2 Cor. 3: 4-11, St. Paul shares the confidence he has through Christ toward God—a confidence each of us has as well.  God has given us the qualities needed to be ministers of a new covenant, the covenant of the spirit.  Moses was qualified by God as a minister of the letter of the law, the old covenant given on Mount Sinai and written in stone.    The “letter brings death,” Paul tells us. The spirit “gives life.”   The law condemns us. The spirit does not.  We have an example of the latter—the law bringing death—in the Pharisees, whom Jesus confronted many times. Paul himself was practicing a law that brought death to people until his conversion on the way to Damascus.

 

Each of us has a choice to be involved in “the ministry of righteousness,”  or of being a minister of the old covenant,  adhering to the  letter of the law, as did the Pharisees, as did Paul until his conversion, using the law to condemn others. In other words, like the Pharisees and like Paul before his conversion, we can choose to stand on a pedestal of self-righteousness, depleting life instead of giving life.   Or, we can acknowledge the Righteous One as our Savior, who alone justifies and glorifies those who walk humbly with their God (cf Micah 6:8) doing what is right in God's eyes, following the law of the Spirit. That is the confidence of which Paul speaks .

What choice are we making?

Delivered from the Fear of Death

In today’s first reading, Hebrews 2: 14-18, St. Paul speaks about  our intimacy with one another and God’s intimacy with us. “Since the children share in blood and Flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.”  What does Paul mean by “through fear of death has been subject to slavery all their life”?  Perhaps we will come to an understanding of that statement by reflecting on Jesus’ life.  Because Jesus did not fear death, He did not coil from doing His Father’s will.  He revealed the imminence of the Kingdom—the Kingdom of heaven is in your midst—through his actions: healing the sick, casting out demons, forgiving sins, making the deaf to hear and the blind to see, feeding the multitudes, calming the sea and so much more.  Jesus was not afraid even though his actions and words ultimately led to His death. Had he been afraid, He would have hidden from the scribes and Pharisees, kept quiet so as not to arouse their anger and jealousy.  In spite of the risks, Jesus fulfilled His mission here on earth to make the Father known and to destroy the Devil.  Mary, His mother, also risked her life as did the apostles.  

Dying is always a part of rising to new life, to the life of grace, goodness,  and righteousness, to engaging in acts of kindness ,  justice and reconciliation.  To do good means dying to our fear of taking risks. Dying means  moving outside of our comfort zones.  We may see a child being bullied or a co-worker berating another employee or the boss, do we leave our comfort zone and take action on behalf of the other person.  Dying may mean coming home at night and helping one’s spouse with tutoring/mentoring/ guiding/ helping a child with his/her homework instead of hiding behind the newspaper in one’s easy chair.  Dying may mean doing an errand for another person at the end of a busy day or it may be as simple as getting up from the table to do the dishes after the evening meal.

What does dying mean for you/for me? Are you/am I willing to leave a comfort zone to be a life-giving presence to others?  Or do we resist dying  and, instead,  cling to that which is easier to do, which,  in some case that is nothing at all?