Invalid?

Today’s Gospel Text:  After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Beth-za'tha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. 5 One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" 7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me." 8 Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked.

Now that day was the sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet." 11 But he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, 'Take up your pallet, and walk.'" 12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your pallet, and walk'?" 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you." 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the sabbath. John 5:1-16

Reflection: There was a story told by a religious, of a man who had once gone to a retreat centre and he came back testifying everywhere and to everyone that he was healed of his illness. 

 The reason for the man’s confidence was the absence of the symptoms which accompanied his debilitating condition.

A few months later, the man could no longer testify about this healing, as the sickness had returned.

This was reason enough for the critics to condemn such indiscriminate testimonies which lay claim to healing, when they felt there was no such healing in the first place.

The critics felt that it was never a healing in the first place but may have been a placebo effect on the mind or some sort of amelioration at the psychological level.

What may have happened, in this particular case and which the critics may have never bothered to find out or may have overlooked is this: The concerned person may have actually got the healing but on account of his slip and falling away into sin the sickness may have returned.

But the many critics who passed a judgment against him also did so against the retreat centre and its works.  In other words they considered all the healings as humbug!

In the gospel we could have a similar situation, if not for the warning of Jesus to the man who was an invalid for thirty-eight years:

"See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befalls you." (vs. 14)

One of the sin that the invalid needed to avoid in his life was not to fail in testifying to what Jesus had done to him. He would thus assert the truth of his new found faith in a God who works in creation; a God who even goes against his own law in order to heal a person.

God heals even in our day if only we believe in his merciful love and put our trust and confidence in him.

Prayer: O Lord of the Sabbath and all that you have created heal the many fears in my heart that I may proclaim you fearlessly. 

DD = Dedicated Discipleship:  Come grow in the Lord with us

Waiting to Trap

Today’s Gospel Text:  Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 And they watched him, to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come here." 4 And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out, and immediately held counsel with the Hero'di-ans against him, how to destroy him. Mark 3:1-6

Reflection: This passage of the gospel brings out the great element of God’s nature and his love for us.

Here are a people who are waiting to accuse the innocent Jesus. The moment seems right:

It is the Sabbath and they know the weakness of Jesus (at least that’s how they looked at Jesus) to heal a person and Jesus is bound to exercise his weakness for showing off (this is how they may have perceived his actions).

And as expected; here there was a man with withered hand and Jesus invites him to come to him and stretch out his hand; and he is immediately  restored.

But what comes out still more strongly is the emotional reaction of Jesus over their hardness of hearts.

The hardness of the heart is seen not so much in the emphasis of the Pharisees on the law, instead at the root of it is the blindness to understand God’s priority when he gave the law.

This factor of applying the law irrationally without looking at the real human priority and purpose can be seen anywhere and in any society, as long as sinful humans exist.  This is unlike those who would deliberately misinterpret a law in order to beat someone out of vengeance.

Here the Pharisees were not merely misinterpreting the law as of priority but their greater aim seemed to be to indict Jesus.

Jesus' reaction is a righteous anger; if at the cross he cried out: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34), then here it must have been; "listen! see! believe! for you do not know what you are doing in the hardness of your hearts, where you are heading; the path of damnation.

As if it was not enough it made Jesus grieve at the hardness of their hearts; which was not a mere reaction for the sake of reaction but could best be surmised in a question: where are you heading (the path of hell fire)? Or what has happened to your humanity, that you don's seem to care about the suffering of your fellow human being?   

This can happen to anyone of us as we continue in a life of self-seeking, leaving out God and his saving help.

Prayer:  Lord, let me seek thee and by thy holy wisdom transform me and thy Holy Spirit guide me all through life’s journey, so that I may care of my brothers and sisters. 

DD = Dedicated Discipleship:  Come grow in the Lord with us

Jesus Cleans

Today’s Gospel Text:  While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and besought him, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." 13 And he stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one; but "go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." 15 But so much the more the report went abroad concerning him; and great multitudes gathered to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed. Luke 5:12-16

Reflection: Talk about house cleaning and it sends many, who have experienced what a cleaning process involves, into a tizzy.  

Many a times, in most circumstances, it involves a hard laborious process, involving meticulous and deft handling of the objects at hand.

There are always instruments and cleansing agents we use to clean things. In other words we cannot think of cleansing without these agents.

What is it that made the leprous feel that he needed to be cleansed? He could have asked the Lord to heal him or touch him and set his ailment right.  What is so unclean about the leprous situation? Is it not like any other disease? 

Could it be that the leper understood the deep inner reasons for leprosy and why he was suffering?

Never the less, we see from the words and action of Jesus that he did clean him by his mere touch and the word.

How can Jesus touch a leper when in those days every society would shun them lest they pass on the infection to them? The law clearly forbade them to be within the city walls and they had to remain outside the walls of the city.

From this miracle rooted in the cleansing power of Jesus' action, we are offered a hope which no one else can offer: He alone can cleanse us of the deep inner guilt and contamination of sin and anxiety and set us free.

But the right approach is very important for us in order to receive from his presence, whether we approach him directly or through the sacramental presence or through his disciples. 

We need to first be aware with God’s help the actual reason for our sickness and where it began and then after having diagnosed the problem approach the Lord with faith and confidence just like the leper of today’s Gospel.

Prayer:  Lord, reveal to me my leprous spots and cleanse me of every sin that stains my soul and heal me.

DD = Dedicated Discipleship:  Come grow in the Lord with us