Lent Wk 4 April 2, 2019
Reflection on the WORD
30 Years Illness: In today’s Gospel, Jesus cured the man who was ill for thirty years. When we have illnesses, trials and tribulations, Jesus also understands and “feels” our pain as He is with us in our challenges. Pray for the graces to be “united” to Jesus, and experience His Presence and consolation.
Jn 5:1-3a,5-9,16
There was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed
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 that 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 down there before me.’
Jesus said, ‘Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.’ The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk around. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to harass Jesus.
Today's Pointers on God's Word
As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?
- •God wants to heal us of our pains and relieve us of our sufferings in life. Can we believe that God is on our side and that He hears every prayer we utter and feel every pain we encounter and hurts we harbour?
- •We all need to be healed physically, emotionally or spiritually. However, we need to trust God more wholeheartedly and let Him heal us in the “best ways and time” that His providence thinks fit.
- •With God all things are possible and if we focus on glorifying, loving and serving Him instead of how much healing we are receiving, then we will not be “in the way” of God’s healing graces.