3/21/2023 (Tuesday) Today’s Gospel Reading: John 5:1-16
1 There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
3 In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
6 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?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath.
10 So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
11 He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
13 The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
14 After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
15 The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
16 Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
3/21/2023 (Tuesday) Today’s Gospel Reflection: John 5:1-16
In John 10:10, Jesus specifically claimed that he had come that we may have life, and have it to the full. So, what is life in its fullness? The gospel reading above shows how Jesus made the man whole again by healing his physical illness and then telling him that he is now well and should not sin again. More often than not, people think that Jesus and His disciples, including His present followers, are interested only in the “salvation of the soul”. The healing story above tells us that Jesus is also interested in our physical wellbeing. For in order to live life fully, we need to be healthy in mind and in body as well as in spirit.
Let us pray then that Jesus may make us whole – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Amen.