The healing power

It happens so often in life. No matter how careful, or what preventive measures we take, we still get sick. And when we do, we look for the antidote, be it from a doctor or some kind of medicine.

Today’s Gospel is no different. The man born crippled, lay at the healing waters at the pool of Bethesda, but was unable to reach to waters for healing.

Jesus asks if he wants to be well and the man responds by saying how difficult it is to get to the pool.  Was that an excuse? Was he, after all these years, just giving up? Did he believe that he would die a cripple?

Many of us find ourselves in the same boat, making excuses for putting God first, even giving up and losing hope, allowing our surroundings and circumstances to be our master.  But God will always ask us “do you want to be well”

Of all the people at the pool that day, Jesus singles out this hopeless man. Where there was doubt, he awakens hope by asking the man a simple yet searching question "Do you want to be well?" It deserved a simple answer. But, the man, in his heart said yes, but the excuses poured out as to why he was not well. And Jesus, reading his heart, said "rise, take up your mat and walk!"

Like the crippled man, God knows our heart and will not force our hand against our will.  He reads our heart, not our excuses.
And on that day, that hopeless man was healed, and just like that man, of all the people in the world today, Jesus is speaking to you and to me, as if it were you and I alone. If we have but a spark of hope, if we say yes in our heart, Jesus will ignite that spark to a flame of love. He will heal our doubt and we will begin to “walk by faith and not by sight”.

It is through that faith that we truly see the world as it is. We become aware of the needs of those around us, especially in our present crisis. We realize we have gifts and resources we can share, to people losing hope. We become a people hearing and acting upon God’s charitable words, “Whatever you do for the least of my brethren, that you do unto me”.

Jesus never touched that crippled man at the pool that day, the man who lost hope. He just said, “rise, take up your mat and walk”. We, too, can through our charitable acts, be the one who is instrumental in helping another of God’s children walk away from hopelessness.

Saint Leo the Great once said, “If God is love, charity should know no limit, for God cannot be confined”.

And our hearts will cry with love when we can say the same words that Jesus said to the man he healed after seeing him sometime later.  “Look you are well”. It is our faith and our love for God and neighbor that really has the healing power.