Tuesday of 4th Week of Lent: reflection
Theme: JESUS: OUR FOUNTAIN OF LIFE AND HEALING
Readings: Ez 47: 1–9,12; Jn 5:1–16
In today’s gospel, Jesus healed a helpless sick man who was sick for 38 years. The man was lying down on one of the streets close to the pool of Bethzatha, with the hope of getting an opportunity to jump into the pool to get healed. But for many years, he lost all opportunities that came because all the times the waters of the pool were stirred by the angel, someone stronger than him always jumped into the pool before he could get close.
When you look at the sick man, you will see a man who suffered from missed opportunities in life because of physical and spiritual incapacities, a man who failed to grasp opportunities to be better in life because of life’s challenges. It was in his helpless situation that Jesus came to him and gave him that thing for which he had spent many years at the pool, that thing which other people who were stronger than him denied him for several years. Jesus told him: “do you want to be healed?”
By healing the sick man, Jesus demonstrated that he is the God who comes to the rescue of people who are less fortunate in life, those who lose out on opportunities to improve their lives due to circumstances beyond their control, as well as those who suffer denial of opportunities in the hands of those who are stronger than them.
In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel saw the water flowing from the temple and giving life to all creatures it came in contact with. Jesus is the temple from which living water flows into our lives and heals us of all infirmities, the fountain of water that can be accessed by both the strong and the weak, the privileged and the under privileged, the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick. What, then, are you waiting for? He is telling you today: “if you want to be healed (spiritually and physically), come to me the fountain of life and the pool of healing.”
May your efforts this Tuesday be richly blessed. Amen