March 20, 2012 John 5: 1-16

I had kind of a rough day today. My blogging does not always reveal the true me, as I have bad days, sad days, and angry days too. Today I was put back several times by several things, and by the time I went into Mass at 5:30, I was pretty full of self-pity. It seemed that everywhere I turned today, I got a disappointing answer. My lovely wife and guide even told me I was being mean – can you even imagine that? I was pretty much mad when I entered St. Michael, but then God showed up again.

The reading for today is John 5:1-16 about an ill man in Jerusalem who had laid at the Sheep Gate by a pool called Bethesda. He had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked him, knowing how long he had been ill, if he wanted to be well. The man said in a reply of self-pity, “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.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

But the story of God’s offer of grace did not end there for this man. It was the Sabbath, and the Jewish people saw him carrying his mat. They questioned him and the man said he was told to rise and take up his mat. The cured man did not know who Jesus was, so he could not tell the crowd who had cured him. Later, the man must have gone to live a sinful and ordinary life because Jesus sees him in the temple area and tells him,”Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The guy now knows who cured him, and tells the Jewish crowd, who then start to persecute Jesus.

So this guy has the chance to be filled with God’s grace and forgiveness, but instead uses the opportunity to turn from God, and to even turn God’s Son in to the authorities so his persecution can begin. What a waste! I have heard the story before, but, again, Father Chuck made it stick this time for me.

For each thing today that had upset me, there was a perfectly good solution or answer. I realized that as I sat there in church. I had the graces needed to turn things around, I had just wanted to feel bad about things for a time. Well, we are back on track now. Sorry to any I may have snapped at today. Thank you for the re-direction, God! Make it a great one!