April 2, 2019 Tuesday,
4th Week of Lent
1st Reading:
Ezk 47:1–9, 12
Gospel: Jn 5:1-16
There was a feast of the Jews and Je sus went up to Jerusalem. Now, by the Sheep Gate in Je rusalem, there is a pool (called Beth zatha in Hebrew) surrounded by five galleries. In these galleries lay a multitude of sick people—blind, lame and paralyzed.
(All were waiting for the water to move, for at times an angel of the Lord would descend into the pool and stir up the water; and the first person to enter after this movement of the water would be healed of whatever disease that person had.)
There was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him, and since he knew how long this man had been lying there, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” And the sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is dis turbed; so while I am still on my way, another steps down before me.”
Jesus then said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his mat and walked.
Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed, “It is the Sabbath and the Law doesn’t allow you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The one who healed me said to me: Take up your mat and walk.” They asked him, “Who is the one who said to you: Take up your mat and walk?” But the sick man had no idea who it was who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the crowd that filled the place.
Afterwards Jesus met him in the Temple court and told him, “Now you are well; don’t sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” And the man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jews persecuted Jesus because he per formed healings like that on the Sabbath.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The attitude of the sick man in today’s Gospel has a lot to tell us about prayer. He wasted one rare encounter with Jesus by rattling off his miseries. He said to Jesus: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is dis turbed; so while I am still on my way, another steps down before me.” What a waste of precious chance! Jesus’ question was an opportunity of a lifetime. “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asked. “Just say the word and my soul shall be healed” would have been a more responsive answer. But he wallowed in self-pity instead.
Aren’t our prayers similar? We pray to God that structures change. But there is more to prayer than pacifying our disappointments. Prayer is listening. When we listen, we give God the chance to change us. When God succeeds, we become partners of God in the realization of our prayer. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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