The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Ezekiel 47:1-19, 12
Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
John 5:1-16

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

In today's Gospel we hear about a man who had been sick for 38 years who came to Bethesda to the Sheep Pool in hope of being healed.

Aren't there many things in our lives that we have hoped could be healed? Some may be very dramatic like healing from a life-threatening illness, while others seem almost too silly to even mention. In all cases we recognize there is something we hope could be changed. The Gospel tells us that the man went to the pool even though he had little hope of being immersed in it's healing waters.

This tells us that the man made some effort to be in the right place - the place for healing and that he refused, even though logic might have dictated it, to give up altogether and abandon even a far-fetched hope for healing.

Jesus used this situation to teach us that God's grace and healing often defies logic and that being required to do something like "be in the right place" or asking someone 'who knows what' in order to be healed, might be required.

The last thought expressed in this Gospel story, is perhaps the most important. After everything has been said and done and the man is healed, Jesus says to him, "Remember how you have been healed." With these words we are reminded of the sad condition of so many people: they forgot!

In this season of grace may we pray not to be forgetful of what God has done for us, of all the many things which we have been "cured" of and especially, the price of our redemption. Holy scripture reminds us that we have been ransomed (healed, saved) not by some measurable sum of gold, but by the precious blood of Christ, inestimable beyond our comprehension of its worth.

- Donna Nelson, OCDS
(drn3rd at hotmail dot com)

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