A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees in Jerusalem a man lying in a portico near the pool of Bethesda. The man had been ill a long time—thirty-eight years, John tells us. Knowing this, Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be well?” The man tells Jesus that he has no one to put him into the pool, so others get there before him as he is on his way. Jesus says to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” The man becomes well immediately and takes up his mat and walks. Because this took place on the sabbath, the Jews told the man it was not lawful for him to carry the mat. When they found out that Jesus was the one who made the man well, they began to persecute Jesus. “Look, you are well,” Jesus said to the man, “Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” It might seem odd to ask, but what does Jesus mean? What things worse are there for one who has been ill for thirty-eight years?
God, help me comprehend the everlasting harm to the soul brought on by despair and unrepented sin. Let me see the goodness in this Gospel and take to heart Jesus’ command: “do not sin any more.” To experience Jesus’ healing in confession is to hear him say, “Look, you are well.” In the first reading from Ezekiel, the water that flowed from the temple made trees grow whose leaves would never fade and whose fruit would never fail. “The fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.” Jesus, you in your being are the medicine that makes us well.
Through the sacraments, I have both healing in this life and the medicine of immortality. God, be my ever-present help in distress today and always. Thank you, Lord, for your presence!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.