Reflection for April 1 Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent: John 5:1-16

Gospel: John 5:1-16

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” 

The sick man answered him, “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.  

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’“ They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. 

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.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath. 

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Reflection:

Is there a relationship between sickness and sin? Based on the pronouncements of Jesus in the Gospel, there is. 

The man who had been sick for thirty-eight long years was asked by Jesus, “Do you want to be well?” (John 5:6). The sick man answered him, “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.” (John 5:7-8). Then, in the latter part of the Gospel, Jesus said to the healed man, “Look, you are well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14). 

We may not realize it, but many of our sicknesses are brought about by our sins. For example, the sins of greed, anger, and gluttony. In many ways, greed and anger are among the triggers for illnesses such as high blood pressure. The same is true of gluttony—overindulging in any kind of food will eventually make us sick in the long run. 

Let us therefore repent of our sins and avoid them thereafter. The moment we repent through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we will be free from guilt and surely free from the possession of the devil, which sometimes disguises itself as sickness. 

Let us therefore discard sin from our lifestyle so that we will have a much clearer picture of the presence of the Lord in our lives. — Marino J. Dasmarinas