Mar
24
2020
By Anonymous (not verified)
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. - Jn 5:5
Let's do a word association. What word comes to mind when you think of "water"? Maybe words like life-giving, cleansing, refreshing, renewing, or healing.
In today's Gospel, a man who has been an invalid for 38 years had no one to help him reach the healing waters at the pool of Bethesda. Instead, he receives a healing from Jesus, who, we may recall, offered the grace of living water to the woman at the well.
When Jesus sees the man again in the Temple area, He cautions the man, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you" (Jn 5:14). Worse? What could be worse than being an invalid who was ignored by his neighbor for 38 years? To be drowning in eternal punishment.
Jesus urges the man to give up sinning because He wants the man instead to be bathed in mercy. In St. Faustina's Diary she regularly talks of Jesus' mercy in terms of water. As an ocean. As a gushing fount. As being poured into us. Below is an example of one such passage. It is a prayer offered daily at the Marian Helpers Center and the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.
Prayer: You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us (Diary, 1319).
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Let's do a word association. What word comes to mind when you think of "water"? Maybe words like life-giving, cleansing, refreshing, renewing, or healing.
In today's Gospel, a man who has been an invalid for 38 years had no one to help him reach the healing waters at the pool of Bethesda. Instead, he receives a healing from Jesus, who, we may recall, offered the grace of living water to the woman at the well.
When Jesus sees the man again in the Temple area, He cautions the man, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you" (Jn 5:14). Worse? What could be worse than being an invalid who was ignored by his neighbor for 38 years? To be drowning in eternal punishment.
Jesus urges the man to give up sinning because He wants the man instead to be bathed in mercy. In St. Faustina's Diary she regularly talks of Jesus' mercy in terms of water. As an ocean. As a gushing fount. As being poured into us. Below is an example of one such passage. It is a prayer offered daily at the Marian Helpers Center and the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.
Prayer: You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us (Diary, 1319).
See all meditations to date
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