Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of John (5: 1-3, 5-16) about when Jesus meets an invalid who had been ill for 38 years and had no one to help him into the Bethzatha healing pool.
Fr Paul says this Gospel and its message will spread over the next three days. He notes that on a slope down from the north into the temple there is an artificial reservoir to collect water off the hillside when it rains and surrounding the pool are columns, which divide it into two pools. The steps of the pool exist to this very day. The author of this Gospel knows Jerusalem well and, again, to this day there are little shrines to healing. It is obviously a place people came to for healing as described in the Gospel. As we hear Jesus takes pity on someone who has been there for 38 years and, having done so, all the authorities can do is complain that Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Again, we are reminded that no Sabbath obligation can stand in the way of Jesus’s love and care of others. As our Lenten Journey continues, Fr Paul asks, ‘Is there something in my life that I have held onto for many, many years that with the help of Jesus, can now be healed, just like the man in today’s Gospel?’
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