(Jn 5:1-3.5-16)

"On the other hand, he performs several gestures on him: first of all he led him away from the crowd. On this occasion, as on others, Jesus always acts with discretion. He does not want to impress people, He is not seeking popularity or success, but only wishes to do good to people. With this attitude, He teaches us that good is to be done without clamour, without ostentation, without "blowing the trumpet". It must be done in silence.

[...] The healing was for him an 'opening' to others and to the world.

This Gospel story emphasises the need for a twofold healing. First, healing from sickness and physical suffering, to restore the health of the body; even if this goal is not completely attainable on the earthly horizon, despite so many efforts of science and medicine. But there is a second healing, perhaps more difficult, and that is healing from fear. Healing from the fear that drives us to marginalise the sick, to marginalise the suffering, the disabled. And there are many ways of marginalising, even with a pseudo-pity or with the removal of the problem; we remain deaf and dumb in the face of the pain of people marked by illness, anguish and difficulty. Too many times the sick and the suffering become a problem, while they should be an opportunity to manifest the solicitude and solidarity of a society towards the weakest".

[Pope Francis, Angelus 9 September 2018].

Jesus would rather transgress the law than align himself with the ruthless world and the inviolable society outside, which marginalises the unfortunate.

In the religion of competitive trophies, of real abandonments and false or trivial hopes, someone by lottery is healed, everyone else is not. Only the quickest heals, not the neediest.

In any case, the vast majority stand by, paralysed by loneliness - conversely, those afflicted ask for life, refreshment; the bubbling song of an authentically sacred story.

At that time, in the 'holy' places, the cult of sacrifices demanded a lot of water [for the animals to be washed, then slaughtered and butchered] especially on the great feasts.

Large cisterns collected rainwater, and public baths (to the north) agglomerated the sick awaiting help or recovery from the very isolation to which they were condemned - according to purity rules.

Pools outside were used to bathe lambs before sacrifice at the Temple, and this method of use gave the water itself an aura of healing sanctity.

Many sick people flocked to bathe in the 'motion of the water' (v.3).

It was said that an angel stirred the waters of the popular baths [perhaps for an intermittent spring] and that the first person to enter them in the one moment they became restless would be cured.

A symbol of a religion that holds out bogus hopes to the shaky, which also attract the imagination of the excluded masses, harassed by calamities - who do not know the man-God of their destiny.

"But he who was healed did not know who he was, because Jesus had gone away, there being a crowd in that place" (v.13).

The Face of the Son is unrecognisable in the throng around, despite the plethora of impeccable guides and devotees - who are only distracting, and content with the customary forms of organisation, exaggeratedly solemn.

Abundant conduct purified the Temple and neglected the people.

An icon of a rich and miserable religiosity: vain, useless, harmful; which abandons to itself those it is called upon to support.

The scribes taught the law to students in the sacred precincts and the rabbis received clients under Solomon's porch, on the Temple esplanade, to the east.

Above the Torah and its trade; below and outside - nearby - the treachery of the poor.

The water flowed into the Temple, but it did not cleanse anyone - on the contrary, it made things worse.

This persisted for an entire era - a "generation" (v.5). Symbology of the 38 years (Deut 2:14) that precisely lacked a welcoming mentality.

The official religious institution kept the crowd at a safe distance, revealing only a ridiculous and brutal caricature of the friendly, hospitable and sharing Face of the Father.

The crowd of needy who were only randomly and surprisingly given magic water is precisely a parable of destitute humanity, dramatically lacking everything - even genuine spiritual comfort.

Jesus, on the other hand, approaches the needy on his own initiative (vv.6.14) and involves himself - at the risk of his life - with those who are most lonely, awkward and clumsy.

He in us: welcoming faces and active presence of the Father, instinctively approaching not the people who matter, but the neglected, the sick - unable even to receive miracles.

We are sent not to the worthy and self-sufficient, but precisely to those unable to use their own means to come forward. 

Those who wobble - and on this there is no need for imprimatur: such a rule is of divine right.

No joy from the authorities - only enquiries.

No matter: no reverential fear. God is not eager to be obeyed; rather, to fulfil us.

Christ himself does not work in order to be recognised and acclaimed ['he had turned away']. Nor does he care for us, only to trigger a religious conversion.

He heals by perceiving the need, not so that the sick person believes in God.

The Tao Tê Ching [x] says: "Let creatures live and feed them, let them live and not keep them as your own". "To speak much and scrutinise rationally is worth less than to keep empty" (v).

Let people be free to go through their seasons, not stereotype them.

Only, let us help open doors that are more genuine and commensurate with the personal journey, even if it is unplanned or uncontrolled.

We are challenged and sent to accompany each one in the unprecedented, all original - guiding not to an already drafted sacredness, but to the plasticity of healthy awareness.

Let us enter the heart of Lent.

To internalise and live the message:

How is it that you live in the Christian community and this Gospel surprises you?

Have you been without help for a long time? Does the Eucharist make you "someone for everyone" and spend yourself, or do you fall back into vain devotions?

Specialists in closure. Psychology of doctors of the law

Lent is a propitious time to ask the Lord, "for each one of us and for the whole Church", for "conversion to the mercy of Jesus". Too often, in fact, Christians "are specialists in closing doors to people" who, weakened by life and their mistakes, would instead be willing to start again, "people to whom the Holy Spirit moves the heart to move forward".

The law of love is at the heart of Pope Francis' reflection on the liturgy of the day at Mass on Tuesday 17 March at Santa Marta. A word of God that starts from an image: "the water that heals". In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel (47:1-9.12) in fact speaks of the water that flows from the temple, 'a blessed water, the water of God, abundant as the grace of God: abundant always'. The Lord, in fact, the Pope explained, is generous 'in giving his love, in healing our wounds'.

Water returns in John's Gospel (5:1-16) where it tells of a pool - "in Hebrew it was called betzaetà" - characterised by "five porticoes, under which lay a great number of the sick: blind, lame and paralytic". In that place, in fact, "there was a tradition" according to which "from time to time, an angel came down from heaven" to move the waters, and the sick "who threw themselves there" at that moment "were healed".

Therefore, the Pontiff explained, "there were many people". And therefore there was also "a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years". He was there waiting, and to him Jesus asked, 'Do you want to be healed?' The sick man answered, "But, Lord, I have no one to immerse me in the pool when the water is stirring, when the angel comes. For as I am about to go there, another descends before me". Jesus, that is, is presented with "a defeated man" who "had lost hope". Sick, but - Francis emphasised - "not only paralytic": he was in fact sick with "another very bad disease", acedia.

"It was acedia that made him sad, lazy," he noted. Another person would in fact have 'sought the way to get there in time, like that blind man in Jericho who cried out, cried out, and they wanted to silence him and he cried out more: he found the way'. But he, prostrated by illness for thirty-eight years, "had no desire to heal himself", he had "no strength". At the same time, he had 'bitterness in his soul: "But the other comes before me and I am left behind"'. And he also had "some resentment". She was "truly a sad, defeated soul, defeated by life".

"Jesus has mercy" on this man and invites him, "Get up! Get up, let's finish this story; take your stretcher and walk". Francis then described the following scene: 'Instantly the man was healed and took his stretcher and began to walk, but he was so sick that he could not believe and perhaps walked a little doubtfully with his stretcher on his shoulders'. At this point other characters come into play: "It was the Sabbath and what did the man find? The doctors of the law', who ask him: 'But why do you bring this? You can't, today is the Sabbath". It is the man who replies: "But you know, I have been healed!". He adds: "And the one who healed me said to me, 'bring your stretcher'".

A strange thing then happens: "these people instead of rejoicing, of saying: 'How nice! Congratulations!", they ask: "But who is this man?". The doctors, that is, begin "an investigation" and discuss, "Let us see what has happened here, but the law.... We must keep the law'. The man, for his part, continues to walk with his stretcher, "but a little sad". The Pope commented: 'I am bad, but sometimes I think about what would have happened if this man had given a big cheque to those doctors. They would have said: 'But, go ahead, yes, this time go ahead!'".

Continuing in the Gospel reading, one encounters Jesus who "finds this man one more time and says to him, 'Behold, you are healed, but do not go back - that is, do not sin any more - lest something worse happen to you. Go on, keep going'". And the man goes to the doctors of the law, to say, "The person, the man who healed me is called Jesus. That's the one." And we read: 'This is why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did such things on the Sabbath'. Again Francis commented: 'Because he also did good things on the Sabbath, and it could not be done'.

This story, the Pope said, bringing his reflection up to date, "happens many times in life: a man - a woman - who feels sick in his soul, sad, who has made so many mistakes in life, at a certain moment he feels the waters move, there is the Holy Spirit moving something; or he hears a word". And he reacts: "I would like to go!". So he "takes courage and goes". But that man "how many times today in Christian communities he finds the doors closed". Perhaps he hears himself saying: 'You can't, no, you can't; you are wrong here and you can't. If you want to come, come to mass on Sunday, but stay there, but do no more'. So it happens that 'what the Holy Spirit does in people's hearts, Christians with a psychology of doctors of the law destroy'.

The Pontiff said he was sorry for this, because, he emphasised, the Church 'is the house of Jesus and Jesus welcomes, but not only welcomes: he goes to visit people', just as 'he went to visit' that man. "And if people are hurt," he wondered, "what does Jesus do? Does he rebuke them, because they are hurt? No, he comes and carries her on his shoulders". This, the Pope stated, 'is called mercy'. This is precisely what God is talking about when he 'rebukes his people: "Mercy I want, not sacrifice!"'.

As usual, the Pontiff concluded his reflection by suggesting a commitment for daily life: 'We are in Lent, we must convert'. Someone, he said, might admit: 'Father, there are so many sinners on the road: those who steal, those who are in the Roma camps...'. - to say one thing - and we despise these people'. But to him it must be said: 'And you? Who are you? And who are you, that you close the door of your heart to a man, to a woman, who wants to improve, to re-enter the people of God, because the Holy Spirit has stirred her heart?" Even today there are Christians who behave like the doctors of the law and "do the same as they did with Jesus", objecting: "But this, this says heresy, this cannot be done, this goes against the discipline of the Church, this goes against the law". And so they close the doors to many people. Therefore, the Pope concluded, "let us ask the Lord today" for "conversion to the mercy of Jesus": only then "will the law be fully fulfilled, because the law is to love God and our neighbour, as ourselves".

(Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 18/03/2015)

[Different opinion].

In all the Gospel commentaries that I know of, this episode of the pool of Bethsaida (John 5:1-16) is a symbol of the PERSEVERANCE of this poor man who remains there, at the edge of the water for thirty-eight years in the hope of being healed, without ever leaving it.

It is also a symbol of the patience we must have with ourselves in our inner struggle against prevailing faults.

One author, referring to this passage from the Gospel, explained that the Lord can ask us even thirty-eight years to grow in a virtue by being patient with our faults.

If the paralytic had been a lazy indolent complainer (and a bit of a hypochondriac, we seem to understand...), the Lord would not have helped him.

The man protagonist of today's Gospel PERSEVERED thirty-eight years, he did not FEAR ACCIDENT for thirty-eight years.

Not only that, he would have remained there until the end of his days, had he not had the reward of meeting Jesus, precisely because of his constancy.

Again, this episode explains the importance of evangelisation (proselytism for Pope Bergoglio).

In fact, this Gospel passage has always been used to explain that no one should confess 'Lord I have none', since the Gospel passage refers to - and must be interpreted as referring to - the sick in spirit.

The expression of the paralytic "HOMINEM NON HABEO" ("I have no man") has become, or perhaps always has been over the centuries, in every Gospel commentary, the meaning of SPIRITUAL INDIFFERENCE towards one's neighbour in need in the soul.

It means that everyone has been indifferent to the needs of his soul, except the Saviour.

(https://www.marcotosatti.com/2020/03/25/ics-al-papa-il-paralitico-a-betsaida-non-era-pigro-ipocondriaco/)