“Do You Want to Be Well?” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)
“Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.” (Ezekiel 47:8)
The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. (Psalm 46:8)
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. (John 5:2-9)
Piety
Lord, you know what is best for me. Heal those parts of me that I would prefer to remain broken.
Study
“Do you want to be well?”
They are among the most challenging words Jesus speaks to anyone he encounters.
“Do you want to be well?”
The man to whom He says this has been sick for thirty-eight years. The man has been lying in a portico near the Bethesda pool. Of course, he wants to be healed, right?
“Do you want to be well?”
But when Jesus asks him this question, the man doesn’t say of course, yes, please, or anything like that. Instead, he whines. Nobody helps him into the pool; everyone else gets there before him. If Jesus hadn’t told him to get up and walk, I suspect the man would have provided still more excuses.
“Do you want to be well?”
Jesus asks you and me this question every day. And, often, like the man in the portico, we make excuses: we’re too tired to pray or adore or help out at a homeless shelter, food pantry, or elsewhere. We’re saving for a house or car or retirement and so we needed to cut back our charitable giving. We’re too busy to participate in a parish Lenten activity or to go to confession or to daily Mass. Sometimes, underneath those excuses, lies the fear that saying “Yes” would be too costly. It would mean change and discomfort.
“Do you want to be well?”
The opportunity to be healed by the Divine Physician is presented to us again and again. What is your answer?
Action
Say yes to Jesus’s healing invitation in one hurt in your life.
Image credit: Hole, William, 1846-1917 [Public domain].
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