Reflection for Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

EZ 47:1-9, 12

PS 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9

JN 5:1-16

This week’s readings feature the ongoing themes of lent: cleansing ourselves to be healed and closer to God. The gospel reading is a familiar story of the man who meets Jesus at a healing pool. He is unable to enter the waters on his own to be healed. “Do you want to be well?” asks Jesus asks him. The man says yes, and he is healed.

Jesus’s question is simple and moving.

“Do you want to be well?”

Lent is a time of becoming well by letting go of the things in our life that prohibit our full relationship with God and cultivating the things in our life that lead us closer to God. To live closer to God means that we need to identify what turns us away from God.

What may turn us away may be observed externally, like the sick man’s visible illness; however, we may have invisible needs for healing as well. At lent, I reflect most on the illnesses that we hold inside of ourselves that are only known to God. I think about our shame, self-loathing, jealously, insecurity, and fear that keep us from giving to others and acting.

The invitation of Lent to pray, fast, and engage in almsgiving provides an opportunity to answer God with “Yes, I want to be healed.” Our healing may not be as obvious as the man at the pool, but through our actions and being present to others. We need to be active in our own healing and the healing of others.

How may you act as Christ for others in support of their Lenten journey of healing?