Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent, March 22, 2021

John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” 

We see the cynical coldness of these scribes and Pharisees in using this woman in this way.  She meant nothing to them and they had no thought for her.  They intended to use her as a thing, as bait to trap the Lord Jesus.  The fact that they brought her before him instead of simply posing the question to him, as they had posed so many other challenges to him indicates their awareness of his mercy, and of his willingness to diverge, as they thought, from a strict understanding of the Mosaic Law.  

The Lord does not dispute the woman’s guilt and he does not act as her defender.  Rather, he sees how for these Pharisees the Law is nothing more than a noose with which they hope to choke him.  They bring him the woman and the question not out of zeal for the Law or justice but simply to find reason to denounce him in front of a crowd.  It is this that he addresses when he says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  His writing with his finger and seeming lack of interest in the case make clear his awareness of their bad faith.  Seeing this, and also feeling exposed by the Lord’s injunction for the one without sin to cast the first stone at her leave them powerless, and they leave, one by one.  Interestingly, the oldest leave first.

“So he was left alone with the woman before him.”  One day, it will be our turn to face the Lord, when, at the time of our death we appear before him naked,  our sins in plain view.  Shall we stand in silence and in fear, as this woman?  She did not leave, although nothing prevented her departing.  Perhaps this was because now she had nowhere to go.  All she had left to her was her life, not even a shred of clothing.  But there was also unfinished business between her and the Lord and she must have sensed it.  The Lord let her stand in silence as though giving her a chance to speak.  Then he did, when she did not: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She does not know the answer to the first question but she can answer the second, her apprehension keeping her answer brief: “No one, sir.”  She says no more.  She offers no thanks, asks the Lord no questions, does not beg for help, and makes no excuses.  The Lord seems to wait for more from her.  When she makes no motion to speak further, he says to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”  We note that he does not forgive her — for she has not asked for forgiveness — but he releases her and advises her not to sin again.  But if she is to continue living, she must humbly ask for forgiveness from her husband or her family, and they must offer it to her, or she will have to make her living with the harlots outside the city.  The idea of asking if she could follow her Savior does not seem to have occurred to her.

 The Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 20, 2021

John 12:20–33

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me. I am troubled now. Yet what should I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die. 

“Some Greeks who had come to worship.”  These would have been Jews whose first language was Greek.  They may have come from Antioch, a Greek city with a large Jewish population, or they may have come from further afield.  Their eagerness to see Jesus tells us that they had heard of the Lord in their faraway home town and had long nourished a desire to see him for themselves.  This fact helps to explain the rest of this reading.  These Greek Jews found Philip, an Apostle from Bethsaida, a town on the coast of the Sea of Galilee in what is now the region of the Golan Heights.  Due to its location, bordering Greek-speaking Gentile territory, the Greek language would have been in common use among the inhabitants.  The Greek Jews who came to Jerusalem may have heard Philip speaking Greek and so, learning that he was a close follower of Jesus, they came to him and asked if he would point the Lord out to them.  We note that St. John writes that they wanted “to see” Jesus, not that they wanted to meet with him.  It was enough for them merely to see him.  After pointing him out to them, Philip went and told Andrew about this interesting and potentially important development: that these people from a far off land had heard of the Lord, a sign that his fame was spreading abroad and was not any longer confined to Israel and the country immediately around it.  If the Messiah was thus gaining international attention, he might be able to make alliances and procure arms for the coming war to throw out the Romans and establish the new kingdom  of Israel.  And probably very excited, Andrew went to tell his Master the news.

At first, the Lord seems to respond in the way his Apostles would have expected, with his own excitement: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  For the Apostles, this “glory” was of the earthly kind.  Their hearts rose up in hearing these words.  But the Lord was speaking of a different kind of glory: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”  He is speaking of his Death and Resurrection, which will initiate the conversion of the world.  He is saying that the interest of these Greek Jews is a sign, a premonition, even, of the efforts of the Apostles after he rises from the dead.  His glory is his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, which would be for the salvation of the world.

After speaking of the apostolic life, the Lord speaks of himself: “I am troubled now. Yet what should I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’?”  He is troubled because of his full awareness of the suffering he will endure.  We see this graphically portrayed in the scene at the Garden of Gethsemane as recorded in Luke 22, 41-44.  Then, to answer his own question, he calls out his assent to his Father in heaven: “Father, glorify your name!”  That is, Let your will be done.  And the Father responds very physically, accepting his Son’s assent to his will: “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”  The Lord Jesus clarifies that this exchange between him and his Father was meant to be a public one: “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.”  It is his announcement to the world that he is prepared to die for the salvation of all, and of the Father’s acceptance of this Sacrifice.  This is not some secret deed, some hidden action, something only the initiated could learn about and understand.  The intention is stated and accepted, the arrest is made and an interrogation takes places in the presence of the Jewish leaders, the Victim is brought in broad daylight to Pilate, who condemns him, and finally the Sacrifice is consummated on Calvary.  This is history, not fable. 

The first result of the Lord’s Death: “Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.”  And then, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”  That is, Greeks and Jews alike.  Let us also be drawn ever nearer to him who was lifted up for us,

 Saturday in the Fourth Week of Lent, March 20, 2021

John 7:40-53

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” Then each went to his own house.

St. John relates a debate which took place in Jerusalem concerning the identity of the Lord Jesus.  In fact, it is hard to look at a man and see more than a man.  It is hard for us even to look at an individual walking down the street or dining next to us and to know that this is a great musician or a learned scholar or even a highly regarded athlete.  It has been known to happen that wealthy owners of banks visit one of their branches while dressed casually, and the tellers who treat them discourteously, finding to their horror who this really is, are fired.  Many people who heard Jesus preach in the Temple area in Jerusalem or in places in Galilee never saw him perform a miracle and only heard about his miracles second- or third-hand.  The people here had just heard the Lord proclaim, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.  He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” (John 7, 37-38).  They had heard him preach, but otherwise they seemed to know little about him.  Some question about the place of his birth arose.  Despite their incomplete knowledge, some folks proved ready at least to accept him as the long awaited Prophet of whom Moses spoke, or even as the Messiah, “the Christ”.  As this was only the second visit Jesus made to Jerusalem during his Public Life, during which he stayed only a few days, this is remarkable.  They did look at him and they listened to him and, perhaps influenced by news of his miracles, they believed at least this much.  These were people of good-will.  Even those who could not accept Jesus as the Messiah based their thinking on what little evidence they had before them.  The guards too, are shown to be of good-will and open minds.  They fail to arrest Jesus because they have heard him speak, and they reckoned that the words he uttered were not those of a criminal or a danger to the public good.

“Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”  The Pharisees ask an interesting question here.  The very people who should have recognized him — the authorities and the Pharisees — did not recognize him because they were not of good will or open mind.  And they had heard him preach many times and seen him perform many incredible miracles.  They simply refused to believe.  They barred the door of their minds and hearts at the knock of faith, lest it enter in.  In addition. They convict themselves of failing to do the job they had set for themselves, for if the crowd did not know the Law, that was the fault of the Pharisees who purported to interpret it for them.  It is they, rather, who did not know the Law, for if they had, “they would never have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2, 8).  

“Then each went to his own house.”  Those without faith do not go to God’s house.  They are not members of the Body of Christ.  They are alone, each of them, in solitude with their frustration, with their hopeless fight against the Truth.  

 The Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19, 2021

Matthew 1:16, 18–21, 24a

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.  Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. 

“When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.”  St. Jerome asks, “And who was this found by?  By Joseph alone.”  None but Joseph needed to know, although Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah also knew.  Mary would have told of her miraculous pregnancy to Joseph, and he had so high an opinion of her that he believed her the moment she told him of it, although much remained to be pondered and wondered at.  It seems to me that she would have told him very soon after the event of the Annunciation, even within a few hours, after she had thought and prayed.  Then, a few days afterwards, she went down to the Judean hill country to see Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist.  Joseph would have had six months, then, to turn over in his mind how he should act in the face of this tremendous news.

“Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.”  A careful look at the Greek text and consideration of the comments of Fathers such as St. Jerome lead to a different translation for this verse: “Joseph, her husband, because he was a righteous man, indeed, unwilling to make public this secret, decided to separate from her quietly.”  Far from intending to divorce Mary, St. Joseph acted in a way that brings to mind Peter, who after the miraculous catch of fish, said to Jesus, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5, 8).  Such was his humility that he thought himself to be in the way of this staggering mystery of a woman who had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  His humility, in fact, makes him the perfect partner for “the Handmaid of the Lord” since they both thought of themselves as lowly servants of God.  It is this humility which makes him “righteous”, and not simply a person who obeyed all the rules.  Whatever the opinion of men, he was righteous before the Lord.  

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.”  The Angel reveals to us that fear has played an important role in his decision to step away from Mary and her Child.  Not the sort of fear that arises as the result of a threat, but the proper fear — respect — of God and of that which is holy.  This conclusively proves false the idea that Joseph meant to divorce Mary, because a man does not undertake this action out of fear, particularly if he believes his wife has acted unfaithfully.

“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”  The righteous man obeyed the Angel who was sent from God.  

We marvel at Joseph’s holiness: his humility and his innocent and wholehearted trust in the Blessed Virgin Mary, and who alone, of all the men who ever lived, was worthy of this Woman and her Child.  A simple working man who was, with his wife, God’s choicest servant.

 Thursday in the Fourth Week Of Lent, March 18, 2021

John 5:31-47

Jesus said to the Jews: “If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life.  I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

“But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.”  The Lord speaks of his miracles and preaching as “the works that the Father gave me to accomplish.”  The miracle of the wine at Cana was predestined by the Father before all ages, as was the healing of the paralytic on the mat at Capernaum, and the healing of the woman with the blood disease.  Likewise, all the good we have received was predestined for us from before time began, that is, foreseen and planned.  The Father shows his love for each of us in this way, and he gives all things to us through his Son, who came down to us.  The powerful works which the Lord Jesus performed long ago proved his divinity at that time, and prove his divinity again to us through the historical record of the Gospels as well as in the lives of the saints.  He reveals himself as divine so that we may know him as a most trustworthy witness when he tells us about the Father and about the things of heaven.  Jesus, the Son of God, loves the Father with all his being, with unimaginable might, and glories in him: and like anyone in love, he tells us all about the one he loves.  In fact, he only talks about himself in order to talk about the Father.

“But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.”  In order to know the Father, we must know the Son.  That is, we can only know God as Father by knowing his Son.  Otherwise, the idea of God as Father is merely an abstract term.  God need not be a Father.  God as Father of the Son does not exist for the Jews or Moslems.  They only know God as solitary.  But to know God as Father of the Son tells us that this is a God of love.  The Father willed the begetting of his Son.  The Father did not “need” the Son.  He begot him because he loved him.  To know the Son as begotten by the Father tells us much about the Son, as well.  We can know that the Son is loved by the Father with a love beyond all telling.  That the Father sent his Son to die for our salvation, then, tells us how much we are loved by him.  These are truths worth dwelling on in the weeks before the Passion.

 Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, March 17, 2021

John 5:17-30

Jesus answered the Jews: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.  Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.  I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”

The Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God, speaks here of the inner life of the Trinity of which he is a Person.  He speaks of his unity with the Father, and his procession and, hence, diversity from him.  What he reveals is almost too bright for the human eye to read, let alone the human mind to comprehend.  To gain some perspective on what he tells us, we should think of how the Son is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1, 15), that is, of God the Father; and how we can only peer “through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13, 12) into these mysteries.

“The Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also.”  The Lord Jesus speaks of his unity with the Father.  In this way we can understand God saying, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1, 26).  The Fathers tell us that this is God the Father speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit.  We call the Father the Creator because he is the principle of all life, human and divine, but the creation of the world and of the human race was an action of the three Persons in union.

“The Father loves the Son”.  This unity is not something cold and abstract but is a bond of the deepest love, of the infinite love of the Persons for one another.  It is light pouring itself into light through the endless ages.  

“Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son.”  Here we see the diversity of the Persons of the Father and the Son.  The Father gives the authority and mandate for the judgment of the human race.  That is not to say that the Father disassociates it from himself, for the judgment the Son renders is in accord with the will of the Father and that of the Holy Spirit, but it is the prerogative of the Son to exercise it, as he was the Person who became incarnate.  

“I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation.”  The Lord speaks now of the necessity for salvation of believing in him as the Son, and that he was begotten by the Father from all eternity.  One who truly believes this will be saved because through faith we are joined as members to the Son.  A person must believe in the Son as the Son of God in order to be made his member, as one cannot be a member of that which he does not believe.  “Hearing the word” of the Son comes through the good witness of those who are already his members.

“The hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”  These were the souls of all who had died from the beginning of the world until the Death of the Lord: Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, peasants and kings and queens, artists, soldiers, prophets and those who killed the prophets.  All heard the voice of the Son of God after his Death, when he descended to the place of the dead.  Those who lived justly followed him to heaven, while those who did not went hurtling into the everlasting fires of hell.

“I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”  This is the will of the Son, to do his Father’s will.  It is the will, too, of all who would become saints: to do the will of the one who sent us into the world.  In this way, we are true members of the Son, and adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, March 16, 2021

John 5:1-16

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 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.  Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’“ They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.

One of the clues that tells us that St. John must have written his Gospel before it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 is the precise eyewitness descriptions that he provides, such as in the opening lines to the Gospel reading for today’s Mass.  Excavations carried out by archaeologists have confirmed the existence of the Pool of Bethesda and its porticoes.  It was a deep reservoir which served primarily as a source of drinking water for the inhabitants of the city.  From a text that is found in some Greek manuscripts and subsequently in the Vulgate, we know that many people attributed curative powers to the pool.  The sick and the lame would crowd about it in the porticoes in hopes of being cured.

“One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.”  The precise number of years John gives hints at his familiarity with the man, either before or, more likely, after, his cure.  It is a number that can be trusted, as it is not a round number nor one of the perfect numbers as accounted by the ancients.  The number also tells us of a hard life.  “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.”  These words, spoken to the Lord’s question about whether he wanted to be healed, tell their own sad story of ebbing hope.

Now, John tells us that “a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled” had gathered near the pool.  Was it only to this particular lame man that the Lord Jesus spoke?  Did he speak to others, only to be waved away by people embittered by their conditions?  Why did the Lord speak to this man?  Was he the most pathetic of the people there? What we can know is that the Lord sought him out of the crowd, and from this we can marvel at the Lord’s particular and personal love for each of us.  He searches each of us out so that we might know his profound love.  This brings to mind a verse from the Song of Songs: “I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loves” (Song of Songs 3, 2).

The cure is no prolonged ritual.  Jesus simply tells him to take up his mat and walk.  It happened very quietly.  The man stood on his own feet for the first time in thirty-eight years.  He then picked up his mat and began to walk.  He seems not to have spoken, so amazed at what was happening, perhaps even fearing to breathe lest he break the spell and find himself on the cold floor again.  No uproar ensued, no fingers were pointed.  All the others who lay or sat on their mats were too engaged in their own business and conversations to notice the one among them who was made well.  We might wonder where he walked.  At first he made his way through the crowds on the floor until he came to a more open space, probably in a courtyard.  Before he could go far, he was accosted by men whom John only identifies as “the Jews”, which might mean some Pharisees.  They roughly informed him that it was the Sabbath and that he should not carry his mat because of this.

Now, the Torah actually speaks very little on what kind of activities were forbidden on the Sabbath.  One of these was cooking, so the day’s meal had to be prepared on Friday.  There is no specific law against carrying things about.  The Law prohibited carrying on with one’s trade, labor, or business.  We do find words of interest in Jeremiah, however: “Take heed to your souls, and carry no burdens on the sabbath day: and bring them not in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not bring burdens out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work: sanctify the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers” (Jeremiah 17, 21-22).  Yet, the “burdens” spoken of here were merchandise to be sold on the streets.  The restriction against carrying anything at all was a Pharisaical interpretation, in fact, but very few knew the difference between what the Law said and what the Pharisees taught that it said.

Taken off guard, the man replied to those who had confronted him, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ”  These men should have been amazed at the man’s statement that a crippled man had been made well.  They demanded, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”  The lack of wonder on their part ought to amaze us.  They had so fastened upon a supposed slight to the law that they could not be awed by a man who had been the recipient of a miracle by Almighty God.  Instead, they wanted to make trouble for a man who could perform miracles.  But the cured man did not know where Jesus was.  Later, when Jesus spoke to him, the man went back to these people and told them that it was Jesus who had healed him.  “Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.”  These were the true sick and lame and blind, much more so than the crowd of folks around the pool.  They did not consider that a miracle can only be performed by the power of God, and if a miracle is performed on the Sabbath, then it is clear that the working of miracles on the Sabbath does not conflict with the Law.

“Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”  We do not see the man’s gratitude to the Lord for curing him.  Rather than fall at his feet to adore him, he goes out an informs on him.  It is so necessary for us to give thanks to God for all the graces we have received, and for his dying on the Cross for us.  We can do this through prayer and almsgiving, but also through conversion from sin, as the Lord warned the man he had healed to do.