Daily Gospel Reflection for March 29, 2022

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: John 5:1-16

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus ask an important question: “Do you want to be well?” To us, it may seem like a strange question to ask. But the man responds to Jesus by talking about the obstacles that are keeping him from getting to the pool of water at Bethesda. Strangely, he doesn’t ever say “yes” or “no.”

When you’ve been sick for a long time like this man, there might be a part of you that’s scared of being healed. The man in the Gospel had been unwell for thirty-eight years. That’s a lifetime to many people. Surely, he had gotten used to being sick. Illness was a constant in his life. Maybe the only constant. What would his life be like if he was well instead of unwell?

The truth is, all of us are spiritually sick and in need of healing. And many of us have gotten used to our “illness.” Are we so used to our life of sin that it’s scary to let it go? Like the man in the Gospel, maybe our “illness” is the only constant that’s been in our lives. Or, maybe the sin we struggle to overcome on our own brings us some physical pleasure that we might not be eager to give up. St. Augustine was famously quoted as saying, “Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.” He definitely knew what it was to struggle with the pleasures of sin.

During the season of Lent, we are invited to reach beyond our fear of change and try to embrace what a life of healing might look like. We try on holiness like a garment in Lent hoping that it fits us. And we join St. Augustine in his struggle to detach ourselves from the temporary pleasures that sin promises.

Ponder:

Knowing that we all struggle with the spiritual illness of sin, ask yourself the question that Jesus asks in today’s Gospel: “Do you want to be well?”

Pray:

Jesus, I know that I am sick with sin. Help me to let go of my attachment to the temporary comforts and pleasures of sin and find my eternal comfort and joy in You. Send Your Spirit upon me this day so that the garment of holiness I wear this Lent may become my daily uniform as Your disciple.