Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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.

Do you want to heal?

1) They were waiting. There are people who are always waiting for things to happen without doing anything about it, without making any effort to change their situation. They are waiting for a miracle to happen, but they do not search for ways to help that miracle to actually occur. You are a miracle, but you must help God by putting in your effort as well.

2) Dependence. Jesus invites you to be free, and freedom is His greatest gift. There are people, though, who make their lives dependent on others, and this turns into something very negative for them. Possession and dependence are wrong, and affective possession that annuls others to make them our puppets, is terrible. You must have a purpose and your own personality. You can be happy, and freedom is the key to find happiness. Freedom should not be misunderstood for debauchery.

3) The Jews. They represent the people who focus only on the law, not on doing good to others. This is something we suffer daily in our community and our church. A person may do good deeds and pull others towards God, but others may see these actions as narcissistic or even as not appropriate. So, the person is left aside and undergoes many difficulties which these people have ‘created’.  Remember Jesus and how he suffered. If you want to do good and help, remember that someone might try to complicate things and put pressure on you; envy and jealousy never rest. But I encourage you to continue, good overcomes evil and giving joy to people is priceless. Do not give up.

God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And remember, Heaven is our goal.