HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT, LITURGICAL CALENDAR [YEAR B]

HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT, LITURGICAL CALENDAR [YEAR B]

THEME: The healing at the pool of Bethesda

BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA

READINGS OF THE DAY
Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
Psalm 45:2-3,5-6,8-9
John 5:1-3,5-16

LITURGICAL COLOUR
PURPLE/VIOLET

INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Tuesday of the Forth Week of Lent, Liturgical Calendar Year B.

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FROM OUR FIRST READING
The Dead Sea in the Judean wilderness is a very strange sea. It’s salt content is so great that nothing can live in it. This Dead Sea is referred to in today’s first reading from the prophet Ezekiel, although not by name. The water that pours out of the Temple in Jerusalem is described as flowing ‘east down to the Arabah and the sea’, down to the Judean wilderness and the Dead Sea. The impact of this water from the Temple on the Dead Sea is very striking, ‘it makes its waters wholesome… all living creatures teeming in it will live’. In a very imaginative way, Ezekiel is declaring that God’s presence in the Temple is life-giving for all. God is a God of the living.

FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
The paralyzed man in the gospel reading seems to have been very alone in his illness. He lay beside a pool in Jerusalem that was believed to have healing properties, if one entered the water after it was disturbed. However, this paralyzed man says to Jesus, ‘I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed’. There was never anyone around when he needed to be carried. There was another paralyzed man in the gospels who was nowhere near as isolated in his illness as this man. He had four friends who carried him to Jesus, even to the point of creating a hole in the roof above Jesus to lower the paralytic down, because the crowds around Jesus were too great. Illness can be very isolating, especially we can all remember the time of the Covid times.

CONCLUSION
To be ill without friends is especially isolating. However, Jesus entered this man’s isolation, without being invited. He saw him, knew his situation, went over to him and addressed him directly. Having first asked him, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ Jesus healed this desperate man of his paralysis, without the need to lower him into the water. Jesus befriended him in a manner no one else had. We are being reminded that when we feel isolated, because of illness or some other reason, the Lord is always by our side, working to raise us up from whatever we are struggling with. Jesus’ question to him, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ may seem strange to our ears. Yet, perhaps Jesus needed to know if he still had the hope of being cured after being ill for so long. The Lord will always respond to our hopes.

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