"We Are All Just Walking Each Other Home" | March 13, 2018

Today’s gospel is heartbreaking on a few levels. It is reminiscent of the scene when Jesus was preaching in Peter’s house and some dudes literally broke through the roof just to lower their paralyzed friend to the feet of Jesus. Talk about chutzpa! Jesus told the paralyzed man that the faith of his friends healed him, reminding us all that we are simply walking each other home. I am yours and you are mine.

Raise your hand if you have ever experienced shady line cutters at Disneyland. You and your party have done your duty and waited for whatever thrilling ride for a good long amount of minutes that you will never ever get back and then some chump cuts the line in front of you!!! Outrageous right. Well today’s gospel is about a poor man that had been ill for 38 years and all he wanted to do was get into the pool called Hebrew Bethesda for healing. I mean imagine being ill for 38 years, my goodness.  Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be well?” is a legitimate one because wellness for this man would mean the loss of his income from begging. I’m sure we have all chosen to stay stuck in something because it was all that we knew. Jesus was just clarifying and then the man proceeds to tell him about multiple years worth of shady line cutters!!! Wow! Really! Line cut the paralyzed dude! That sucks! He also indicated that he had no one to put him into the pool. No soul friends to bust him through the roof. This pinches my heart because I work in an assisted living community for the elderly and I know this man who feels abandoned and left on the outside with no one to put him in the pool. We can do better than that…Heartbreak #1

His story pinched Jesus’ heart as well and he uses the same line that he used with the paralyzed man who had the faithful friends, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” He jumped into the pool of mercy that we are all invited to jump into. His healing was immediate and so is ours when we jump in.

Of course, Jesus could not even get some good clean life saving done without the peanut gallery chiming in. I imagine those cranky old Muppet men from the Muppet Show that sat in the balcony and talked crap about everything (LOL, I also know these guys at the retirement home!). First they scrutinize the healed man for carrying his mat on the Sabbath, you know the one that he had been lying on for, oh 38 YEARS!!!!! Ugh! Um, excuse me sure, I know you’ve been miraculously healed and all, but could you possibly wait until sundown to pick up your mat and walk? Thanks… (Sarcasm is my secret love language) Heartbreak #2…Then they finally get it out of him that Jesus was the one that cured him and it says they “began to persecute him because it was the Sabbath.” Heartbreak #3 because, unfortunately, we still struggle in our own churches with this kind of minutia. Again, Jesus slipped out because he still had some items on his “Don’t Make Me Come Down To Earth To Do List.” He can check off: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Today’s gospel reminds me that:

•          I am guilty of cutting the line at times, putting my own brokenness ahead of others.
•          We are each other’s keepers and we need to help each other get in the pool of mercy   by being mercy itself in all that we do.
•          Nothing is more important than receiving Jesus and that in itself is Sabbath. We are Jesus to one another and when we act in His name, we keep it holy.

Lord, we pray that you break our hearts for what breaks yours so that we can rise, take up our mat, and walk each other home. Have a blessed day and it is well with my soul.

Reading 1 EZ 47:1-9, 12

The angel brought me, Ezekiel,
back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD,
and I saw water flowing out
from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,
for the façade of the temple was toward the east;
the water flowed down from the right side of the temple,
south of the altar.
He led me outside by the north gate,
and around to the outer gate facing the east,
where I saw water trickling from the right side.
Then when he had walked off to the east
with a measuring cord in his hand,
he measured off a thousand cubits
and had me wade through the water, 
which was ankle-deep.
He measured off another thousand
and once more had me wade through the water,
which was now knee-deep.
Again he measured off a thousand and had me wade;
the water was up to my waist.
Once more he measured off a thousand,
but there was now a river through which I could not wade;
for the water had risen so high it had become a river
that could not be crossed except by swimming.
He asked me, "Have you seen this, son of man?"
Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit.
Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides.
He said to me,
"This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. 
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."

Responsorial PsalmPS 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9

R. (8) The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. 
God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
R. The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. 
There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.
R. The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. 
The LORD of hosts is with us;
our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Come! behold the deeds of the LORD,
the astounding things he has wrought on earth.
R. The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. 

Verse Before The Gospel PS 51:12A, 14A

A clean heart create for me, O God;
give me back the joy of your salvation.

Gospel JN 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.