What Is Above

“I belong to what is above.” We are in unprecedented times for sure and perhaps we need to be reminded today that we belong to what is above. We are not of this world, because we are with Jesus and unlike the Pharisees in today’s gospel, we get it. We have heard Him. We know who sent Him. We realize that He is “I AM” and we are IN Him, so when the world and “what is below” is in pandemic, we can confidently “lift up the Son of Man.” It’s time to focus on the promises of God, and Jesus is His best and most excellent promise. He promises us eternal life and right now that is the anchor of hope that we need to see beyond “stay at home”, “shelter in place”, “quarantine”, and “isolation”. The worship song I’m listening to as I write says, “We are returning. We are returning. We are returning. Here’s where the dead things come back to living. I feel my heart beating again. It feels so good to know you are my friend.” 

I have been deeply moved by the generosity of people toward one another during this time, even in our isolation, like friends leaving groceries on doorsteps, and Christians praying with grocery store clerks, and artists sharing their talents on Facebook and Instagram, and priests recording mass or doing drive-in confessions, and people visiting the elderly through windows, and children making thank you signs for healthcare workers, and prayer groups meeting via Zoom or Face Time, and the list goes on!! These are the things that are pleasing to God and these are the things that Jesus reminds us of in today’s gospel. Let’s be the ones that recognize Him so that we can be the ones that belong to what is above. We are in a time of spiritual awakening, friends. 

Doesn’t if feel so good to know that Jesus is your friend? It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 NM 21:4-9

From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,
to bypass the land of Edom.
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
“Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.”
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Responsorial Psalm 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21

R.    (2)  O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;    
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R.    O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R.    O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.”
R.    O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

Verse Before The Gospel

The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;
all who come to him will live forever.

Gospel JN 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said,
“He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

Getting Stoned

I imagine there are lots of affects still yet to come from the pandemic we are in, but one that resonates with today’s gospel is shame. I’ve seen people with the virus ask that it be kept a secret because somehow it will bring shame, I’ve seen people try to accuse those that have the virus as reckless or “unclean”, I’ve seen people in our social distancing essentially become lepers to one another in the grocery store or when we cannot even hug our own family members. This general assumption that everyone is infected, or a carrier, or somehow unclean is an alarming scenario that gives us an opportunity to connect with the woman in today’s gospel and most importantly with the mercy of God. 

The most powerful and chilling part of today’s gospel is that moment when Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And with guns locked and loaded, ready to throw, they all stopped cold in their guilty tracks, retreated in shame, and were probably changed for good by that one sentence. If we were to fast-forward that same story into our present world, however, would people drop their stones or would they throw them anyway? It’s a compelling question and I think the answer I keep receiving in prayer is heck yes; the woman would be stoned to death! Mud slinging and stone throwing are perfectly acceptable in our society, aren’t they, and they are even encouraged for certain types of sin. Jesus makes it clear that we are all affected by sin and one of the affects of sin is that it clouds our judgment. When our judgment is clouded, we might only be able to see the sin of others and our need to throw stones covers up our own sin. 

Again, mercy, steps onto the scene and dramatically rips the stones out of our hands, because it has already saved us on more than one occasion from getting stoned ourselves; it’s powerful, it’s humbling, it’s stumbling, it’s knee dropping, it’s life changing, it’s eye opening, it’s heart opening, it’s chilling, it’s breath taking. The name of God is Mercy and the face of Mercy is Christ. The most curious part of today’s gospel is the vision of Jesus writing in the sand isn’t it? Don’t you just want to know what he wrote? Mercy? Forgive her? The man’s name? The sins of all those holding stones? The name of God? I love you? Whatever he wrote compelled John, the gospel writer, to report the action in the story and that means we should pay attention. The finger of God has yet again touched our hearts with a moment of pure grace and today He’s writing a word in the sand of our soul, a word of mercy, a word of love, and a word of forgiveness. Sand is just millions of stones ground down over time into harmless powder, and so it is with our sin, ground down over time with mercy into nothing but a place for God’s finger to write His love notes to us. Receive it. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 DN 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 OR 13:41C-62

In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim,
who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna,
the daughter of Hilkiah;
her pious parents had trained their daughter
according to the law of Moses.
Joakim was very rich;
he had a garden near his house,
and the Jews had recourse to him often
because he was the most respected of them all.

That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges,
of whom the Lord said, “Wickedness has come out of Babylon:
from the elders who were to govern the people as judges.”
These men, to whom all brought their cases,
frequented the house of Joakim.
When the people left at noon,
Susanna used to enter her husband’s garden for a walk.
When the old men saw her enter every day for her walk,
they began to lust for her.
They suppressed their consciences;
they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven,
and did not keep in mind just judgments.

One day, while they were waiting for the right moment,
she entered the garden as usual, with two maids only.
She decided to bathe, for the weather was warm.
Nobody else was there except the two elders,
who had hidden themselves and were watching her.
“Bring me oil and soap,” she said to the maids,
“and shut the garden doors while I bathe.”

As soon as the maids had left,
the two old men got up and hurried to her.
“Look,” they said, “the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us;
give in to our desire, and lie with us.
If you refuse, we will testify against you
that you dismissed your maids because a young man was here with you.”

“I am completely trapped,” Susanna groaned.
“If I yield, it will be my death;
if I refuse, I cannot escape your power.
Yet it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt
than to sin before the Lord.”
Then Susanna shrieked, and the old men also shouted at her,
as one of them ran to open the garden doors.
When the people in the house heard the cries from the garden,
they rushed in by the side gate to see what had happened to her.
At the accusations by the old men,
the servants felt very much ashamed,
for never had any such thing been said about Susanna.

When the people came to her husband Joakim the next day,
the two wicked elders also came,
fully determined to put Susanna to death.
Before all the people they ordered:
“Send for Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah,
the wife of Joakim.”
When she was sent for,
she came with her parents, children and all her relatives.
All her relatives and the onlookers were weeping.

In the midst of the people the two elders rose up
and laid their hands on her head.
Through tears she looked up to heaven,
for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly.
The elders made this accusation:
“As we were walking in the garden alone,
this woman entered with two girls
and shut the doors of the garden, dismissing the girls.
A young man, who was hidden there, came and lay with her.
When we, in a corner of the garden, saw this crime,
we ran toward them.
We saw them lying together,
but the man we could not hold, because he was stronger than we;
he opened the doors and ran off.
Then we seized her and asked who the young man was,
but she refused to tell us.
We testify to this.”
The assembly believed them,
since they were elders and judges of the people,
and they condemned her to death.

But Susanna cried aloud:
“O eternal God, you know what is hidden
and are aware of all things before they come to be:
you know that they have testified falsely against me.
Here I am about to die,
though I have done none of the things
with which these wicked men have charged me.”

The Lord heard her prayer.
As she was being led to execution,
God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel,
and he cried aloud:
“I will have no part in the death of this woman.”
All the people turned and asked him, “What is this you are saying?”
He stood in their midst and continued,
“Are you such fools, O children of Israel!
To condemn a woman of Israel without examination
and without clear evidence?
Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her.”

Then all the people returned in haste.
To Daniel the elders said,
“Come, sit with us and inform us,
since God has given you the prestige of old age.”
But he replied,
“Separate these two far from each other that I may examine them.”

After they were separated one from the other,
he called one of them and said:
“How you have grown evil with age!
Now have your past sins come to term:
passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent,
and freeing the guilty, although the Lord says,
‘The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.’
Now, then, if you were a witness,
tell me under what tree you saw them together.”
“Under a mastic tree,” he answered.
Daniel replied, “Your fine lie has cost you your head,
for the angel of God shall receive the sentence from him
and split you in two.”
Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought.
Daniel said to him,
“Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah, beauty has seduced you,
lust has subverted your conscience.
This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel,
and in their fear they yielded to you;
but a daughter of Judah did not tolerate your wickedness.
Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together.”
“Under an oak,” he said.
Daniel replied, “Your fine lie has cost you also your head,
for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two
so as to make an end of you both.”

The whole assembly cried aloud,
blessing God who saves those who hope in him.
They rose up against the two elders,
for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of perjury.
According to the law of Moses,
they inflicted on them
the penalty they had plotted to impose on their neighbor:
they put them to death.
Thus was innocent blood spared that day.

or

The assembly condemned Susanna to death.

But Susanna cried aloud:
“O eternal God, you know what is hidden
and are aware of all things before they come to be:
you know that they have testified falsely against me.
Here I am about to die,
though I have done none of the things
with which these wicked men have charged me.”

The Lord heard her prayer.
As she was being led to execution,
God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel,
and he cried aloud:
“I will have no part in the death of this woman.”
All the people turned and asked him,
“What is this you are saying?”
He stood in their midst and continued,
“Are you such fools, O children of Israel!
To condemn a woman of Israel without examination
and without clear evidence?
Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her.”

Then all the people returned in haste.
To Daniel the elders said,
“Come, sit with us and inform us,
since God has given you the prestige of old age.”
But he replied,
“Separate these two far from each other that I may examine them.”

After they were separated one from the other,
he called one of them and said:
“How you have grown evil with age!
Now have your past sins come to term:
passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent,
and freeing the guilty, although the Lord says,
‘The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.’
Now, then, if you were a witness,
tell me under what tree you saw them together.”
“Under a mastic tree,” he answered.
Daniel replied, “Your fine lie has cost you your head,
for the angel of God shall receive the sentence from him
and split you in two.”
Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought.
Daniel said to him, “Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah,
beauty has seduced you, lust has subverted your conscience.
This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel,
and in their fear they yielded to you;
but a daughter of Judah did not tolerate your wickedness.
Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together.”
“Under an oak,” he said.
Daniel replied, “Your fine lie has cost you also your head,”
for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two
so as to make an end of you both.”

The whole assembly cried aloud,
blessing God who saves those who hope in him.
They rose up against the two elders,
for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of perjury.
According to the law of Moses,
they inflicted on them
the penalty they had plotted to impose on their neighbor:
they put them to death.
Thus was innocent blood spared that day.

Responsorial Psalm 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6

R. (4ab) Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.

Verse Before The GospelEZ 33:11

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,
but rather in his conversion, that he may live.

Gospel JN 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.”

God’s Timing Is Perfect

We have seen Jesus avoid death a few times now with the byline “for his hour had not yet come.” This morning I find myself reflecting on God’s perfect timing. He is in control and is always working for our good even when we might feel like he is hiding from us, ignoring us, or absent. Sometimes I even feel like He sneaks up on me like Jesus did in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles in today’s gospel. God sneaks in when the timing is right for us to receive exactly what He has been preparing for us. He sneaks in not to be sneaky, but so that we are not startled or frightened or disturbed. God is gentle in His ways and He knows exactly when to show up (He’s actually always present, but He knows when to make His presence known). Jesus knew that it wasn’t time to get things moving along so he snuck onto the scene, not to be deceptive, but to be present to what was happening. Again, the Jews were struggling to accept that Jesus was sent from God because their idea of God’s workings had become dictated by rules and regulations, practices and rituals, and not about the loving, the healing, the miracles, the treatment of sinners, and the reaching out to those on the margins. Jesus was not what they expected God to look like. How many times have I tried to capture God in a small box of my skewed ideas of what He looks like, sounds like, and is like? 

Jesus overheard their confusion and felt it necessary to chime in. He realized that they were stuck on a technicality like location. Scripture stated that they would not know where the Messiah would come from and yet the truth is that did not know from whom he came. They were stuck on the minutia and missing the Truth. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been stuck on the superficial while missing the heart of the matter. It happens and we just need to be gently reminded to look beyond, to go deeper, to go wider, and to see into the heart of God. Jesus responded to their confusion, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” Again, I am prompted to say that in the past I have read these lines of Jesus as him using a stern or more frustrated tone, however, today I read these lines with the tenderness that God has been speaking into me lately. When I re-read this from that place of tenderness and mercy it hits me in a different place in my soul. Jesus was present to what was happening and he met them exactly where they were at in their walk. He does the same for us. He hears our confusion, he listens to our skewed ideas, he understands where we are coming from, and then he responds to us with what we need to hear, or work on, or address. It is never from a place of anger or exasperation, and always from a place of love and mercy. God is a gentleman and He wants to court us into a deeper relationship. Courtship is thoughtful and gentle and affectionate and creative. Jesus knows that if the Jews just had a personal relationship with the Father, then they would also know His nature and in knowing the nature of God, they would immediately recognize that Jesus was that Word made flesh. Jesus knew that he needed more time to continue showing them what God looks like, acts like, and is like. His hour had not yet come. The good news is that he continues to be patient with us because he loves us. God’s timing is perfect.  

Let’s remember that Jesus is always present to our confusion, to our ponderings, and to our place on the journey. He longs to chime in with what we still need to look at, or learn, or know, or deal with. These chiming ins are never done with force or in anger, and always spoken in peace and mercy. He wants us to know where he came from and that is from an all-loving Father who longs to move in and simply be our Dad. As our world continues to navigate this pandemic, perhaps we can find and pay close attention to the presence of Jesus among us and know exactly where and who he comes from. He is working all things together for the good of those that love him. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 WIS 2:1A, 12-22

The wicked said among themselves,
thinking not aright:
“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the LORD.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
Because his life is not like that of others,
and different are his ways.
He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put him to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.

Responsorial Psalm 34:17-18, 19-20, 21 AND 23

R.    (19a)  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
R.    The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.
R.    The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
He watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.
R.    The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

Verse Before The Gospel MT 4:4B

One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Gospel JN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
“Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
“You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.

Take Up Your Pandemic And Walk

In the midst of a pandemic, today’s gospel gives us significant food for thought. The pool of Bethesda was a place where people would go for healing. The narrative says the man was ill, but does not really indicate anything specific. I found this interesting today because we usually get a description like the blind man, or the deaf man, or the lame man, or hemorrhaging woman, etc. We just know he was ill. The idea of illness in general just struck a chord in me for because of the current pandemic our world is in, and how I can personally claim illness in the way I think sometimes, the way I react sometimes, the way I behave sometimes, the way I believe sometimes, the way I perceive myself sometimes, and the way I can stay stuck somewhere unhealthy. This food for thought allowed me to enter the story and get on the mat with ill dude. He was there for 38 years, inches away from said pool of healing! Raise your hand if you have ever known what you needed to do and you stalled, procrastinated, made excuses, blamed it on someone else, and didn’t budge at all!! I know that I’m embarrassed to say that I totally get this guy. When Jesus finds out how long he had been lying there on the edge of healing, he asks a question that has been my daily challenge since this gospel came into my life, “Do you want to be well?” It’s direct. It’s blunt. It’s chilling. It’s telling. It’s simple. “Jen, do you want to be well?” And I used to respond in the same way ill dude responds, “yes, but…blame, yes, but…people get in my way, yes, but…I’m comfortable on my mat, yes, but…I’m waiting for someone to save me, yes, but…” We like what we know even if what we know is lying on the edge of our healing for a long long time.

Jesus wants so much more for us, friends. So he says, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Here is where I find myself naming my mat: “unbelief”, “complacency”, “betrayal”, “insecurity”, “trauma”, “anxiety”, “grief”, and for the current state of the world “fear.” What is the name of your mat? Where do you find yourself stuck? What keeps you from walking? I encourage each one of us to read the Words of Jesus out loud and directly to whatever you named your mat, “Rise, take up your unbelief, and walk.” “Rise, take up your fear, and walk.” “Rise, take up your pandemic, and walk.” It says that the man became well immediately, he took up his mat, and walked. Let Jesus speak his Word over the things that have you stuck and then rise up and walk. I know it’s not easy, but nothing is impossible with God. I’ve had to ask myself the question that Jesus asks the ill dude over and over again, “Jen, do you want to be well?” I am inches away from immediate wellness, if I heed the Words of my Savior. Do I want to be well? The tagline of my blog everyday is, “It is well with my soul”, do I want to be well? Am I willing to take up my mat and walk? Am I willing to let his Word heal me? Am I willing to scoot my butt over a few inches and enter the pool of wellness that I’ve been teetering on for years and years? My answer today is, “Yes, I want to be well.” When the man took up his mat in the story, suddenly what had him stuck all those years became a testimony of his freedom. 

We have an opportunity in this very special time of “rest” to name our mat, to let Jesus love us into wellness, and to take up our mats so we can walk into the next season, which I believe will be a time of great restoration and fruitfulness. Don’t get stuck in the waiting, don’t become paralyzed by the fear that seems to be all around us, and don’t forget to keep your eyes on Jesus. 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 Psalm 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. 

Let’s Get Our Hopes Up

This is a repost from a year ago, but seems almost VERY relevant to the state of our world currently. I’m sure we’ve all experienced the very common misreading the tone of a text message. I think I’ve done that with one of Jesus’ lines in today’s gospel. First of all it says that he had just come through Samaria from his hometown where his friends and neighbors rejected him big time. In Samaria he was able to minister to a woman that desperately needed living water and just to be loved by a good man, and because of his kindness, she introduced an entire town to Jesus, Messiah. From there, Jesus wanted to go back to the place where it all began for him, Cana. Perhaps Jesus was being sentimental after being rejected at home. I know for me sometimes I just need to spend time in a place that has special meaning just to get back to center, don’t you? Cana was where he performed his first miracle and maybe Jesus needed to do some reflecting on how his ministry began and where it has come since. Rejection tends to tenderize my heart a lot and I find myself a bit nostalgic for the “good ole days”. (This is, of course, my own interpretation of the scene) 

A royal official got word that Jesus was in the area and because of his reputation throughout that region, the water to wine guy, he wanted to get a miracle of his own. Isn’t that how it works? When we hear about other people’s miraculous healings, when we study the lives of the saints, when we see Jesus’ working in others, we want what they have. The royal official wanted his son to be changed from dying to alive. People’s testimony of the miraculous activates the faith in others. It’s a thing, so share your miraculous stories with one another! When the official asked Jesus to come down to Capernaum to heal his son, Jesus responded, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” And there is the text message that I think I have read incorrectly all my life. I always put a bit of a snarky tone behind this because of the “you people” bit, however, this morning from that place of tender heartedness and sentimentality, it feels like Jesus is reminiscing, “Oh yeah, this is where my first miracle took place so of course they expect the miraculous, and they should!” What would really help us understand that line of text would be a light bulb emoji, just sayin’. We can and should EXPECT the miraculous. We have all the stories of healing in the gospels, we have real life examples of signs and wonders, we know people that have been healed, saved, rehabilitated, and we have seen the miraculous with our own eyes, therefore, we should expect the miracles, just like the royal official did in today’s gospel. Expectation requires a faith that stands on the shoulders of witness. Once you’ve witnessed signs and wonders, you expect them, and the more signs and wonders you expect, the more you will witness!!! I know I’ve heard things like, “let’s not get our hopes up,” or “don’t give that sick person a false sense of hope”, and it hurts my heart because the very definition hope is expecting something unlikely and if we can’t have hope then faith and love also go out the window because they are a package deal! Hope or expectation in the miraculous is the anchor of our virtue. 

After Jesus’ light bulb emoji moment, the official tried to persuade him to come down, knowing that his presence alone was needed, and Jesus said healed his son in that moment because of his expectation and faith. When we put ourselves in the presence of Christ and expect miracles, we stir his heart in the same way. He knows that we need signs and wonders to believe and he is constantly sprinkling our lives with these things. I know that I need to step up my expectation, my confidence in his will to heal all things, and my belief that he will do so. Today’s gospel reminds me the importance of hope and how it remains at the center of faith and love. Here is a piece I wrote about hope that might capture it: 

 Faith leads to hope, and love flows from hope, but hope resides in the middle of both. Hope binds the mystery of faith to the testimony of love, and together a trinity of grace circles the soul singing you into wellness, cheering you to thrive, and catching you when you fall. 

It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 IS 65:17-21

Thus says the LORD:
Lo, I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
The things of the past shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness
in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.
No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,
or the sound of crying;
No longer shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;
He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,
and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
They shall live in the houses they build,
and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

Responsorial Psalm 30:2 AND 4, 5-6, 11-12A AND 13B

R.    (2a)  I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R.    I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R.    I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.”
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R.    I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Verse Before The GospelAM 5:14

Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and the LORD will be with you.

Gospel JN 4:43-54

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified
that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.