Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent ‘b’

Jn 5:1-16

The story from the gospel reading today reminds me about the necessity of thinking about other people, those who may need my assistance in order to get well, or simply to bring them to Jesus, to faith. The gospel tells us about a poor man who was ill for thirty-eight years. He was probably paralyzed or unable to walk on his own since he couldn’t get into that miraculous pool of Bethesda to be healed. For 38 years he was waiting for someone to help him without any luck. Only Jesus who was walking by was able to notice that poor man and asked him if he wanted to be healed. As a result, He restored him to full health. We need to learn from this gospel to have our eyes and our hearts open to the needs of our brothers and sisters in need. We may not be able to perform miracles, but we can bring them our presence, a good word, our love, and we can bring them to Jesus when for some reason, they can’t come to him on their own.