Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Ezekiel 47:1-9,12     John 5:1-16 

Today’s gospel relates the well-known story of the paralyzed man at the pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda. Here the blind, the lame and the paralyzed waited each day for the “moving of the waters.” The first one into the pool after such a disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had. Because the man in the gospel had no one to help him, he was never the first in the pool – for 38 years!! Jesus sees the man one day and asks if he would like to be cured. Then he tells the man to pick up his mat and walk. The man does so and is later berated by some for breaking God’s Law and carrying his mat on the Sabbath.

One thing that stands out for me about this reading is our need to help one another. For the man in the gospel, you would think someone, some way, would have helped him. We likely encounter people every day who could use a hand - sometimes in obvious ways and other times in unseen ways.

I have been fighting several cancers for the last 21 years and when I was preparing for my first stem cell transplant in 2002, Bernadette Miller brought me two little bottles of holy water from Lourdes and a prayer card of St. Peregrine, the patron saint of persons suffering from cancer.  She saw a need and acted on it. For several years I prayed the St. Peregrine prayer and blessed myself with the holy water each night before I went to bed. It must have worked as I am still here!

When I pray, I ask God to “give me strength and wisdom to handle what is coming my way.”  There are many ways to help others in need. We can be more observant of the people around us and be willing and able to assist them. While not everyone can do a lot to solve the many problems our people face, we can all do something and perhaps that should be our goal this Lent – just do something!

Q:  What can I do, big or small, to ease the burdens of others? Who needs my help today? 

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