Meditation J 5,1-16
Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.
Ask for the Grace: I will beg God our Lord that all my intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty
Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: See Jerusalem. There is the Sheep Gate, next to which is the Bethesda pool with five porticoes. In these lay there are a large number of sick people: blind, lame, crippled. Jesus comes there on the Sabbath. He notices a man who has been ill for a long time and he heals him. The man gets up, takes his mat and walks away. Maybe you are in this scene, too.
Ask for the fruit of meditation: for the ability to see and open to God’s actions in my life
1. A sick man, for the entire period of his illness – 38 years, wanted to be healed by putting him into the pool. Evangelist John does not mention if the man was looking for other ways to get out of his disease. It is also not written on what was the ill. Notice that the word disease means not only psychological and physical but also weakness. So, is it not possible to say that this man caught his weakness for many years, so much so that he could not make another move and notice other possibilities, because this weakness obscured him? Therefore, perhaps his disease was not his weakness, but his attachment to it and persistent holding on one way of healing?
A sick man is like as a reflection each of us, our problems, our lives. Do not we sometimes focus our attention on our weakness, our fear, maybe even sin, so that this weakness becomes our god, mammon? Is attachment to one pattern of action not our mat from which we can not break away and look for other solutions? Perhaps schematic, fixation of the problem, difficulties does not allow us to see Jesus coming to us – in specific situations and in specific people, to help us to be well.
How is it in your life? What is your mat, your weakness? What are you giving yourself permission to look for, discerning the best possible solutions? How does this process look for your specific situations? What spaces will you let Jesus heal in yourself?
2. Jesus asks: Do you want to be well?
Jesus does not force you into your life. Of course, he is with you all the time, but he will do nothing against your will. That’s why you need to know if you want to be healthy. Maybe it is not easy to be healthy at all? Your disease and weakness can be a good excuse for taking responsibility for your life, for human relations and for relationships with God. Not once can you hear: that was God’s will, it was apparently supposed to be. But is it really? In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to the sick person: Rise, take up your mat, and walk. Nowadays, this might sound: if you want to live life fully in God, here and now, go out of your comfort zone, look for the greater Goods and share them with others.
What is Jesus inviting you for today?
3. Jesus heals a sick person on a Sabbath, on a day when he was forbidden to do anything. He is guided in his actions by fulfilling the will of God, showing the greatest Love. Jesus knows that the consequences of his total surrender and obedience to his Father will not be easy to accept even for him. However, the Love of the Son to the Father and to every man, to You is so great that it is the only driving force of all of Jesus’ actions.
See and name the goods that you have received today, and which are signs of God’s love for you. After all, you are His beloved daughter / His beloved son.
Meditation: St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.
The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar,such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)
