Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 24, 2020
There was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bethesda, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”
They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.
Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made well?”
In John’s Gospel, the man did not answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Really? After 38 years, he couldn’t say ‘yes’ when Jesus asked if he wanted to be made well?
Instead, it seems he explained why he was not able to get to the healing pool of water and the obstacles he encountered when he tried. But Jesus offered healing in an unexpected way – with a simple and clear command — not dependent on reaching the water when it is stirred up as was the practice at the five porticoes in Jerusalem.
“Take up your mat and walk,” Jesus directed.
And the man responded. He listened to Jesus. He trusted. He took up his mat. He began to walk. At once he was made well.
Jesus comes to each of us with the same question – Do you want to be made well?
And I have to ask myself if I am ready to listen, trust and take action, in response?
Certainly, not always, but I have experienced the abundance that awaits when I do say ‘yes’. The healing I sought after the sudden death of my husband has led in unexpected ways to work in remote areas of Rwanda and, closer to home, volunteering at the border of El Paso and Juarez. These were some of the “take up your mat and walk” moments of my life.
Yes, Lord, especially in these days of an accelerating pandemic, we want to be made well, we want our loved ones, and our world, to be made well. Come, Holy Spirit.
Prayer
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the healing power of your Son was made manifest through signs and wonders during his earthly ministry. Open our eyes to the ways of grace at work among us in these Lenten days. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
On October 14, 2018, Pope Francis canonized seven new saints of the Church, one of whom was the much-loved Archbishop Óscar Romero, long honored as a saint and martyr by the people of El Salvador. In standing with the marginalized and standing up to those who use their power to abuse and oppress the poor among the children of God, even at the cost of his life, Óscar Romero truly embodied Christ's words in John's Gospel: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13).
Óscar Romero was born on August 15, 1917, in Cuidad Barrios, El Salvador. The young Óscar attended the local public school from grades 1-3, and then studied under a tutor, as the public school offered no further education. His father trained Óscar as a carpenter, and, while Óscar was quite adept as a carpenter's apprentice, he wanted to become a priest. Thus, Óscar entered the minor seminary in San Miguel at the age of thirteen, and then the national seminary in San Salvador after his graduation.
Óscar attended the Gregorian University in Rome, completing his studies cum laude at the age of twenty-four, one year too young to be ordained a priest. Accordingly, Óscar was ordained a year later, on April 4, 1942, in the thick of World War II. Óscar obtained another degree in theology, and then, once called back by his bishops, he returned home to El Salvador at the age of twenty-six.
Óscar was assigned to a parish and quickly gained a reputation for his care for the imprisoned and the poor, and his beautiful, impassioned sermons. In 1970, Óscar was appointed an auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, then, in 1974, he was appointed the bishop of the Diocese of Santiago de María, a rural diocese.
On February 23, 1977, Óscar was appointed archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador's capital. Many wealthy members of the city's elite were pleased that Óscar, a Roman-trained, conservative bishop, had been appointed. As Marxist-infused liberation theology was growing in popularity throughout Latin America, those in power feared being ousted. But, to their chagrin, very soon after his appointment, the new Archbishop Romero's theological and political ideas underwent a rapid transformation. On March 12, 1977, Archbishop Romero's dear friend Rutilio Grande, himself a Catholic priest, was cruelly murdered by government thugs. Grande had been living in solidarity with the rural poor and speaking out against the military government. Grande’s death was a watershed moment for Archbishop Romero, as he realized that being a Catholic and being a priest meant standing with the poor and being a prophet against the establishment. Archbishop Romero ordered three days of mourning and a funeral mass in San Salvador's cathedral, despite advice to the contrary from those who feared government repercussions.
The rise to power of the Revolutionary Government Junta in 1979 led to increasing violence across the country, which would eventually become over twelve years of fighting. This escalating violence of the Salvadorean Civil War began to tear the country at the seams. Throughout the civil unrest, Archbishop Romero called for peace, held accountable the governments that were financing the violence, and criticized the Salvadorean government for its persecution of the Catholic Church. In his homily at Mass on March 23, the day before he died, Archbishop Romero rebuked the Salvadorean army for its violence against the citizens of El Salvador: “In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I beg you, I implore you, I order you, in the name of God, stop the repression!”
Óscar Romero was murdered on March 24, 1980, while consecrating the Eucharist during Mass. His last words were a prayer for mercy for his assassin. Despite the danger of attending the funeral, thousands of Salvadorans attended his funeral Mass, even as the army fired into the congregation. His assassin has never been brought to justice.
Pope Francis beatified Óscar Romero in May 2015 in San Salvador. A crowd of more than 250,000 gathered to pay their respects to Archbishop Romero. Óscar Romero was canonized on October 14, 2018 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Saint Óscar Romero, bishop, martyr, and prophetic voice for the people of God—pray for us!
To learn even more about Saint Óscar Romero, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Óscar Romero is in the public domain. Last accessed March 25, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
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