“Do you want to be well?” seems like a question whose answer is too obvious. In response, the man at Bethesda immediately enumerates the barriers to his healing. He has one path to wellness in mind, but he can’t access it in his current state, so he feels hopeless.

Jesus puts those barriers aside by healing the man directly, restoring the man’s health so thoroughly that he at once picks up his mat and walks away from the pool on which he had pinned his initial hopes.

Looking inward, many of us recognize spiritual wounds for which we desire healing, but as the man at Bethesda, we can see only the obstacles to the wellness we want. These wounds may take many forms.

Among the most acute are those we’ve received within the church community, where we had expected safety and nurturing. If healing demands making ourselves vulnerable again, recounting painful stories from the past or taking the initiative to try an utterly new approach may make our restoration to wholeness feel impossible.

In this very moment, the Church invites us to seek such healing through and with the body of Christ. Pope Francis has initiated a global synod process for listening closely to the whole Church, especially the laity, especially those who feel marginalized or wounded by the Church.

The goal is to discern how we can walk together in new ways. Healing may not come as swiftly and decisively as it did at Bethesda, but in faith, we believe that it will come through and for Christ’s body. Christ wants us to be well and find a way despite the barriers that threaten us with hopelessness.

Let us pray that we will enter into this synodal dialogue with faith so that it can be the path to healing so many of us desperately need.