This Sunday May 15, 2022 we hear the Gospel from the Evangelist John, Chapter 5:1-15, which dramatized Jesus’ encounter with the paralyzed man.

As we know from the story, at the pool near the Sheep gate a man lay in torment and sickness.  Seeing the Lord he cried out, “I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred,” for it was believed that when the water was stirred whomever was first to enter the pool would be healed.

Jesus moved by compassion after hearing the plea of the paralyzed man said, “For you I became man, for you I took on flesh – and you say I have no man?  Take up your bed and walk”, and the paralytic was healed. It was Jesus who healed the paralytic not the waters of the pool, simply by His voice!

Jesus was always looking for a response from those He addressed.  He probed below the surface to test the desire, to find hope, to awaken faith. Nothing can happen if we ourselves do not respond, do not stir out of our lethargy, do not reach out to Him in personal faith. 

In the Book of Acts, Peter says, “Jesus Christ makes you well!” to Aeneas, a man from Lydia, and at once Aeneas got up.  These words of the Apostle Peter parallel Jesus’ command to the paralyzed man: “Get up and walk!”

You see Jesus’ saving words and works continued in the words and works of the Apostles and today in the sacraments of the Church!   This is the saving message of this Sunday after Pascha, that the Risen Lord heals us and makes us well.

May we realize that Christ is always there, always caring and always ready to help us in our journey through life!

Christ is Risen!