Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Gospel
Jn 5:1-16

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
"Do you want to be well?"
The sick man answered him,
"Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."
Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk."
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
"It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat."
He answered them, "The man who made me well told me,
'Take up your mat and walk.'"
They asked him,
"Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?"
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
"Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you."
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a sabbath.


Maraming points ang pagbasa ngayon pero sa 2 bagay ako magtutuon. Una, makikita mo na ang tao ay makasarili. Kahit may nakikita na tayong nangangailangan ng tulong natin uunahin pa rin natin ang ating sarili. Kagaya sa pagbasa, gusto rin ng ibang gumaling kaya hindi na nila nakikita ang ang lumpo na mas higit na nangangailangan kaysa sa kanila. Sa pang-araw-araw na pamumuhay, kapag gusto mo ng dessert after dinner bibili ka kasi kaya mo namang bumili knowing na iyong kamag-anak mo ay hindi pa nagtatanghalian. Hindi ko naman sinasabi na huwag nating pagbigyan ang mga luho natin, ang point ko ay dapat tinitignan natin kung paano tayo makakapagbahagi sa mga higit na nangangailangan.

Ang pangalawang point ay iyong mga Jews na tinitira si Hesus sa pagpapagaling niya sa araw ng Sabbath. Ang nakita nila ay iyong maliit na taliwas sa aral nila pero hindi nila napansin iyong kabutihan na natulungan ni Hesus iyong maysakit. Parang iyong image sa taas na ang una nating mapapansin ay iyong duming pula, nakakalimutan na natin na nakapaligid doon sa dumi na iyon ay maraming-maraming puti. Ang gusto ko lang iparating ay mas maaappreciate natin ang ating mga kapuwa kapag nagpofocus tayo sa mga kabutihan niya. Huwag lang tayong tumingin doon sa katiting na dumi niya. Bow.