“Do you want to be well?” John 5:6
We can picture the man in today’s gospel, languishing in the porticoes around the healing pools of Bethesda. For 38 years he has been an invalid. Because Jesus “knew that he had been ill for a long time,” he offers him healing by asking a pointed question:
“Do you want to be well?”
As we listen to the man’s response, we might wonder if the man really wants to be healed. Perhaps he has thought of himself as an invalid for so many years that he isn’t sure how to answer. His answer is not “YES!” but the reasons why he has to remain sickly.
When we are asked the same question by Jesus, how do we answer? We feel locked into situations in our lives, to points of view, addictions and negative attitudes. Jesus offers us a release from these things and we quickly tell him why we can’t be healed.
What would my life look like if I were well? What would it look like to lead a life of integrity and wholeness? Parts of my life are in conflict with other parts. Things I say are important in my life don’t always match how I live my life.
I can give Jesus a long list of why I can’t be changed or healed. The right circumstances aren’t there in my life. I have to live this way because “I am a person who always has been.… inflexible, impolite, grumpy, negative…” My life is set this way and I have to live with it.
We can tell Jesus why we can’t change our lives. We can quickly explain the circumstances that keep us from caring about the poor, treating our family better or being less judgemental. But his healing call is always there, even when we don’t want to hear it. Jesus reaches out to us and waits for us to listen long enough to accept his healing words, “Rise and walk.”
Jesus, I am afraid of your healing. Maybe you are offering me something I don’t want. What will it cost me to change? What will it mean for my life if I stop thinking of myself a certain way and begin to think of myself as whole and healthy? Give me the courage to accept the grace, love and healing you offer me. Let me rise and walk beginning today and live, as you intend me to live, feeling loved by you and carrying that love to those you have placed in my life.
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
