Losing Sense of Proportion!

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Ez 47: 1-9, 12; Jn 5: 1-16

Today’s Gospel highlights the danger of losing a sense of proportion in life. 

The man who is healed by Jesus has been lying sick by the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight long years. We must let that number sink in because, in those days, when the average life expectancy was around forty to fifty years, thirty-eight would mean that the man spent most of his life lying helplessly on a mat. His life must have been a tale of silent suffering and dashed hopes.

We must also note that the man was not merely lame (because he could have managed with crutches) but severely paralyzed. This is why he was lying on a mat without being able to get into the water by himself when it was stirred during the day. Probably, his family members carried him to the pool in the morning and carried him back home in the evening, leaving him unattended during the day because they must have gone to work. This is why we find him telling Jesus that ‘I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.’ 

Jesus is moved by his pathetic condition. Jesus senses that his paralysis is both physical and social. The fact that he could not move his body was just physical paralysis. He also suffered from social paralysis because he had no one to help him. Since he had no friends, he could not rely on anyone to help him during the day to put him into the pool. Jesus meets him where he is in life before healing him without him requesting to.

Nevertheless, we find the Gospel taking an unexpected turn. Instead of rejoicing about the man’s healing and thanking God for the same, those Jews who were more attached to the Sabbath laws and customs began to find fault with Jesus. Their rigid legalism blinds them to God’s grace and the miracle in the man’s life. They lose their sense of proportion when they lack the perspective of God’s grace at work. Instead, their obsession with trivial matters hinders their spontaneous gratitude and praise for God. This is what Jesus underlines as the danger.

The healing narrative invites us to develop the right sense of proportion in life. The ability to have the right perspective will help us rejoice in God’s mercy and shoulder the sufferings of others. Moreover, it will help us inherit the compassionate heart of Jesus towards those who suffer.

Let us pray that we may develop the right disposition towards God’s interventions in our daily lives. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar