Being Compassionate!

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

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

Today’s Gospel exposes the hypocrisy of Jews while highlighting Jesus’ compassion.

We find Jesus moved by compassion toward someone who has been suffering for 38 long years. 

In healing the man, Jesus places his dignity and wellness above the Sabbath law. 

However, all is not well with the man’s healing. 

The enemies of Jesus challenge the healing because it is done on a Sabbath day. 

In essence, when Jesus liberates the man, putting an end to his thirty-eight-year misery, the enemies of Jesus paralyze him for a second time, now confining him to the law. 

When Jesus says, ‘Rise, take up your mat, and walk,’ they tell him, ‘It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.’

The enemies of Jesus have absolutely no consideration for the man’s plight. 

In enacting the cure, Jesus declares that the Divine Laws are meant to ensure human dignity. 

However, in order to preserve their own customs, they even question the purpose of Divine Will. 

Jesus is rankled by the fact that they worship the law, not the true God. 

Jesus finds that the law has become their idol, and Jesus condemns the hypocrisy. 

Anything that replaces God amounts to idol worship. 

What is the ‘law’ that we hold on to like the Jews in the Gospel? 

How can we imitate Jesus in his compassion? 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar