Gospel Reading for April 1, 2025 – John 5: 1-16
CORRECT
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.
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The Catholic Religion, with Jesus as its Head, is meant to make our lives not only meaningful, but free from STRESS and DURESS. We don’t have to be burdened with laws that will make our life burdensome too. Jesus, Son of God knew fully well why the laws were given by his Father that’s why it didn’t bother or worried him that they plotted to kill him because of his application of the Law. With the little time he had on earth he needed to CORRECT it soonest. He had to make the people experience the beauty of love that went with the Commandments.
The way we understand or do not understand things are what will make our life pleasant or unpleasant. As Catholics, it is our duty to seek wisdom from our shepherds or from those who studied the Commandments comprehensively. Perhaps the reason why a lot of us are negative against the Commandments or feel we are being deprived of our freedom is a lack of understanding.
Your Law, O LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. (Psalm 19: 7)
