Invitation
May I ask for your attention for
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation is to share the joy
of the gospel with you. Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their heart
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
‘But that day was a Sabbath”: these words spark a discussion that continues to reverberate through the readings in the days that follow. The man sent from God also acts when his actions bring him into conflict with human reasoning and with the accepted interpretation of the Law. Because of the conflict, no one sees the man’s incredible healing. In both readings, water plays a major role as a healing force. First of all, it is important to note that the power of the water comes from God. It flows from the temple. In the gospel, too, the sick man is not healed by the miraculous power of the water, but by the commanding word of Jesus himself: ‘Get up, take your bed and walk.’
FIRST READING: Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
I saw water flowing out from the temple, and everyone who touched the water was saved.
From the Prophet Ezekiel
The angel of the Lord brought me back
to the entrance of the temple.
There I saw water flowing from under the threshold of the temple
in an easterly direction:
for the front of the temple faced east.
The water flowed under the right side of the temple,
on the side of the altar.
Then he led me through the north gate and out.
He led me around to the east side:
the water flowed under the right side.
Then he took a folding rule and
further in an easterly direction.
He measured a distance of a thousand ells
and then let me step through the water :
it reached up to my ankles.
Again he measured a thousand ells
and let me wade through the water :
it came up to my knees;
and he measured another thousand ells
and let me wade through the water again :
now it came up to my waist.
When he had measured another thousand cubits
the water had become a river
that I could no longer wade through;
the water was so deep that one could not get through it by walking,
but only by swimming.
Then he asked me:
‘Do you see that, child of man?’
Then he led me back
along the riverbank.
As he led me back, I saw
that there were
many trees on both banks of the river.
The angel of the Lord said to me:
“The river flows to the plain in the east,
and further on it flows to the Araba,
and then it flows into the Salt Sea
whose water becomes drinkable.
‘Wherever the river flows
the water creatures will be able to live.
There will be many fish
because wherever the river flows
the water will be drinkable
and everything will live.
“On both banks of the river
all kinds of fruit trees will grow
whose leaves will not wither
and the fruit will not run out ;
for the trees will bear fruit every month.
‘After all, they are fed with water from the temple.
’The fruit will serve as food
and the leaves as medicine.’
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 46(45), 2-3, 5-6, 8-9
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
The Lord is our stronghold and our refuge,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, even though
though the mountains should fall into the sea.
A babbling brook refreshes the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
That city stands firm, for God is within it,
God is at its side as the day begins.
The Lord of the heavenly armies is with us,
a safe stronghold is our Jacob’s God.
Come closer and see what the Lord has done,
his marvellous works on earth.
VERSE FOR THE GOSPEL Ezek. 33:11
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
says the Lord,
but rather that they turn from their ways and live.
GOSPEL John 5:1-3a, 5-16
The man was instantly healed.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
John
While a festival of the Jews was taking place
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is a bathhouse in Jerusalem, at the Sheep Gate,
which in Hebrew is called Bezeta
and has five colonnades.
In these colonnades there always lay a large number of cripples.
Now there was a man there who had been crippled for thirty-eight years.
Jesus saw him lying there
and, since he knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him,
‘Do you want to get well?’
The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to
carry me to the pool
when the water is stirred up,
and while I am going
another person would go in before me.‘
Then Jesus said to him:
’Get up, take your bed and walk.‘
Immediately the man was healed.
He got up, took his bed and walked.
However, that day was the Sabbath
and so the Jews said to the man who was healed,
’It is the Sabbath,
you cannot carry your bed.”
He replied:
‘The one who made me well said to me:
Pick up your bed and walk!‘
So they asked him:
’Who is the man who said to you:
Pick up your bed and walk?”
The healed man did not know who it was,
because Jesus had withdrawn unnoticed
because there were many people there.
Later Jesus found him in the temple and spoke to him:
‘See, you are healed now!
‘Sin no more
lest something worse befall you.’
The man went away and told the Jews
that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Because Jesus did such things on the Sabbath
the Jews began to persecute him.
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
Pope Francis
On fraternity and social friendship
235. Those who claim to bring peace to a society
must not forget that inequality and the lack of integral human
development do not make peace possible.
After all, ‘without equal opportunities, the different forms of aggression
and war will find a fertile ground that sooner or later will cause an explosion.
When society – whether local, national or
global – leaves part of itself on the periphery, there will be
no political programmes, no security forces or surveillance systems
that can guarantee peace indefinitely. When it comes to starting
over, it will always be from the perspective of the least of us.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Reflections from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays.
Fratelli tutti English translation