Rise Up and Walk - Tuesday, April 5th

Readings of the Day

Gospel: John 5: 1-16
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.

• no one: no person; nobody
• How often do I wait for someone else to come along and help me with a cross I am bearing?  How long does it take me to realize that no other person can give me what Jesus can - grace, salvation, eternal life, the sacraments? 
• rise: to assume an upright position especially from lying, kneeling or sitting; to become heartened; to increase in fervor or intensity; to exert oneself to meet a challenge; to be built up; to come into action.
• Am I open and willing to take action after encountering Christ?  Does my prayer life translate into following God's will and working for his Kingdom?
• persecute: to harass or punish in a manner designed to injure, grieve or afflict; specifically, to cause to suffer because of belief; trouble persistently.
• Do I ever act like the Pharisees when others have had a strong experience of grace or conversion?  Do I "harass" Jesus because He hasn't handled a situation the way I see fit?

Definitions from http://www.merriman-webster.com/ and http://www.dictionary.com/.