- Gun violence wracks the United States of America.
- On January 6, 2021, a violent crowd tried to overthrow the presidential election.
- Bizarre conspiracy theories obstruct basic public health measures.
- Indeed, people around the world suffer from problems that are, often, easily solved.
In his May 18, 2022 sermon, Father Gabriel recounts the story of a paralyzed man who, according to the Gospel of John (5: 1-15), sat next to a miraculous pool at Bethsaida (Bethesda) in Jerusalem, waiting for someone to put him in the water and heal him:
“Before this incredible miracle, we hear a rather strange question escape our Savior’s lips. It is one that should leave us all a little puzzled. Christ goes up to this man, who has spent 38 years at this miracle working pool, trying to persuade a passer-by to help him into the waters when they are stirred by the angels, and asks: ‘Do you want to be healed?’”The question should, Father Gabriel comments, puzzle us. Of course the man wants to be healed! He's been sitting there for years waiting to be healed! Why does the question even come up? Maybe, Father Gabriel wonders, the man has given up. Maybe he has grown so accustomed to his misery that he no longer tries to change:
“He may have become invalid in spirit as well as body, finding satisfaction when others catered to him. He may have just wanted to settle for the existence and the way of life that he had become accustomed to.”Father Gabriel points out that, in many ways, we, too, often give up in our personal lives. We often forget to feed our own spirits. This leads him to ask:
“Do we want to be made well, brothers and sisters?”He continues:
“What earthly comforts, or illogical doubts, or anger, or malice, or passion is holding my arms back from taking the outstretched hand of God?”The question goes however, far beyond even that worthy point. Human beings are social creatures. We live in communities, nations, churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples. We live in businesses, schools, and farms. No matter what our secular ideas tell us, no one—no one—succeeds alone. Are we to be healed of the divisions that threaten to tear the United States of America to pieces? Do we choose to be healed? For the first step in healing is to desire it. The paralyzed man could (according to the Gospel story) be healed easily if only someone would put him in the pool. Indeed, many of today’s problems could be solved—easily—if we would only help one another. Therefore, we ask the simple, surprising question: “do we want to be healed?” We must decide whether our “earthly comforts, or illogical doubts, or anger, or malice, or passion” can reach such depths that we neglect to accept healing.
For, as Father Gabriel reminds us, we must want to be healed. We must choose healing. Yes, surely, we should feel puzzled that the question even arises. Maybe we fail to answer it because of our “illogical doubts.” Worse, maybe we answer “no” because it is more important to win, to triumph at someone else’s expense, than to heal ourselves. Maybe we have indeed become so comfortable with our divisions and our vindictive sicknesses that healing may seem like too much of a change. Healing may be more than we can contemplate. Or so we think. Indeed, we sometimes choose failure because healing seems like too much to expect.
Father Gabriel offers a message of hope and resolution. From a local preacher at a small-town church, the basic question for our times: “Do we want to be healed?” Can we make the right choices? I think we can. What do you think?
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Do you have suggestions? This post is part of a series about sermons from various eras and religious traditions. Some were famous; others not. All pose challenging moral questions. I'd love to hear your suggestions for sermons to write about. I especially want to write more about sermons by women, as well as sermons from other nations or additional traditions. Peace to all!
Earlier posts:
John Wesley’s Sermon against Bigotry
“Somebody Must Have Sense Enough To Dim The Lights:” Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Sermon about the Power of Love
Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana’s Sermon about the Summer of Love: Is Love the Answer to Nazism?
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