03-17-2021, 10:16 AM
SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM GIVES US NEW LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EZEKIEL 47:1-9,12; PS 46,2-3,5-6,8-9; JOHN 5,1-16 ]
Humanity is paralyzed by two opposite realities of life, sin and the Law. The healing of the paralytic by our Lord brings out this truth. On one hand, the man was paralyzed by sin. Of course, not all sicknesses are indications that a person has sinned, although it is true that sickness can lead a man to sin because of the loss of faith in God and in life. But this is not always the case as the Lord said with regard to the healing of the blind man and those who died at the Tower of Siloam. (cf Jn 9:2f; Lk 13:1-5) However in the case of this man, Jesus did infer that his paralysis was due to his sins because when He met him in the Temple again after he was healed, he said, “Now you are well again, be sure not to sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.”
But humanity is equally paralyzed by the Law. After the healing of the paralyzed man, the Jews told the man, “It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.” They were scandalized that Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. “It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to persecute Jesus.” For the Jews, the observance of the Law of Moses and the Oral Tradition is necessary for salvation. In truth, the man stands for the people of Israel. The five porches represent the Torah, the five books of the Law. In the porches, the people were sick, crippled and ill. This is symbolic of the fact that the Law cannot heal people. It can only expose our sinfulness but cannot cure us. This is why in spite of the severity of the punishments for crimes committed, we do not see crimes being reduced drastically. Take the case of sexual offences. They are increasing every day. The Law can only criminalize us but it does not take away our inclination to sin.
Indeed, we are all crippled in whichever way we take. Sin will destroy us. The consequences of sin will make us and our loved ones suffer. The Law makes us nervous, living in fear that God will punish us for our failings. As much as we try not to sin or break the Law, we still fall into sin because of the woundedness of our human nature. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (cf Mk 14:38) So whichever way, we live in guilt. We condemn ourselves. We have no peace. We live in fear of condemnation and punishment.
Where, then, can man find help? The truth, as the paralyzed said, is that there is no one to help him. “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets there before me.” Although the pool gave hope to the people, very few could be healed because no one got them into the pool. It is a situation of hopelessness. Isn’t this the case as well? Many want to find new life or to find God but no one brings them to Jesus. No one brings them to the pool of baptism. The sheep pool is a type of our baptismal font. The man, like Israel, was lost in the desert for 38 years before they could get into the Promised Land. The stirring of the water gave hope to the man. So, too, the gift of Baptism gives humanity a new start in life.
Baptism is a gift because it is the initiative of God. Just as Jesus took the initiative to approach the woman of Samaria to give her the Living Water, so too Jesus took the initiative to offer help to the man. This is an important reminder that salvation is the free gift of God. (cf Eph 2:8-10) Jesus has come to take away our sins and to restore us to health and fullness of life. Baptism is therefore an offer. It is a gift. For this reason, it has to be accepted freely. This explains why the Lord began by asking the man if he wanted to be cured. This might seem a redundant question but it is not. It is the same situation when someone is brought to the Church for baptism or for the sacrament of marriage. The minister will have to ascertain whether they are asking for the sacrament freely and without coercion. Baptism is a gift, so too is love between the couple at the sacrament of matrimony.
When there is no real desire or free consent, the sacraments cannot work. Sacraments are only effective for those who receive them with faith. The Lord could not presume that the man who waited for 38 years wanted to be healed. Some had fallen into despair and just wanted to remain where they were, indulging in self-pity. They do not intend to get well but to have people pity them. They do not want to get well and bear the burdens of looking after others or assume responsibilities in life. They have gotten used to having people care for them. So why bother to get well when they are pampered as is.
But God wants us to cooperate with His grace. Miracles can happen only when our will is one with the will of God. So Jesus told the man, “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.” Because he cooperated in faith in spite of his thirty-eight years of paralysis, “the man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.” He was willing to leave his past behind by symbolically picking up his mat. He had no more need to depend on others. He had to leave behind his resentment against God and those he blamed for his suffering all these years. He walked away from his past and looked towards a new future for him.
This is why the Sacrament of Baptism requires obedience in faith. The man was healed because he listened to the Lord even when it appeared to be an impossible task. Surrendering ourselves to the Lord is required if we want to be healed. So long as we lack faith in Him and in His power, we limit His grace from being at work in our lives. Obedience also means that from now on we walk in the love of the Lord and in truth. Faith presumes obedience. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15) This was why the Lord cautioned the healed man that he should not sin again, otherwise, “something worse may happen.” Indeed, after the Sacrament of Baptism, we are expected to walk in the light. Going back to our sins and our old way of life is even worse than before we were baptized. Then we could claim ignorance and helplessness. But now we possess the truth and the means to salvation through the grace of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation; and the support of the Christian community. We cannot make any more excuses for living in darkness.
The most dangerous sin is that of presumption. This is because after saying that we are saved by the grace of God, not through the Law or our good works, some Christians presume that they are saved because they have faith in Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness. Some even go on to say, since grace abounds all the more when we sin, we should continue sinning. (cf Rom 6:1-18) Isn’t this how many of us behave when it comes to the Sacrament of Reconciliation? We take the sacrament for granted, knowing that we will be forgiven when we go for confession. And so even when we confess our sins, we are not sincere in wanting to give them up. St Paul warns those of us who use our liberty as an excuse to indulge in the flesh. (cf Gal 5:1) If only we know and come to realize the depth of God’s love for us and the price He paid to save us from our sins by dying on the cross, perhaps, we would think twice when we sin. Every sin breaks the heart of God and if we love Him, we would not break His heart by sinning again and again. On the other hand, we must also not go back to the Laws thinking that we are saved through good works and merits. This will make us heartless and legalistic Catholics without a real personal relationship with the Lord. Freed from the Law, we must walk in love and in truth.
Consequently, it is important that we grow in faith in Jesus. Knowing Jesus is an ongoing process. The man who was healed did not know Jesus when he was asked who healed Him. We need to deepen our understanding of who Jesus is, the man who broke the Sabbath Law by healing. The enemies of our Lord asked, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” Do we know who the Lord is, enough to be able to proclaim to the world that He is our Savior, Redeemer and Healer? Or do we, like the man, say we do not know? Hence, after baptism, we need to continue to deepen our faith in Jesus. Only by discovering Him and listening to His word, can we grow in truth and in love. Indeed, coming to our Lord is as Ezekiel tells us, that wherever the river flows, life flourishes. We need to come to our Lord, the Living Water who gives us His Spirit so that we will bear fruits of every kind for His kingdom.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved. The contents of this page may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission from the Archbishop’s Office. This includes extracts, quotations, and summaries.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
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SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EZEKIEL 47:1-9,12; PS 46,2-3,5-6,8-9; JOHN 5,1-16 ]
Humanity is paralyzed by two opposite realities of life, sin and the Law. The healing of the paralytic by our Lord brings out this truth. On one hand, the man was paralyzed by sin. Of course, not all sicknesses are indications that a person has sinned, although it is true that sickness can lead a man to sin because of the loss of faith in God and in life. But this is not always the case as the Lord said with regard to the healing of the blind man and those who died at the Tower of Siloam. (cf Jn 9:2f; Lk 13:1-5) However in the case of this man, Jesus did infer that his paralysis was due to his sins because when He met him in the Temple again after he was healed, he said, “Now you are well again, be sure not to sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.”
But humanity is equally paralyzed by the Law. After the healing of the paralyzed man, the Jews told the man, “It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.” They were scandalized that Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. “It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to persecute Jesus.” For the Jews, the observance of the Law of Moses and the Oral Tradition is necessary for salvation. In truth, the man stands for the people of Israel. The five porches represent the Torah, the five books of the Law. In the porches, the people were sick, crippled and ill. This is symbolic of the fact that the Law cannot heal people. It can only expose our sinfulness but cannot cure us. This is why in spite of the severity of the punishments for crimes committed, we do not see crimes being reduced drastically. Take the case of sexual offences. They are increasing every day. The Law can only criminalize us but it does not take away our inclination to sin.
Indeed, we are all crippled in whichever way we take. Sin will destroy us. The consequences of sin will make us and our loved ones suffer. The Law makes us nervous, living in fear that God will punish us for our failings. As much as we try not to sin or break the Law, we still fall into sin because of the woundedness of our human nature. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (cf Mk 14:38) So whichever way, we live in guilt. We condemn ourselves. We have no peace. We live in fear of condemnation and punishment.
Where, then, can man find help? The truth, as the paralyzed said, is that there is no one to help him. “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets there before me.” Although the pool gave hope to the people, very few could be healed because no one got them into the pool. It is a situation of hopelessness. Isn’t this the case as well? Many want to find new life or to find God but no one brings them to Jesus. No one brings them to the pool of baptism. The sheep pool is a type of our baptismal font. The man, like Israel, was lost in the desert for 38 years before they could get into the Promised Land. The stirring of the water gave hope to the man. So, too, the gift of Baptism gives humanity a new start in life.
Baptism is a gift because it is the initiative of God. Just as Jesus took the initiative to approach the woman of Samaria to give her the Living Water, so too Jesus took the initiative to offer help to the man. This is an important reminder that salvation is the free gift of God. (cf Eph 2:8-10) Jesus has come to take away our sins and to restore us to health and fullness of life. Baptism is therefore an offer. It is a gift. For this reason, it has to be accepted freely. This explains why the Lord began by asking the man if he wanted to be cured. This might seem a redundant question but it is not. It is the same situation when someone is brought to the Church for baptism or for the sacrament of marriage. The minister will have to ascertain whether they are asking for the sacrament freely and without coercion. Baptism is a gift, so too is love between the couple at the sacrament of matrimony.
When there is no real desire or free consent, the sacraments cannot work. Sacraments are only effective for those who receive them with faith. The Lord could not presume that the man who waited for 38 years wanted to be healed. Some had fallen into despair and just wanted to remain where they were, indulging in self-pity. They do not intend to get well but to have people pity them. They do not want to get well and bear the burdens of looking after others or assume responsibilities in life. They have gotten used to having people care for them. So why bother to get well when they are pampered as is.
But God wants us to cooperate with His grace. Miracles can happen only when our will is one with the will of God. So Jesus told the man, “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.” Because he cooperated in faith in spite of his thirty-eight years of paralysis, “the man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.” He was willing to leave his past behind by symbolically picking up his mat. He had no more need to depend on others. He had to leave behind his resentment against God and those he blamed for his suffering all these years. He walked away from his past and looked towards a new future for him.
This is why the Sacrament of Baptism requires obedience in faith. The man was healed because he listened to the Lord even when it appeared to be an impossible task. Surrendering ourselves to the Lord is required if we want to be healed. So long as we lack faith in Him and in His power, we limit His grace from being at work in our lives. Obedience also means that from now on we walk in the love of the Lord and in truth. Faith presumes obedience. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15) This was why the Lord cautioned the healed man that he should not sin again, otherwise, “something worse may happen.” Indeed, after the Sacrament of Baptism, we are expected to walk in the light. Going back to our sins and our old way of life is even worse than before we were baptized. Then we could claim ignorance and helplessness. But now we possess the truth and the means to salvation through the grace of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation; and the support of the Christian community. We cannot make any more excuses for living in darkness.
The most dangerous sin is that of presumption. This is because after saying that we are saved by the grace of God, not through the Law or our good works, some Christians presume that they are saved because they have faith in Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness. Some even go on to say, since grace abounds all the more when we sin, we should continue sinning. (cf Rom 6:1-18) Isn’t this how many of us behave when it comes to the Sacrament of Reconciliation? We take the sacrament for granted, knowing that we will be forgiven when we go for confession. And so even when we confess our sins, we are not sincere in wanting to give them up. St Paul warns those of us who use our liberty as an excuse to indulge in the flesh. (cf Gal 5:1) If only we know and come to realize the depth of God’s love for us and the price He paid to save us from our sins by dying on the cross, perhaps, we would think twice when we sin. Every sin breaks the heart of God and if we love Him, we would not break His heart by sinning again and again. On the other hand, we must also not go back to the Laws thinking that we are saved through good works and merits. This will make us heartless and legalistic Catholics without a real personal relationship with the Lord. Freed from the Law, we must walk in love and in truth.
Consequently, it is important that we grow in faith in Jesus. Knowing Jesus is an ongoing process. The man who was healed did not know Jesus when he was asked who healed Him. We need to deepen our understanding of who Jesus is, the man who broke the Sabbath Law by healing. The enemies of our Lord asked, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” Do we know who the Lord is, enough to be able to proclaim to the world that He is our Savior, Redeemer and Healer? Or do we, like the man, say we do not know? Hence, after baptism, we need to continue to deepen our faith in Jesus. Only by discovering Him and listening to His word, can we grow in truth and in love. Indeed, coming to our Lord is as Ezekiel tells us, that wherever the river flows, life flourishes. We need to come to our Lord, the Living Water who gives us His Spirit so that we will bear fruits of every kind for His kingdom.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved. The contents of this page may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission from the Archbishop’s Office. This includes extracts, quotations, and summaries.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Share This!
WhatsAppTwitterMessengerGmail
ADMIN LINKS
Archdiocese Intranet
Website Login
Archdiocese PDPA Policy
Terms & Conditions
VIBRANT, EVANGELISING, & MISSIONARY CHURCH
Donate Now
GIFT
ARCHDIOCESE MEDIA
Archdiocese eBulletin
Catholic News
Catholic Radio
Social Media
© 2014-2020 Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore. All Rights Reserved.
FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeVimeoFlickrLinkedInTelegramTelegramCatholicSG RadioCatholicSG RadioCatholicSG AppCatholicSG App