Gospel Reading: John 5:1-16

After this, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a religious festival.

2 Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool with five porches; in Hebrew it is called Bethzata.

3 A large crowd of sick people were lying on the porches--the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

5 A man was there who had been sick for thirty eight years.

6 Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that the man had been sick for such a long time; so he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

7 The sick man answered, "Sir I don't have anyone here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first. "

8 Jesus said to him, "Get up, pick up your mat, and walk. "

9 Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.  The day this happened was a sabbath,

10  so the Jewish authorities told the man who had been healed,  "This is a sabbath, and it is against our law for you to carry your mat."

11 He answered, "The man who made me well told me to pick up my mat and walk."

12 They asked him, "Who is the man who told you to do this?"

13 But the man who had been healed did not know who Jesus was, for there was a crowd in that place, and Jesus had slipped away.

14 Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said,  "Listen, you are well now; so stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. "

15 Then the man left and told the Jewish authorities that it was Jesus who had healed him.

16 So they began to persecute Jesus, because he had done this healing on a sabbath.

Reflection:

Jesus healed a man on a sabbath day. It was against the law so the crowd told the Jewish authorities that Jesus is the one who healed the man.  Some people are ignorant. What if the man died just because it is against the law to cure him on a sabbath day? Jesus cured him with no hesitation. Many things seem bad at first, but if one will think deeper one will see the good thing coming out of it. Others doesn't see the good thing because of the hindrance, and that barrier is what we call ignorance. They can see the suffering man, but they choose to ignore him because it is a sabbath day. Do not ever ignore your fellow being especially those who are in need of help. Ignorance and indifference is a sin.

GOSPEL READING: John 4:43-54

43 After spending two days there, Jesus went and left into Galilee.

44 For he himself had said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.”

45 When he arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him, because they had gone to the Passover Festival in Jerusalem and had seen everything that he had done during the festival.

46 Then Jesus went back to Cana in Galilee, where he has turned the water into wine. A government official was there whose son was sick in Capernaum.

47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to go to Capernaum and heal his son, who was about to die.

48 Jesus said to him, “None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders.”

49”Sir,” replied the official, “come with me before my child dies,”

50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live!” The man believed Jesus’ words and went.

51 On his way home his servants met him with the news, “Your boy is going to live!”

52 He asked them what it was when his son get better, and they answered, “It was one o’clock yesterday afternoon when the fever left him.”

53 Then the father remembered that it was at that very hour when Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his family believed.

54T his was the second miracle that Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Reflection:

“Come with me before my child die.” This words from the official shows trust and faith in Jesus.

Many of us are sick, not in the physical but in emotional or spiritual sense. In that case, we need to let the presence of God to be with us. We are called to let Him be part of our lives. In the gospel, the government official has shown his belief in God. His words implies that if there is faith nothing is impossible with God.

Jesus’ response to his faith is, “Go, your son will live!”  If a person is truly in despair and disconcerted, how would he obey such words? That’s the meaning of faith. It may be weird, hard or complicated for unbelievers. But it is the right thing to do. There’s an old saying “To God is the Grace, The Work is to Human race”. In everything we do, think, and say we should always reflect about the will of God.

Gospel Reading: Luke 18:9-14

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⁹ He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being upright and despised everyone else,
¹⁰ 'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.
¹¹ The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like everyone else, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here.
¹² I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get."
¹³ The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
¹⁴ This man, I tell you, went home again justified; the other did not. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, but anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.'

Reflection
"I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like everyone else." These are the words that struck me. Coming from a Pharisee who is known to be self-righteous and despised others that do not belong to their group... Jesus desires him to be aware of his weaknesses.
We, as a people of God tend to be judgmental of others weaknesses. But Jesus in His own mercy, awakens our soul, that we are always dependent on His mercy. Let us therefore always be remindful of ourselves to pray unceasingly, with eyes to heaven and beating our breast saying,  "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

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