DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Monday, January 14, 2019

Now it was the Sabbath on that day.  So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”  But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’”  They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?”  But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. – John 5:9b-13

Jesus heals a man.  The Jerusalem leadership is concerned that he was breaking a rule, a nonsensical rule about what it means to work on the Sabbath.  The man healed walks and Jesus walks away, while the rules-makers debate on whether this is proper or not.

So often, we, the devout, lose touch with the essence of what is good and godly and, in turn, makes us lose touch with what is humane.  Rules beget rules and the rules come with their punishments, but so little is added to the “good”.  Oh, we practice diligently the restraint of the evil, like those rules-makers at the pool of Bethesda, but adding to the good, well, the rules seldom accomplish such a virtue.  Rules and punishments are part and parcel with the other; and thus the essence of the good is neglected.

A man is healed and he is thankful.  A man heals and he is thankful.  But the religious of the day, the keepers of the rules, they choose to assume the role of judges.

Loved Ones, it is key to purer and mature spirituality to not lose touch with the essence of good and the godly and the humane.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz