From: John 5:1-16

The Cure of a Sick Man at the Pool at Bethzatha

[1] After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [2]
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethza-
tha, which has five porticoes. [3] In these lay a multitude of invalid, blind, lame,
paralyzed. [5] One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. [6]
When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there for a long time, He
said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” [7] The sick man answered Him, “Sir,
I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am
going another steps down before me.” [8] Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your
pallet, and walk.” [9] And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet
and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. [10] So the Jews said to the man who was
cured, “It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” [11] But he
answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and
walk.’” [12] They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your
pallet, and walk’?” [13] Now the man who had been healed did not know who it
was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. [14] Afterward,
Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more,
that nothing worse befall you.” [15] The man went away and told the Jews that it
was Jesus who had healed him. [16] And this was why the Jews persecuted
Jesus, because He did this on the Sabbath.

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Commentary:

1. We cannot be certain what festival this was; it probably refers to the Passo-
ver, known the world over at the time as the national festival of the Jewish people.
But it could refer to another festival, Pentecost, perhaps.

2. This pool was also called the “Probatic” pool because it was located on the
outskirts of Jerusalem, beside the Probatic Gate or Sheep Gate (cf. Nehemiah 3:
1-32; 12:39) through which came the livestock which was going to be sacrificed
in the temple. Around the end of the nineteenth century the remains of a pool
were discovered: excavated out of rock, it was rectangular in shape and was sur-
rounded by four galleries or porches, with a fifth porch dividing the pool into two.

3-4. The Fathers teach that this pool is a symbol of Christian Baptism; but that
whereas the pool of Bethzatha cured physical ailments, Baptism cures those of
the soul; in Bethzatha’s case only one person was cured, now and again; shown
through the medium of water (cf. Chrysostom, “Hom. on St. John”, 36, 1).

The Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate includes here, as a second part of
verse 3 and all of verse 4: “waiting for the moving of the water; [4] For an angel of
the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water’ who-
ever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever di-
sease he had.” The New Vulgate, however, omits this passage, assigning it to
a footnote, because it does not appear in important Greek codices and papyri,
nor in many ancient translations.

14. The man may have come to the temple to thank God for his cure. Jesus
goes over to him and reminds him that the health of the soul is more important
than physical health.

Our Lord uses holy fear of God as motivation in the struggle against sin: “Sin no
more, that nothing worse may befall you”. This holy fear is born out of respect for
God our Father; it is perfectly compatible with love. Just as children love and res-
pect their parents and try to avoid annoying them partly because they are afraid
of being punished, so we should fight against sin firstly because it is an offense
against God, but also because we can be punished in this life and, above all, in
the next.

16-18. The Law of Moses established the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest.
Through keeping the Sabbath the Jews felt they were imitating God, who rested
from the work of creation on the seventh day. St. Thomas Aquinas observes that
Jesus rejects this strict interpretation: (The Jews), in their desire to imitate God,
did nothing on the Sabbath, as if God on that day had ceased absolutely to act.
It is true that He rested on the Sabbath from His work of creating new creatures,
but He is always continually at work, maintaining them in existence. [...] God is
the cause of all things in the sense that He also maintains them in existence;
for if for one moment He were to stop exercising His power, at that very moment
everything that nature contains would cease to exist” (”Comm. on St. John, in
loc.”).

“My Father is working still, and I am working”: we have already said that God is
continually acting. Since the Son acts together with the Father, who with the Ho-
ly Spirit are the one and only God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can
say that He is always working. These words of Jesus contain an implicit refe-
rence to His divinity: the Jews realize this and they want to kill Him because
they consider it blasphemous. “We all call God our Father, who is in Heaven (I-
saiah 63:16; 64:8). Therefore, they were angry, not at this, that He said God was
His Father, but that He said it in quite another way than men. Notice: the Jews
understand what Arians do not understand. Arians affirm the Son to be not equal
to the Father, and that was why this heresy was driven from the Church. Here,
even the blind, even the slayers of Christ, understand the works of Christ” (St.
Augustine, “In Ioann. Evang., 17, 16). We call God our Father because through
grace we are His adopted children; Jesus calls Him His Father because He is
His Son by nature. This is why He says after the Resurrection: “I am ascending
to My Father and your Father” (John 20:17), making a clear distinction between
the two ways of being a son of God.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

First reading	Ezekiel 47:1-9,12 ©

The angel brought me to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream came out from under the Temple threshold and flowed eastwards, since the Temple faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar. He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on the right-hand side. The man went to the east holding his measuring line and measured off a thousand cubits; he then made me wade across the stream; the water reached my ankles. He measured off another thousand and made me wade across the stream again; the water reached my knees. He measured off another thousand and made me wade across again; the water reached my waist. He measured off another thousand; it was now a river which I could not cross; the stream had swollen and was now deep water, a river impossible to cross. He then said, ‘Do you see, son of man?’ He took me further, then brought me back to the bank of the river. When I got back, there were many trees on each bank of the river. He said, ‘This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome. Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows. Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.’

Psalm	Psalm 45:2-3,5-6,8-9 ©

The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

God is for us a refuge and strength,

a helper close at hand, in time of distress,

so we shall not fear though the earth should rock,

though the mountains fall into the depths of the sea.

The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,

the holy place where the Most High dwells.

God is within, it cannot be shaken;

God will help it at the dawning of the day.

The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

The Lord of hosts is with us:

the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Come, consider the works of the Lord,

the redoubtable deeds he has done on the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Gospel Acclamation	Ps50:12,14

Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

A pure heart create for me, O God,

and give me again the joy of your help.

Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

Gospel	John 5:1-3,5-16 ©

There was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now at the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem there is a building, called Bethzatha in Hebrew, consisting of five porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people – blind, lame, paralysed – waiting for the water to move; One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in this condition for a long time, he said, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ ‘Sir,’ replied the sick man ‘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.’ Jesus said, ‘Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.’ The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.

Now that day happened to be the sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.’ He replied, ‘But the man who cured me told me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”’ They asked, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Pick up your mat and walk”?’ The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled the place. After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, ‘Now you are well again, be sure not to sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.’ The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. It was because he did things like this on the sabbath that the Jews began to persecute Jesus.