paralysis, the no. 38 and the question - 4th week lent Tuesday

Whenever we read the gospel of John we find two levels of meaning.  The first level of meaning are the facts of the narrative, it narrates what is taking place.  And so in the gospel we see first the facts.  First, the place was filled with the blind, the lame and the paralyzed. Second fact, we also have a man who was sick for 38 years, mark the number – 38 years. Then this man was asked “do you want to be well?”  This is the first level of meaning in the narrative.  

Now to understand John we have also to go to the next level of meaning, to the second level of meaning.  This is often times called the spiritual meaning of a narrative.  

Let us go to the first fact – the place.  Of all kinds of sickness, why did John mention that Jesus came to this place which is full of blind people, lame people and paralyzed people.  Why did he not for example mention people with cancer, or people with diabetes.  Why?  And this is now the second level of meaning - it is because blindness, being lame and paralyzed are the usual ailments of Christians.  John wants us to see our spiritual sickness more than our physical sickness in this passage.  And what is this sickness? Like the people in the portico many of us have blindness because we cannot see where God is leading us.  Many of us are lame and paralyzed because we fail to act, we have difficulty doing what God wants us to do even though we already know what God wants for us.

Another fact – the number 38.  Why 38? Is this real or symbolic? Probably both.  But this is how St. Augustine explains the number 38.  Forty, he said, is the perfect number.  38 is therefore a number of weakness, it is the number of sickness.  The paralyzed man needs two to make it to the perfect number 40 and according to St. Augustine it is love that perfects it, and in love there are two – the love of God and the love of neighbor.  38 becomes 40.  We may have everything in life – money talent, resources but when we do not love, when we do not have love for God and neighbor we are sick.  Only love can perfect us.

Then lastly the paralyzed man was asked by Jesus, do you want to be well? It leads the person to ask himself - Do I want to be healed?  There are those among us who love our sickness, our spiritual sickness.  There are those who love our weakness and would not want to part from it. And so the question I have always to ask myself, Do I want to be healed?  Jesus can heal, but do I want to be healed?