I am sure each of us can recall the experience of waking up after battling a cold and being able to breathe easier or no longer coughing. I always appreciate and value my health so much more at that moment. I can only begin to imagine what it would have been like to be this man who had been sick for 38 years. What freedom he must have experienced!
Sickness comes in many forms, and there are things that we might be carrying with us for just as long as the man in the Gospel. Yet, just as Jesus came to that man, Jesus comes to us and asks: “Do you want to be well?” with the desire to heal us and offer us that same freedom he gave the man.
What in my life needs healing? How would I respond to Jesus asking if I want to be well?
—Marcos Gonzales, a Jesuit scholastic of the California province, is completing his masters of social work at Loyola University Chicago and interning with the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department.