The Pope in Santa Marta: faith is continuing your journey in life, as it is, with joy and without complaining. “Sloth is a sin that paralyzes us and stops us from walking”.
Get on with things, live your life with joy. Avoid complaining and do not let yourself be paralyzed by the ugly sin of sloth. “Even if you’re paralyzed, go ahead with your ‘wheel-chair.” This is faith. These are Pope Francis’ words of encouragement during Mass at Casa Santa Marta this morning, March 28, 2017.
“Do not be afraid, go ahead carrying your ‘wheel-chair” -” But, Lord, it is not the latest model”. “Just go ahead! With that ugly ‘wheel-chair”, perhaps, but go ahead! It’s life, it is your joy. “The Pope urges to live without “sloth”, starting from the desire to be “healed” and from Jesus’ willingness to heal others. Pope Francis is asking not to always make comparisons with the happiness of others. He takes inspiration - as reported by Vatican Radio – from the Gospel story of man who had been paralyzed for 38 years, and wanted to bathe in a miraculous swimming pool of Jerusalem believed to heal all illnesses, but couldn’t because everyone got to the pool before him.
It was said that when an angel came down and stirred the waters, the first to bathe in the pool would be healed. Jesus - Francis says - seeing the paralyzed man, asks him: “Do you want to be well?” “It’s what Jesus repeatedly says to us as well” the Pope said: Do you want to get well? Do you want to be happy? Do you want to improve your life? Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Those were Jesus’ words ... Everyone else who was there, the sick, the blind, the crippled, would say:” Yes, Lord, yes! “. But not this strange man. When Jesus, the Pope pointed out, asked that strange man if he wanted to be well instead of saying “yes” he complained there was nobody to put him in the pool while the water is stirred up and that someone else always got there before him. His answer, Francis said, was a complaint; he was implying that life had been unjust with him. Everyone else can go and be healed and I have been trying for 38 years, but…”
“This man, the Pope noted, was like the tree planted along the bank of the rivers, mentioned in the first Reading, but it had arid roots, roots that did not reach the water, could not take nourishment from the water”. “This is clear from his attitude of always complaining and trying to blame the other.”
“Jesus - Francesco remarked – does not scold him, he tells him instead, “Take up your mat, and walk”.” The paralytic healed, but since it was a Sabbath, the doctors of the law said it was not lawful to carry a mat on that day and they asked him who was the man who told him to do so: “It goes against the code, He is not a man of God ’”. The sick man, the Pope noted, had not even thanked Jesus or asked for his name: “he rose and walked with that slothful attitude “living his life because oxygen is free”, always looking to others “who are happier” and forgetting joy.
“Sloth, he said, is a sin that paralyzes us, stops us from walking”. Even today, the Pope said, the Lord looks to each of us sinners - we are all sinners - and says “Rise”.
“Today - continues the pope - the Lord to each of us says,” Get up, take your life as it is, beautiful, ugly as it is, take it and move on. Do not be afraid, go ahead with your mat “-” But, Lord, it is not the latest model? “. But go ahead! With that ugly stretcher, perhaps, but go ahead! It’s your life, your joy. “Do you want to get well?” The first question to us today is the Lord? “Yes, Lord” - “Rise”.
And at the beginning of Mass that beginning was so beautiful, “remember to come to the waters, they are free, and quench your thirst with joy and ask the Lord to help you get up and know the joy of salvation.” And if we say to the Lord, “Yes, I want to heal. Yes, Lord, help me, i want to rise, “we will know joy of salvation.”
