In last week's Gospel, Jesus heals a sick man by the Pool of Bethsaida. Immediately, the Pharisees start criticizing Jesus for healing and doing work on the Sabbath. What stuck out to me the most, was not the Pharisees’ usual squabbling and finger-pointing, but rather Jesus’ question to the sick man: “Do you want to be well again?” The answer seems obvious. The man had been sick for 38 years! He and a crowd of other sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people had gathered there at the pool in hopes of being cured by Jesus. Having his sleeping mat with him, we can only guess how long the sick man had been waiting there for this moment. Of course, he wants to be made well! But why then does Jesus still ask, “Do you want to be well again?”

Maybe it is a question of faith, a question of whether the sick man really trusts that Jesus can turn his life around. Or maybe it’s an invitation to understand the full gravity of healing. To be made well entails a radical change in this man’s life. Right after being cured, the man is commanded to get up and walk, something he hasn’t done in 38 years. Though he was formerly despised by his fellow Jews as a sick man cursed by God, he immediately goes out to them, telling them about Jesus’ healing power. Perhaps this radical healing and conversion is something we can learn from this Lent. Ven. Fulton Sheen wrote, “No one who ever meets Christ with a good will returns the same way he came.”

Every encounter we have with Jesus heals us, changes us, and challenges us to share the Good News, the story of our salvation, with others.