https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031726.cfm
Today’s readings give us one of the most powerful images of Lent: God’s desire to bring life where we have grown dry, stuck, or discouraged.
In Ezekiel, a tiny trickle of water flows from the Temple. It seems insignificant at first—barely enough to wet your ankles. But as it moves outward, it becomes a river so deep and wide that no one can cross it. And wherever this river flows, everything lives. Trees bear fruit. Salt marshes become fresh. What was dead comes alive again.
This is God’s way of showing us that grace often begins small. Renewal doesn’t always start with a dramatic moment. Sometimes it begins with a whisper, a nudge, a small step toward God. Lent is full of these small beginnings.
Then we meet the man in the Gospel—thirty‑eight years unable to walk, waiting by the pool of Bethesda. He believes healing is possible, but only in one specific way: “If only I could get into the water.” He’s convinced that the miracle depends on his ability to reach the pool.
But Jesus shows him—and us—something different.
Healing doesn’t come from the pool.
Healing comes from the presence of Christ.
Jesus asks him a question that cuts right to the heart:
“Do you want to be well?”
It’s not a trick question. It’s an invitation.
Because wanting to be well means being willing to change.
It means letting go of old patterns, old excuses, old fears.
It means trusting that God can do something new.
And then Jesus speaks the words that define the Gospel:
“Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Notice—Jesus doesn’t just heal him.
He sends him forward.
He gives him a new direction, a new responsibility, a new life.
We all have “mats”—places where we’ve been stuck for a long time.
- Maybe it’s a habit we keep falling back into.
- Maybe it’s a relationship that needs healing.
- Maybe it’s a fear that keeps us from moving forward.
- Maybe it’s a spiritual dryness that makes prayer feel impossible.
And like the man at the pool, we sometimes wait for the “perfect moment” or the “right conditions” to change.
But Jesus doesn’t wait for perfect conditions.
He meets us exactly where we are and says,
“Do you want to be well? Then rise.”
Lent is the season when God’s healing river begins to flow again—sometimes as a trickle, sometimes as a flood. But always with the power to bring life.
God is not asking us to fix ourselves.
God is asking us to let grace move, even if it starts small.
To take one step.
To rise in one area of our life.
To trust that the One who heals us will also walk with us.