True Love is Risky
“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
‘Do you want to be well?’ ”
Have you ever found yourself torn because of a difficult decision? In my experience, most difficult decisions were ones that in some way affected me negatively. In other words, those were risky decisions. Sometimes when we love someone we make decisions that might cause them to turn away from us. It is true that the truth hurts. I mean look at the cross. Jesus preached repentance and the Kingdom of God, preached the truth, preached true love, true joy, and true peace, and look where He ended up. Nailed to the cross, and left to die in humiliation.
In today’s Gospel reading we hear about Jesus asking a sick man if he wanted to be well. He said that he’s been there 38 years and no one helped him to get into the pool to be made better. Can you imagine that? Thirty-eight years of waiting and humiliation. Sick not simply because of physical deformities because of a deep sinfulness that paralyzed him. We can see that there is something greater than the water that can make him well here. God himself. But, it was the Sabbath. Jesus knew that if He healed him, and the Pharisees found out, He would be in danger. But being moved with compassion, Jesus could do nothing other than to heal him. We are told that Jesus slipped away after healing him, so the man didn’t catch who had healed him. But later on, Jesus went to find the man in the temple and told him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man knew then that it was Jesus who had healed him. He told the Pharisees and they began to persecute Jesus. To love means to take risks. Because Jesus loved this sick man and wanted his good, He took the risk to go back to find him to encourage him to sin no more. It is out of love that Jesus acts, and this love casts out all fear.
How do we approach our relationships? Do we stay on the surface or do we strive to go deeper? Are we content in knowing about their day, or are we concerned about their souls? When we say we love someone, what is it that we are really saying? May we today reflect on how we love, and may we ask God for the grace to truly love, to truly be moved with compassion for others, even if it means taking risks.
