The gospel that the Lord has given us today in the liturgy tells the third of the seven signs that Jesus performed, according to the evangelist John. This sign is placed in the line of creation and exodus: Jesus creates the new man, Jesus frees man from sin.

John the Evangelist uses symbolic elements to tell us about a very profound spiritual reality. Even the precise description of the environment helps us to understand the powerful message of Jesus.

We are in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate. The animals passed through this door and were led to the temple for sacrifice. Sheep are a clear symbol of the people of Israel.

There is a pool with five porticoes whose existence has been confirmed by archaeologists. The pool collected the waters from the various washes and purifications carried out in the temple. Miraculous power was attributed to that water, which must have been rather dirty. The connection with the first reading is evident: the water that flows from the temple has the power to heal the stagnant waters of the sea and to make life flourish on its shores. It was also believed that occasionally an angel would come to stir those waters. On that occasion, the first who entered the water would be healed.

Numbers are also important in this tale. The 5 porticoes of the pool are a clear reference to the 5 books of the Torah, to the legislative institution of Israel. In addition, again 5 times “Take up your pallet and walk” is repeated. It is not a coincidence!

Among the many desperate people waiting to be healed there was a paralytic, a poor man who had been there for 38 years without any hope of being healed: he could not move and someone always came before him to jump into the water. He was resigned.

38 years: there are only two to get to 40 and 40 are the years of the Exodus. There are two years left to the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, the paralytic heals and in two years he will have Easter with Jesus, he will enter the Promised Land. It is like a countdown. Until he met Jesus he did not do the Exodus.

The response of the poor paralytic to Jesus who asks him if he wants to be healed is: “I have no man to put me in the pool”. “No man”: that sick man is a symbol of every man and woman paralyzed in his nature, blocked; no human force can help him/her to heal. “Rise, take up your pallet and walk”. Here is who has the power to heal him. It is the beginning of the exodus, the beginning of the path that leads to the Promised Land.

But unfortunately it was Saturday and the Jews protested because, carrying the pallet, the man was doing a job, prohibited by law. There is a contrast between the power of Jesus and the law. Jesus creates a new man capable of walking but the representatives of the law do not want that to happen.

The ending of the story sees the encounter in the temple between Jesus and the man who was paralyzed. “See, you are well! Sin no more…” What does it mean? That he was sick because he was a sinner? I don’t think so: it would contradict the message of another Jesus’ sign, that of the man born blind. Jesus categorically stated that sickness is not a punishment for sin. We understand well then the symbol of paralysis: the true paralysis of man is sin. Worse than disease is sin: it blocks man. The law is unable to free man, it oppresses him. The law makes man feel sinful because it states: “You are a sinner, you cannot follow the rules!” But it doesn’t give him the strength to obey the rules.

That paralytic is me, he’s you. Only Jesus can help us to walk when we are blocked, oppressed by a law that condemns us, only he has the power to make us new men and women, to free us, to give us back life, to give us a heart capable of loving.

And perhaps in that “Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you” there is also an invitation to no longer re-enter the foul play of religion that oppresses and does not free, where God’s place is taken by those who should facilitate encounter with him and maybe they make it difficult, burying it under tons of laws, prohibitions, prescriptions, certificates, stamps, signatures, minutes and so on.

Dear brothers, some of you are already religious, consecrated and others will soon be. In a few years, many of you will be priests. Remember to be shepherds according to God’s heart. Do not be an obstacle to the people of God, imposing, judging, condemning. I wish you to be messengers not of a God who asks incessantly but of a Father who gives and loves without reservation. I wish you to be messengers of a Father who frees, restores life, repairs the offended dignity, and makes the heart capable of loving.