During his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV reflects on the passage of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, and warns against becoming “discouraged and falling into spiritual apathy.”
Before beginning his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Leo XIV greeted the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile.
Then, in his catechesis, he continued reflecting on the Jubilee theme of “Jesus Christ our Hope,” focusing on Jesus the healer.
The Pope invited everyone to “reflect on those moments when we feel ‘stuck’ and trapped in a dead end.” He explained that when hope seems useless and people want to give up the Gospel describes this through the image of paralysis.
As an example, Pope Leo turned to the story of Jesus curing the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda.
House of mercy
When Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for a Jewish feast, He makes His first stop at a gate rather than the Temple. This gate is where everyone hoping for a miracle would wait to rush into the pool when it was stirred up—believing it had healing powers.
But this created an unpleasant scene as there was a “struggle among the poor.” People pushing, shoving, and trying to get into the water first.
Pope Leo pointed out that Bethesda means “house of mercy”—which can reflect an image of the Church, “where the sick and the poor gather, and where the Lord comes to bring healing and hope.”
No excuses
Jesus encountered the man who had been paralyzed for 38 years and had become resigned to his fate. This disappointment, the Pope said, is precisely what paralyzes us, as we can “become discouraged and risk falling into spiritual apathy.”
The question then is this: “Do you want to be healed?” Just as the paralyzed man in the Gospel, we can get stuck and “the desire to get better can fade.” We can get comfortable in our illness and relying on others to take care of us. Pope Leo warned against letting this “become an excuse to avoid making decisions about our lives.”
The paralytic man’s response to Jesus shows how the man chooses to see life. He argues there is no one to help him into the pool, “so the blame is placed not on himself but on others who haven’t helped him.” The Pope posed the question: “Was it really true that he had no one to help him?”
Reflecting on his spiritual father, St. Augustine, Pope Leo highlighted that the paralytic needed not just a helping hand but “a man who was also God.”
Write your own story
Jesus helps the man turn his view of life from fatalistic—that things just happen due to bad luck—to personal responsibility. His mat becomes a symbol of his past illness and personal history. Yet, now, the man has the ability to walk and the mindset to write his own story.
Closing, Pope Leo XIV encouraged everyone to ask God for the grace to recognize where we have gotten “stuck” and urged them to voice their desire for healing.
With thanks to Vatican News and Kielce Gussie, where this article originally appeared.
