LOL

Loving the Son more than the symbol

John 5:1-9

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 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?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

In the Catholic Church we love signs and symbols, especially in the celebration of the sacraments.  What are some of those symbols?  We use wine and water, we carry candles and crosses, rosaries and relics, and even this pulpit and even priests are symbols.  Obviously, some symbols are better-looking than other symbols.  But ultimately all symbols point back to whom?  To Jesus, of course.  Now, if Jesus were standing right in front of you, would you still need the symbols?  If you carry around in your wallet a picture of the girl you love, and suddenly she’s standing right in front of you, would you prefer to look at the picture or at the person?  The signs of the sacraments serve to make Jesus sacramentally present until he returns in glory at the end of time.  Then, we will no longer need the signs or symbols.

This is the dilemma in the gospel today: the Pharisees prefer the picture rather than the person of Jesus.

  A man who has been sick for 38 years tries to get to the miraculous water of the Temple so he can be healed.  The miraculous water of the Temple, though, was a symbol to prepare people for Jesus, the real living, miraculous water.  Jesus is teaching the people that all the signs and symbols of the Old Testament, even the Temple and the good-looking clergy, were merely symbols pointing to him.  When he arrives, they won’t need the signs anymore.

My friends, we live in a world that increasingly prefers the picture rather than the person, the signs and symbols instead of whom they symbolize.  Many people would much rather text or tweet or send an email to someone than carry on a real-time conversation.  How rare that is becoming.  Many young people struggle to speak to people eyeball to eyeball becoming very awkward and shy.  It’s like that funny but true Brad Paisley song, “I’m so much cooler on line.”  Have you heard it?  He creates on the internet an imaginary "persona" who lives in Malibu, California, drives a Maserati, but in real life he works at the Pizza Pit and lives in his mom’s basement.  Today some girlfriends prefer you look at their picture on Facebook or Instagram rather than at their real person.  Mass communication is not bad, but there is a subtle temptation: we can begin to prefer the symbol over the actual person.

The Letter to the Hebrews begins: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors the prophets at many times and in many ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son.”  In other words, when the Son comes, we won’t need the signs and symbols anymore.  Or will we?  LOL.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!