In his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis invited each person to live his or her own life in the best possible way with what each one has been given.
POPE FRANCIS
'Today the Lord to each of us says, 'Get up, take your life as it is, beautiful, ugly as it is. Take it and move on. Do not be afraid, go ahead with your mat' - 'But, Lord, it is not the latest model â?¦' But go ahead! With that ugly stretcher perhaps, but go ahead! And with your life, your joy. 'Do you want to get well?' This is the first question the Lord asks us today? 'Yes, Lord' â?? 'Rise.'â?
The pope also explained that it is wrong to complain or always blame others for what happens to us. He added that the paralysis of the soul is due to laziness, which is worse than having a lukewarm heart.
EXTRACTS OF POPE'S HOMILY IN ENGLISH
(Source: Vatican Radio)
'Itâ??s what Jesus repeatedly says to us as well, 'Do you want to be well? Do you want to be happy? Do you want to improve your life? Do you want to be filled with Holy Spirit?' When Jesus, asked that strange man if he wanted to be well, instead of saying 'yes' he complained there was on one to put him in the pool while the water is stirred up and that someone else always got there before him. His answer was a complaint, he was implying that life had been unjust with him.'
'This man was like the tree planted along the bank of the rivers, mentioned in the first Reading, but it had arid roots, roots that did not reach the water, could not take nourishment from the water.' This is clear from his attitude of always complaining and trying to blame the other. This is an ugly sin: the sin of sloth.â?
'This manâ??s disease was not so much his paralysis but sloth, which is worse than having a lukewarm heart. It causes one to live without the desire to move forward, to do something in life, it causes one to lose the memory of joy, he explained, saying the man had lost all of this. Jesus, the Pope continued, did not rebuke him but said: 'Take up your mat, and walk.â?
The man was healed but since it was a Sabbath, the doctors of the law said it was not lawful to carry a mat on that day and they asked him who was the man who told him to do so. The sick man, the Pope noted, had not even thanked Jesus or asked for his name: 'he rose and walked with that slothful attitude 'living his life because oxygen is freeâ?, always looking to others 'who are happierâ? and forgetting joy.
'Sloth is a sin that paralyzes us, stops us from walking. Today the Lord to each of us says, 'Get up, take your life as it is, beautiful, ugly as it is. Take it and move on. Do not be afraid, go ahead with your mat' - 'But, Lord, it is not the latest model â?¦' But go ahead! With that ugly stretcher perhaps, but go ahead! And with your life, your joy. 'Do you want to get well?' This is the first question the Lord asks us today? 'Yes, Lord' â?? 'Rise.'â?
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