In the gospel text appointed for this feast day of Blessed Oscar Romero and Annunciation Eve, we read of Jesus healing a sick man on the Sabbath and encountering resistance on the part of the Pharisees. The man who was healed encountered Jesus while waiting for the pool of Bethsaida to be stirred up; it was said that the first person to reach the water would be healed. When Jesus questions the fellow and asks ‘Do you want to be made well?’, the man misses his point entirely and refers only to his inability to reach the stirring of the pool.

Instead, Jesus, in healing the man, commands him to stand and walk, completely circumventing the expected protocol for healing. He ignores the pool of Bethsaida and he heals on the Sabbath. When questioned by the Pharisees, Jesus points to the dynamic nature of God’s salvific work in the world: “My Father is still working, and I am also working...”.

How often are we like the sick man, desperately hoping for God’s presence to stir up our circumstance, but entirely fixated on a past experience or reference point in our lives instead of looking for God to break into our present? Or have we given up entirely on the belief that our Father is still working, assuming that God was more than happy to show up for our forbearers but, for some reason, is completely uninterested in showing up for us today?

Certainly our lives feel adequately stirred up these days, and I am sure more than a few of us wait anxiously for a sign of God’s presence amidst all of the churn. Do we take to heart Jesus’ promise that God is dynamic and still at work? Are we actively looking for signs of God’s presence in our lives, or do we expect God to show up only in the familiar ways of yesterday?

As you look for God in the midst of our wild, uncertain, and dangerous world, have in mind the words of Paul: “... Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” Churches may be closed for public worship and Christians practicing physical distancing methods, but the Body of Christ is neither dormant nor a thing of the past.

How is God at work in your life, and in the lives of others through you? Our Father is still working, and I pray for all of you as you take your individual places as God’s coworkers in our world.

AMEN