Physical suffering can have a deadening effect on the mind and spirit - as the story from John's Gospel today reveals. The man who had been sick for thirty-eight years was obviously waiting for the movement of the waters and the chance to be the first into the pool and so be cured. Yet when Jesus asked him: "Do you want to be healed?" a more alert person would have immediately answered "Yes, of course." But this man started into the story of his misfortune in not having any one to help him into the pool. A more alert man might even have recognized Jesus in some way, and when some of the Jews confronted him, he should have suspected that trouble was brewing.

But all he could think of was to blame "the man who cured me". When asked who this man was, he had no idea. Then he went off and found out it was Jesus, and he reported this to the Jews. In chapter 9, John provides us with the story of another man, who suffered the disability of blindness. This blind man was much more alert and clever in dealing with those who challenged him. A comparison of the two stories gives us a clear insight into St. John's ability to present different characters and their responses to their debilitating circumstances.