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The Easter Cycle
ways and do penance. “The days of penance have come,” the liturgy admonishes us every day
at Tierce. “The days of penance have come to us, to redeem our sins and save our souls.” The
chapter at Sext continues: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unjust man his thoughts,
and let him return to the Lord; and He will have mercy on him” (Is 55:7).
“Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” Christ came to Jerusalem on a Sabbath and approached
the pool of Bethsaida. The pool was surrounded by a building having five porches, where lay
a great multitude of the sick who were waiting for the movement of the water. He who first
reached the water after it had been moved by the angel, was freed from whatever infirmity
troubled him. Here Jesus met a man who had suffered for thirty-eight years. “Wilt thou be
made whole? The infirm man answered, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to
put me into the pond; for whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me. Jesus saith
to him: Arise, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and he
took up his bed and walked.” What the Gospel records becomes for us a reality in the holy
liturgy. The porches of the pool of Bethsaida are for us the world in which we live. Here on
every hand lie the sick, the halt, and the lame. The pool is the Church with its fountains of
grace which spring up eternally. We are the sick man of the Gospel. Our sickness is described
by the number thirty-eight. Forty, according to St. Augustine, is the number of perfection.
Our number is lacking two of reaching perfection. The two things that we lack are the love
of God and the love of our neighbor. The Sabbath on which the Lord comes to us is the
moment of our baptism. In gratitude we recall our first meeting with the Savior, when He
asked us if we would be whole, and He healed us from Original Sin. We remember also the
many other Sabbaths on which He came to us in the sacrament of penance to free us from
our infirmities, when He again asked us, “Wilt thou be made whole?” We replied to Him
through His representative, the priest, and we acknowledged our misery. But he consoled
us and said, “Arise . . . and walk.” Thy sins are forgiven thee. “Behold thou art made whole.
Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee” (Gospel).
“Deliver me, O Lord, from my necessities; see my abjection and my labor, and forgive me all
my sins” (Introit). “Behold thou art made whole.” With a grateful heart we recite the Offertory
prayer, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He hath done for thee; and thy youth
shall be renewed like the eagle’s.” During this Mass and at the time of Holy Communion we shall
be made whole. “Thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.”
The liturgy insists on penance, and justly so. We Christians of the twentieth century are
lacking in a real understanding of the necessity, purpose, and value of penance. A true penitential
spirit and real works of penance are for the most part unknown to us; we shy away from mortification
and privation. We have no patience with suffering and seldom have control over our
desires and impulses. We fail to recognize the danger of too much sleep, luxurious dress, and
sumptuous meals; and we seek to avoid every inconvenience and spiritual burden. It is a grave
burden on us if we are required to fix an hour for rising and for performing our duties. We fret
at the loss of our trivial pastimes, and at the sacrifice of empty pleasures. We find it difficult to
control our tongues, to guard our eyes, to temper our curiosity, to refuse some dainty morsel,
to omit some slight diversion, to give up even some sinful habit that has been dominating us. If
this is our disposition, how shall we overcome temptation? “The kingdom of heaven [of virtue
and perfection] suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Mt 11:12). “Enter ye in at the
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