Chapter II.
The healing of the Pool of Bethesda, stirred by an angel, and the response of the paralyzed man to Christ, are recounted.
What was read yesterday? The Angel, he said, came down into the pool at certain times, and whoever went in first after the stirring of the water was healed from whatever sickness he had. (John 5:4) This signifies the figure of our Lord Jesus Christ to come.
Why the Angel? For he is the Angel of great counsel (Isaiah IX, 6). According to the time that was kept for the last hour, so that at the very setting it might catch the day, and defer the setting. Therefore, as often as the Angel descended, the water was moved. You might ask: Why is it not moved now? Hear why? Signs for unbelievers, faith for believers (I Cor. XIV, 22).
The one who descended first was healed of every infirmity. Who is the first, in time or in honor? Understand both. If in time, the one who descended first was healed before, that is, more from the people of the Jews than from the people of the nations. If in honor, the one who descended first, that is, the one who had the fear of God, the pursuit of justice, the grace of charity, the desire for chastity; he himself was more healed. However, at that time only one was healed, then, I say, in the form of time, the one who descended first alone was cured. How great is the grace of the Church in which all are saved, whoever may enter?
But behold the mystery. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to the pool, and many sick people were lying there. And there were many sick people lying there easily, where only one was healed. Then he said to the paralyzed man: Get up. He said: I have no man (John V, 7). See where you are being baptized. From where is baptism, if not from the cross of Christ, from the death of Christ? There is every mystery, because he suffered for you. In him you are redeemed, in him you are saved.
He said, I do not have a man; that is, because through a man is death, and through a man is the resurrection of the dead (I Cor. 19:21). He could not descend, he could not be saved, who did not believe that our Lord Jesus had taken flesh from the Virgin. But this one who was waiting for the mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, expecting him of whom it was said: And the Lord will send a man to save them (Isaiah 19:4); he said: I do not have a man; and therefore he deserved to come to health, because he believed in the one who was coming. However, it would have been better and more perfect if he had believed that the one he hoped would come had already arrived.