There are the lame, who sin through weakness: Hebrews 12 : Make straight steps with your feet, so that you do not go lame. - There are the withered, who sin through malice or hardness: Sirach 3 : The hard heart shall fare ill at the last: Sirach 37: O most wicked presumption! Whence were you created to cover the earth with its malice and deceitfulness?
These are healed at the coming of the Angel, that is, of the divine visitation; Job 33 : He rebukes through pain upon the bed, etc. -
After the stirring of the water, that is, of interior weeping: Lamentations 2 : Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Through the descent into the pool of water, that is, the humility of penance: Isaiah 47 : Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans.
QUESTIONS.
15. Question I. Here the inquiry concerns the power of this pool:
1. From where did it have this power, and by what reason was it thus continually conferred upon that pool?
2. Likewise, since the power was so great, how is it that Scripture makes no mention of it? It seems that this was due to the negligence of the writers. — If you say that this power appeared near the time of Christ's passion, it is then asked: why did it appear near the passion, and why did it cease when the passion came?
Some respond that in that pool was the wood of the cross, which at that time began to appear and float to the surface; therefore, to ennoble the trophy of his passion, the Lord willed to show that miracle, and near the passion, because then it began to float, and not after the passion, because the wood was extracted from it.
But because this has no authority from the Scriptures, it is destroyed by the same reason by which it is proved.
On account of this, others say that in that water there was no power, but the Angel descending at a fixed time did this in the water by a power given to him by the Lord. — It must be said, therefore, that this power was given to the Angel in the water as a figure of baptism, in which cleansing is accomplished through water and healing through the Spirit. And therefore it was sent forth near the time of baptism, and when baptism came, it ceased. Therefore, because it lasted a short time and began late, Scripture made no mention of it.
And thus the response to all the objections is clear.
16. Question II. Likewise it is asked: 1. Since it was equally easy for the Lord to cure all as to cure one, and he himself is most generous, why did he not give that water the effect of curing all?
2. Likewise, concerning the Lord himself it is similarly asked: why did he cure only one, when he could cure all as easily as one?
I respond: It must be said that that bodily healing was more as a sign than as a benefit for the one to whom it belonged, for it was ordered to the healing of the soul. Because, therefore, it was ordered to designating and prefiguring that healing, it ought to have been done in the way that would best signify it. And because healing in the Church exists only in the unity of faith and charity, therefore only one was cured.
What is therefore objected does not hold, because it was not only for a benefit, but also for a sign.
17. Question III. But then there is a further question: If it belongs to mercy to have compassion on misery, then where there is greater misery, mercy ought to be more inclined; therefore it was not the one who descended first who ought to have been healed, but the one who was more in need.
I respond: It must be said that, as has been stated, it was a sign of the healing of the soul; and because the soul is healed by God according to its disposition for receiving grace, not according to the gravity of its guilt, therefore the one who descended first and most eagerly obtained health first.
18. Question IV. Likewise it is asked: since the Lord in Matthew chapter nine encourages the paralytic to confidence and from others whom he healed demands a confession of faith, how is it that from this man he asks nothing at all?
I respond: It must be said that we understand that when the Lord healed someone, he left him wholly sound, not only in body but also in soul.
On account of this it must be noted that there were some who had fallen into illness from fault; and because these had to be healed in soul, and the soul is not healed except through faith in Christ, from such persons the Lord required a confession of faith. — Others there were who were infirm for the manifesting of the glory of God, as the man born blind, below in the ninth chapter, and Lazarus who was dead, below in the eleventh chapter; and from such persons the Lord did not require a confession of faith, but rather healed them by pure liberality; and it is of the wondrous healing of such persons that John treats. Because, therefore, this man was of such a kind, he did not require faith from him.
But because this solution is against the Gloss, therefore it must be said that he only requires faith from those who seek salvation.
19. Now it was the Sabbath etc. After the miraculous healing of the paralytic has been described, here secondly the calumniation of the healing is described, in the description of which the Evangelist proceeds in this order. First is introduced the reproof of the healed man; second, the devolution of the calumny upon the healer; third, the manifestation of the healer; fourth, the persecution of him who was manifested; fifth, obstinacy in the persecution.
20. (Vers. 9.). The reproof of the healed man is therefore first introduced from the fact that he was carrying his mat on the day of the Sabbath, on which he had been made well. On account of which, intimating the occasion for calumny, the Evangelist says: Now it was the Sabbath on that day, namely on which he had been healed and was carrying his mat, and on this occasion the Jews were reproving him. Therefore he adds:
21. (Vers. 10.). The Jews therefore said to him who had been made well, calumniating him: It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to take up your mat. For to take up a mat seemed to be servile work, which was forbidden to be done on the Sabbath: Leviticus twenty-three: "The seventh day shall be more solemn and more holy; you shall do no servile work in it."