Yes, I made a parable haha! Consider the following scenario: You just started college and you’re filled with that youthful, idealistic hope that you will one day land your dream job. You pursue your studies seriously, and along the way, you make friends with other students who are just as passionate and committed to their studies. Now as is so often the case in college life, despite the many freedoms given to college students, not everything goes smoothly. You have the freedom to major in your field of choice, to choose course electives that match your interests, to enlist in those classes taught by your preferred professors, and to join all kinds of fun extracurricular activities, but sometimes you don’t always get what you want. It could be that your desired major only accepts a limited number of applicants (as was the case when I had to audition to major in Choral Conducting), or the course electives you really want aren’t offered during those semesters where you get free electives, or perhaps the professor you want is so popular that his class got fully booked and you’re forced to take the same class under a different professor whom you dislike (again, also speaking from experience…). But hey, why stop there? Allow me to really exaggerate this scenario. Suppose you just happen to be sooooooo unlucky that you aren’t able to land your desired major and you have to settle for a closely related field, you only ever get the sucky electives, you’re always stuck with the professors whom nobody wants, and to top it all off, you’re not very financially blessed, so all you can afford is the lamest food in the cafeteria. Suddenly, college isn’t looking as fun as you envisioned it would be, and you start to wonder if it’s even worth it…
Now suppose that one day, the HR person from your dream job approaches you and gives you a written guarantee, signed by the boss himself, stating that IF you graduate, you will definitely be hired at your dream job. I imagine that would change your entire college experience. Your sights would be so set on graduating that you’d just persevere through all the annoying professors, the late nights of working on your dissertation, the envy of seeing other students enjoying the good fortune of getting all the fun classes and being able to purchase all the yummiest food in the cafeteria – none of it bothers you as much anymore, because at the end of the day you’ve got this signed letter that lets you go to bed at night thinking, “Imma get my dream job!”
You can probably guess what analogy I’m drawing here. The university is your earthly life, and your dream job is the eternal Happiness with God in Heaven. The parable of the university is meant to illustrate the Christian view of one’s temporal, earthly life in relation to the eternal Happiness of Heaven. If you’ve ever been a college student, you know how easy it is to get fixated on the anxieties of college life, and the uncertainty of the future can be overwhelming. But when you have a sense of certainty that the thing you hope for will not disappoint, suddenly you can face just about anything.
I once met a woman who struggled with severe mental health challenges, who had nightmares every time she slept, and she told me that she felt like the man at the pool of Bethesda, particularly how he was portrayed in the hit TV series The Chosen. I will never forget how she said to me, “That’s how I feel, except that I know Jesus isn’t coming to rescue me.” Later, I read a reflection from St. Augustine about Jesus’ healing at the pool of Bethesda. Augustine was grappling with the question that I imagine Jesus’ disciples also grappled with, and The Chosen isn’t shy about bringing it to the fore: Why does Jesus heal some people but not others? Augustine says:
There lay so many there, and yet only one was healed, while He could by a word have raised them all up. What, then, must we understand but that the power and the goodness was doing what souls might, by His deeds, understand for their everlasting salvation, than what bodies might gain for temporal health? For that which is the real health of bodies, and which is looked for from the Lord, will be at the end, in the resurrection of the dead.
- St. Augustine, Tractate 17 on the Gospel of John
In plainer English, Augustine is essentially saying here that Jesus’ act of bodily healing is meant to point toward the hope in the resurrection, that is, these miracles serve to secure that hope which I’ve tried my best to describe in the parable of the university. I do wish that the woman who told me that she felt like the man at the pool of Bethesda may find in her soul that very same hope.
This 5th Sunday of Lent, as we hear about the raising of Lazarus, our music ministry has prepared a lineup of songs that are meant to strengthen that hope in the promise Jesus said He Will fulfill. We look forward to seeing you at Mass!
With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director
