“Arise and Walk”: Ember Friday, Apostolic Foundations, and the Courage to Be Made Whole
MASS De necessitátibus
LESSON Ezechiel 18:20-28
GOSPEL St John 5:1-15
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
Beloved in Christ,
On this Ember Friday of Lent, Holy Mother Church gathers us spiritually in the ancient Basilica of the Twelve Apostles, where the relics of Saints Philip and James the Less rest as silent witnesses to apostolic fidelity. The Church does nothing casually. On a day marked by fasting, supplication, and historically by ordinations, she leads us back to her foundations — to the Apostles themselves — that we may remember what kind of Church we belong to, and what kind of Christians we are called to be.
The Ember Days are woven into the very sinews of the liturgical year. They consecrate time, the seasons, the fruits of the earth — but above all, they consecrate men. It was upon these days that the Church traditionally ordained her clergy. Fasting and priesthood therefore belong together. The altar is born of sacrifice; authority is sustained by penance.
Yet this day is not only for seminarians. It is for you.
The Lesson from the prophet Ezechiel strikes with austere clarity:
“The soul that sinneth, the same shall die… If the wicked do penance… living he shall live.”
This is moral realism. No inherited guilt excuses us; no past virtue secures us. Each soul stands before God in the present tense. We cannot lean upon yesterday’s fidelity, nor blame yesterday’s wounds. Lent is not a season of vague regret but of concrete amendment.
What does this mean for you, here and now?
It means that the habits you tolerate matter. The compromises you justify matter. The resentments you nurse matter. God does not desire your destruction; He desires your conversion. “Do I will the death of the wicked? saith the Lord God, and not rather that he be converted and live?”
The fairness of God is not the softness of God. His justice is searching because His mercy is real. Lent demands that we stop negotiating with sin.
The Gospel deepens this call.
At the pool of Bethesda lies a man paralysed for thirty-eight years — a lifetime of disappointment, of excuses, of watching others move ahead. When Christ approaches him, He asks a question that cuts to the bone:
“Wilt thou be made whole?”
It is a strange question. Of course he wishes to be healed. And yet Our Lord asks it.
Because paralysis can become identity. Weakness can become comfort. We can grow accustomed to spiritual immobility.
And perhaps that is the question addressed to us today:
Do you want to be made whole?
Do you truly want to be free of the sin you confess repeatedly?
Do you want reconciliation more than you want to be right?
Do you want prayer more than distraction?
Do you want holiness more than reputation?
The paralytic protests: “Sir, I have no man.” He has no one to carry him to the waters.
How often we say the same. No time. No support. No opportunity. No encouragement.
But Christ does not require the waters. He bypasses the system.
“Arise. Take up thy bed. Walk.”
Grace does not wait for perfect circumstances. It commands.
And then comes the warning that gives this Gospel its Lenten edge:
“Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.”
Our Lord links sin with paralysis. Not as crude punishment, but as spiritual causality. Sin binds. It weakens the will. It corrodes joy. It makes the soul heavy.
The faithful, therefore, must hear this Gospel not as distant history but as immediate instruction.
What bed must you take up and carry?
What attachment must you leave behind?
What pattern must you break?
Ember Friday calls you to practical decisions:
Fast seriously. Not symbolically.
Confess honestly. Not defensively.
Pray intentionally. Not mechanically.
Forgive concretely. Not theoretically.
And here we return to the Apostles.
The Basilica of the Twelve Apostles stands as stone testimony that weak men became pillars through grace. They were not naturally heroic. Peter denied. Thomas doubted. Philip misunderstood. Yet they persevered. They allowed Christ to say “Arise” to them again and again.
Apostolicity is not merely a mark of the Church; it must become a mark of the Christian. You are baptised into apostolic faith. That means fidelity in doctrine, courage in witness, sacrifice in charity.
Today, pray also for priests — yes. But do not neglect the priesthood of your baptism. Every father must exercise a kind of priesthood in his home. Every mother mediates grace through sacrifice. Every single soul bears responsibility for witness. The health of the clergy and the health of the laity rise and fall together.
If priests are weak, the people suffer.
If the people are indifferent, priests grow cold.
Ember penance binds us together.
In an age that denies personal responsibility, Ezechiel restores it. In a culture that excuses sin, Christ commands amendment. In a Church tempted toward managerialism, the Apostles remind us that sanctity, not strategy, built the Kingdom.
Beloved, Lent is not theatre. It is surgery.
The Divine Physician stands before you and asks:
“Wilt thou be made whole?”
If your answer is yes, then rise.
Rise from bitterness.
Rise from impurity.
Rise from spiritual laziness.
Rise from despair.
Take up your bed — carry the memory of what once bound you — and walk in newness of life.
And sin no more.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. n.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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