11 “But he that was made whole knew not who it was” that had said this to him. “For Jesus,” when He had done this, and given him this order, “turned away from him in the crowd.” See how this also is fulfilled. We bear our neighbor, and walk towards God; but Him, to whom we are walking, we do not yet see: for that reason also, that man did not yet know Jesus. The mystery herein intimated to us is, that we believe in Him whom we do not yet see; and that He may not be seen, He turns aside in the crowd.
It is difficult in a crowd to see Christ: a certain solitude is necessary for our mind; it is by a certain solitude of contemplation that God is seen. A crowd has noise; this seeing requires secrecy. “Take up your bed”— being yourself borne, bear your neighbor; “and walk,” that you may come to the goal. Do not seek Christ in a crowd: He is not as one of a crowd; He excels all crowd. That great fish first ascended from the sea, and He sits in heaven making intercession for us: as the great high priest He entered alone into that within the veil; the crowd stands without.
Do thou walk, bearing your neighbor: if you have learned to bear, you, who were wont to be borne. In a word, even now as yet you know not Jesus, not yet see Jesus: what follows thereafter? Since that man desisted not from taking up his bed and walking, “Jesus sees him afterwards in the temple.” He did not see Jesus in the crowd, he saw Him in the temple. The Lord Jesus, indeed, saw him both in the crowd and in the temple; but the impotent man does not know Jesus in the crowd, but he knows Him in the temple. The man came then to the Lord: saw Him in the temple, saw Him in a consecrated, saw Him in a holy place. And what does the Lord say to him? “Behold, you are made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing befall you.”
Source: Tractates on the Gospel of John (New Advent)