Scripture:
Reflection:
Both readings today reflect the life-giving and healing attributes of water as symbols of God’s countless blessings and abundant mercy.
In the first reading the angel shows Ezekiel the river “flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple”. Ezekiel first experiences the water as a small stream which is “ankle deep”. As he moves on further the water becomes a larger stream which is “knee deep”. Thereafter, it becomes a rivulet which is “waist deep”. Finally, the water accumulates as a river “through which I could not wade; it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming”. The life-giving and transformative power of this water sustains every kind of living creature that can multiply, including abundant fish, fruit trees of every kind which will bear fruit every month. The abundant fruit serves as food and the leaves as medicine. Keep in mind that this life-giving water is represented as flowing from the holy temple of Jerusalem.
Six centuries after Ezekiel’s encounter with the angel, John’s gospel portrays purportedly healing pool of water in Jerusalem called Bethesda with five porticoes (roof-covered porches). Herein lay a large number of ill, blind, lame and crippled, including one man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem on a feast of the Jews where he encounters and heals the man. When Jesus asks the man “Do you want to be well?”, the man replies “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me”. Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat and walk.” The man did so.
Note that Jesus did not ask the man to bathe in the pool to be healed as was the tradition at the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus demonstrated that His healing power surpassed anything that could be expected from the pool, including not only the man’s physical infirmities but his, spiritual ones as well. Later Jesus finds the same man in the temple area and says to him “Look, you are well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse will happen to you.”
So here we are on our own faith journey through the river of life. We have received the healing and forgiving power of God’s water at our baptism where we waded through the stream of God’s love and kindness. As children, we learned that God’s life-giving and healing powers were more abundant and necessary than we appreciated as children, carrying us along the stream up to our knees. Then, as young adults, if we remain faithful, we are waist-deep in God’s countless blessings and abundant mercy. Finally, as adults, we have had to learn to swim to cross the river that we all one day hope to cross. Of course, our coach is there for each stroke that we take: “Look, you are well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse will happen to you.” So let us keep on swimming. Remember that the surface of the earth is covered by 71% water, so we still have a long way to swim. Yet all of that water is a “drop in the bucket” compared to God’s countless blessings and abundant mercy which we can count on to finish our journey.
Bill Berger has had a lifelong relationship with the Passionist Family. Bill and his wife, Linda, are currently leaders of the Community of Passionist Partners (CPP’s) in Houston, Texas.