The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today use powerful water imagery to invite contemplation of the Presence of God as refuge, strength, and ever present help.
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| Life in the water |
The Prophet Ezekiel proclaims the restorative power of God in the Temple in the image of a Wonderful Stream.
* [47:1–12] The life and refreshment produced wherever the Temple stream flows evoke the order and abundance of paradise (cf. Gn 1:20–22; 2:10–14; Ps 46:5) and represent the coming transformation Ezekiel envisions for the exiles and their land. Water signifies great blessings and evidence of the Lord’s presence (cf. Jl 2:14).1
In Psalm 46 the divine presence is praised as the source of all life.
* [46:5] Jerusalem is not situated on a river. This description derives from mythological descriptions of the divine abode and symbolizes the divine presence as the source of all life (cf. Is 33:21; Ez 47:1–12; Jl 4:18; Zec 14:8; Rev 22:1–2).2
In the Gospel from John, Jesus asks the paralytic if he seeks to be well resulting in a Cure on a Sabbath.
* [5:1–47] The self-revelation of Jesus continues in Jerusalem at a feast. The third sign (cf. Jn 2:11; 4:54) is performed, the cure of a paralytic by Jesus’ life-giving word. The water of the pool fails to bring life; Jesus’ word does.3
Edward Morse comments that like Ezekiel, we need to see, sit, and contemplate this lesson.
Ezekiel knew that God was showing him something powerful, but God also chose to keep a deeper mystery within this story, which he did not even reveal to Ezekiel. Revelation of that mystery would have to wait until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blood and water that flowed from his pierced side on the cross became the trickle that flowed from his body, the true fulfillment of all that the temple could represent in former times. This water of life flows out and changes all that it touches, much like a river flowing through time, reaching even people like us.4
Don Schwager quotes “Christ our physician,” by Augustine of Hippo, 430-543 A.D.
"Our wound is serious, but the Physician is all-powerful. Does it seem to you so small a mercy that, while you were living in evil and sinning, He did not take away your life, but brought you to belief and forgave your sins? What I suffer is serious, but I trust the Almighty. I would despair of my mortal wound if I had not found so great a Physician." (excerpt from Sermon 352,3)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 5:1-16 notes that whether it is a sickness of mind, spirit, or body that afflicts us, we can grow accustomed to it. We don’t really expect things to ever change. In fact, we may even fear how we would live without it.
Do you want to be well? “Lord, I don’t know what becoming well will require of me. I may have to let go of a grudge so that I can receive the grace to forgive. I may have to do new things or encounter new situations that take me out of my comfort zone.”6
Friar Jude Winkler expands the image of the Temple as source of living water to suggest that love and peace emanate from our liturgy too. The juxtaposition of the pool with the five porticos to a pagan healing shrine indicates a Healing tradition associated with the location. Friar Jude explores our response to the challenge of not wanting to be made well.
James Finley, one of CAC’s core faculty members, reflects on how hard it is for our ego to surrender to the path of descent, to the transformative process.
When we sit in meditation, we take the little child of our ego self off to school, where we must learn to die to our illusions about being dualistically other than God. We must also die to any grandiose delusions that we are God. In meditation, we learn to wait with compassion and patience until we are ready to take our next faltering step into a deeper realization of oneness with God. This tender point of encounter is Christ, understood as God in our midst, listening, loving, and helping God’s children across the threshold into eternal oneness with God.7
The disturbed water that rushes by and invites us to exchange our comfortable sickness for unimaginable vitality and growth is intimidating. In the calm of contemplation we are more open to feel the hand of the Shepherd calling us to deeper experience of truth, beauty and goodness in the Love of the Spirit.
References
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(n.d.). Ezekiel, chapter 47 - usccb. Retrieved April 2, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/47
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(n.d.). psalm 46 - usccb. Retrieved April 2, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/psalms46.htm
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(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries - Creighton University. Retrieved April 2, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
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(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 2, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
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(n.d.). Saint Francis of Paola, Hermit (Optional Memorial) - Mass Readings .... Retrieved April 2, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/2019/04/02
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(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive: April 2019 - Daily Meditations Archives .... Retrieved April 2, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/2019/04
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