The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to consider our reluctance to change long standing patterns in our lives that may be keeping us from fullness of life.
Life and Grace
The reading from the Prophet Ezekiel is a vision of the wonderful stream of water flowing from the Temple.
* [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
Psalm 46 praises God’s defence of His City and People.
* [Psalm 46] A song of confidence in God’s protection of Zion with close parallels to Ps 48. The dominant note in Ps 46 is sounded by the refrain, The LORD of hosts is with us (Ps 46:8, 12). The first strophe (Ps 46:2–4) sings of the security of God’s presence even in utter chaos; the second (Ps 46:5–8), of divine protection of the city from its enemies; the third (Ps 46:9–11), of God’s imposition of imperial peace.2
In the Gospel of John, Jesus heals on the Sabbath.
* [5:17] Sabbath observance (10) was based on God’s resting on the seventh day (cf. Gn 2:2–3; Ex 20:11). Philo and some rabbis insisted that God’s providence remains active on the sabbath, keeping all things in existence, giving life in birth and taking it away in death. Other rabbis taught that God rested from creating, but not from judging (=ruling, governing). Jesus here claims the same authority to work as the Father, and, in the discourse that follows, the same divine prerogatives: power over life and death (Jn 5:21, 24–26) and judgment (Jn 5:22, 27).3
Tamora Whitney reflects that there are rules against labour on the Sabbath. Perhaps Jesus should not be healing on the Sabbath, and certainly no one should be carrying anything on the Sabbath.
The Jews were concerned about this – who is this man who encouraged such law-breaking. The now well man didn’t know, and there was a big crowd. But then Jesus came to him and said, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more.” Then the man told the Jews who had healed him and encouraged him to carry his mat, so they persecuted Jesus for doing this on the Sabbath.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 Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 comments that like any fruit grower, we will most certainly encounter times of drought and depletion. But Ezekiel’s vision is not just imaginary or reserved for a future age. Speaking about the gift of the Spirit—which we have already received—Jesus says, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink” (John 7:37; see 7:39).
So as often as you experience dry or barren times—even if that’s daily or hourly—Jesus wants you to ask him for the life of his Spirit. Today, as you sit in prayer, believe that you are entering into God’s life-giving stream, even if you don’t feel all that different. Let the truths of his unconditional love and mercy help refresh and restore you so that you too can bear fruit—even today—for his kingdom. “Come, Holy Spirit. Soak me with your life so that I may bear fruit.”6
Friar Jude Winkler discusses Ezekiel’s vision in Babylon of a reconstructed Temple. The seemingly odd question of Jesus about wanting to be healed is a reflection for all of us. Friar Jude reminds us that the Law does not keep us from deeds that share life.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, believes that we must learn to name and to live with our fears instead of merely denying them or projecting them onto others.
That’s probably why the Bible says “Do not be afraid” almost 150 times! If we cannot calmly hold a certain degree of anxiety, we will always look for somewhere to expel it. Expelling what we can’t embrace gives us an identity, but it’s a negative identity. It’s not life energy, it’s death energy. Formulating what we are against gives us a very quick and clear sense of ourselves. Thus, most people fall for it. People more easily define themselves by what they are against, by whom they hate, by who else is wrong, instead of by what they believe in and whom they love.7
Even the change, prompted by the Spirit, that promises greater fullness in life may be threatening to our contentment with things as they are.
References
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