"Living Waters"

Today's Mass Readings

In the first reading for today from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, we find Ezekiel’s vision of the living water flowing from the Heavenly Temple. The image is reminiscent of Revelation chapter 21 and its depiction of the Heavenly Jerusalem and Jesus’ water of life. In Ezekiel’s passage this water is so overflowing and powerful, that it is depicted as turning the salt water of the sea, and presumably the Dead Sea as well, into fresh water. Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple, which appears to be the Temple of old that was built in Jerusalem, has been interpreted by the Church Fathers as the Heavenly Temple, namely Jesus. In the Book of Revelation, no temple is found in the Heavenly Jerusalem, because Jesus is the Temple. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus refers to His own body as the Temple.

The Responsorial Psalm for today can be seen as going along with this image of living water which gives life, when it reads, “There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God.” The stream of water in Ezekiel causes salt water to turn into fresh water, and life to flourish along its banks. The stream in Psalm 46 gladdens the city of God.

We find another reference to this living water in today’s Gospel passage. Jesus approaches the pool of Bethesda. The pool of Bethesda was thought to contain healing waters that could cure the sick, the blind, and the lame. Jesus encounters a man who is extremely ill, but who has thus far been unable to immerse himself in the healing waters of Bethesda because each time he makes the difficult effort to go into the water, someone gets in his way and beats him to it. Jesus is the true healing water. The living waters which cause life to flourish come from Jesus, our Heavenly Temple. When Jesus died upon the cross, blood and water flowed from his side after the Roman centurion pierced Jesus? flesh with a lance. The Church Fathers have consistently viewed this flow of blood and water as representing Baptism and the Eucharist. It is from Jesus that the living waters flow. Notice that water flowed from Jesus? side at His crucifixion, His sacrifice. In Ezekiel’s vision, it is from the altar in the Temple that the water flows. Altars are places of sacrifice. The Temple altar is where the ritual sacrifices take place. In the Gospel reading for today, the ill man is healed, not from the pool of Bethesda, which He is continually unable to enter, but rather from Jesus? healing work. Jesus makes the ill man well, not the waters of Bethesda. We too have an altar from which flows the living water.

At the altar during Mass, Jesus’ once and for all sacrifice is re-presented for us in the Eucharist. As Lent proceeds and we approach the Easter season, let the joy of the risen Christ, our baptismal joy, propel us forth. Let us bring the living waters of Christ to others, as they have been brought to us, but our parents, godparents, and friends. Let us really prepare ourselves for wading in the stream of the living waters flowing from the altar in the Temple which is Christ this Easter.