As I read
the scriptures today, I reflected on the life-giving and healing attributes of
water as symbols of God’s countless blessings and abundant mercy.
In Ezekiel,
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” (Ezekiel 47:1-12).
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 a 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 didn’t 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.” (John 5:1-16)
So here we
are on our own faith journey through the river of life. We’ve 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’re waist-deep in God’s countless blessings and abundant
mercy. Finally, as adults, we’ve 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 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.
************************
The Highs
and Lows and Ups and Downs of the Most Holy Rosary
The Glorious
Mysteries
The
Sorrowful Mysteries ended with the Crucifixion on Good Friday; the Glorious
Mysteries pick up with Easter Sunday and the Resurrection and cover the
establishment of the Church at Pentecost Sunday and the unique respect showed
by God to the Mother of His Son at the end of her earthly life.
I. The Resurrection
Brief
meditation:
"Why
seek you the living with the dead? He is not here, but is risen" (Luke 24:5-6). With those words, the
angels greeted the women who had come to Christ's tomb with spices and
ointments, to care for His body. They had found the stone rolled back, and the
tomb empty, and they did not know what to make of it.
But now the
angels continue: "Remember how he spoke unto you, when he was in
Galilee, Saying: The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,
and be crucified, and
the third day rise again" (Luke
24:6-7). And Saint Luke simply says, "And they remembered his
words."
Unless
Christ rose from the dead, Saint Paul tells us,
our faith is in vain. But He did rise from the dead,
and faith—the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen—is
not vain, but a virtue (Hebrews). We
know that Christ's sacrifice on the Cross accomplished our salvation, not
because we know that He died, but because we know that He lives. And in living, He brings new life to all who
have faith in Him.
Scriptural
meditations:
1. "Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall be sorrowful, but your
sorrow shall be turned into joy." (John 16:20)- Hail Mary…
2. "For I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall
take from you." (John 16:22)- Hail
Mary…
3. At early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking
the spices that they had prepared. (Luke
24:1)- Hail Mary…
4. And behold, an angel
of the Lord came down from heaven, and drawing near rolled back the
stone. (Matthew 28:2)- Hail Mary…
5. "Do not be afraid; for I know that you
seek Jesus, who was crucified." (Matthew 28:5)- Hail Mary…
6. "He is not here,
but has risen. Behold the place where they laid Him." (Luke 24:6; Mark 16:6)- Hail Mary…
7. "And behold, He goes before you into
Galilee; there you shall see Him." (Matthew 28:7)- Hail Mary…
8. And they departed quickly from the tomb in fear and great joy.
(Matthew 28:8)- Hail Mary…
9. "I am the
Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me, even if he die, shall
live." (John 11:25)- Hail Mary…
10. "And whoever believes in Me shall never
die." (John 11:26)- Hail Mary…
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