Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
(Ezekiel 47:1-9 and12; John 5:1-16)
“Crops grow where water flows.” The agricultural lobby posts signs along rural highways with this and similar messages. They want to remind the public that we should not take water for granted. It may fall from the sky, but often costly government programs have to preserve and channel water if it is to nurture life.
Both readings today illustrate the life-giving power of water. In the reading from the prophet Ezekiel the Temple waters flow to produce abundant plant and aquatic life. We should see this water as a kind of grace that provides both nutrition and healing for God’s people. In the reading from the Gospel of John the crippled man cannot avail himself of the Temple waters so Jesus heals him directly. Jesus becomes a more reliable fount of grace than the Temple waters which stir only intermittently and whose effectiveness fades.
Jesus can come to us in ten thousand ways. But the channels that he has formally established are the seven sacraments. In Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Healing, Marriage and Orders Jesus both heals us and empowers us to serve others. We should not take these sacraments for granted. To keep grace flowing in our lives we need to take advantage of the Sacraments of Penance and of Eucharist regularly and of the other sacraments when occasions for them call.
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