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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The power of water

Today's liturgy is full of the power of water. Water cleanses, water gives life. The entrance antiphon calls us to "Come to the waters, all who thirst; though you have no money, come and drink with joy."
The reading from Ezechiel 47 has water flowing from the temple and getting deeper until it becomes a river and "Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live...along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow, their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit for they shall be watered from the sanctuary."
In the Gospel we have waters that cure. Jesus asks the man by the pool, "Do you want to get well?" Jesus cures him who had no one to put him into the water.
Jesus just told him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk." He had been ill for 38 years so it must have been a shock! Later Jesus finds him and says, "do not sin any more." So simple as water is such a common image but one of grace that flows, cleanses, makes fruitful.

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