The WORD in LENT - Fourth week, Tuesday
March 21, 2023: Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12; John 5: 1-3,5-16
We have a wonderful imagery to ponder over today: the flowing water that enlivens! Ezekiel speaks of it and John presents it; Ezekiel underlines the presence of the flowing water by the Temple while John points out the very presence of Christ as the life giving spring! Peace is flowing like a river; flowing out of you and me... for the Lord is with us and we are the dwelling place of God.
For the man who had been waiting for 38 years to get into that life giving water, but he could not; there were others who would overtake him, despise him and leave him behind still miserable. Now he has the water come to him. Yes, the fact that Jesus approached him was like the waters came to him, instead of he going to the waters. If you cannot not get to the mountain, the mountain shall get to you, if only you have the humility to let it pass.
The Lord reaches out to us, flows into our lives to enliven us. When Jesus looks at us and asks us, just as he did to the man - "do you want to be well again"? "do you wish to expereince peace in life"? "do you want to be renewed this lent" - what would be our response? A direct, "yes" or "no"? Or, a lamentation on those who do not help, a complaint on the troubles we are facing and so on?
Jesus does not wait for it when it is the rigt time. All that we need to do, is pick up our mat and walk - that we give up the old ways and move ahead, that we leave out our lamentations and complaints and reach out. Jesus invites us indeed, to become the waters that enliven people around us, that we reach out to others and flow into their lives, enlivening them! We need to flow on, we cannot get stuck, neither to our ways nor to our own selves. We need to be filled the Lord and flow on, ensuring peace in our hearts and wherever we are.