20200324
BAPTISMAL
WATER HEALS AND RESTORES US TO LIFE
24 March, 2020, Tuesday, 4th
Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Ezekiel 47:1-9,12 ©
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Wherever the water flows, it will bring life and health
The angel brought
me to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream came out from under the Temple
threshold and flowed eastwards, since the Temple faced east. The water flowed
from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar. He took me out by
the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate
where the water flowed out on the right-hand side. The man went to the east
holding his measuring line and measured off a thousand cubits; he then made me
wade across the stream; the water reached my ankles. He measured off another
thousand and made me wade across the stream again; the water reached my knees.
He measured off another thousand and made me wade across again; the water
reached my waist. He measured off another thousand; it was now a river which I
could not cross; the stream had swollen and was now deep water, a river
impossible to cross. He then said, ‘Do you see, son of man?’ He took me
further, then brought me back to the bank of the river. When I got back, there
were many trees on each bank of the river. He said, ‘This water flows east down
to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters
wholesome. Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will
live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings
health, and life teems wherever the river flows. Along the river, on either
bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and
fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this
water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the
leaves medicinal.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 45(46):2-3,5-6,8-9ab ©
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The
Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
God
is for us a refuge and strength,
a
helper close at hand, in time of distress,
so we
shall not fear though the earth should rock,
though
the mountains fall into the depths of the sea.
The
Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
The
waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the
holy place where the Most High dwells.
God
is within, it cannot be shaken;
God
will help it at the dawning of the day.
The
Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
The
Lord of hosts is with us:
the
God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Come,
consider the works of the Lord,
the
redoubtable deeds he has done on the earth.
The
Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Ps50:12,14
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Praise
and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
A
pure heart create for me, O God,
and
give me again the joy of your help.
Praise
and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Gospel
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John 5:1-3,5-16 ©
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The healing at the pool of Bethesda
There was a
Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now at the Sheep Pool in
Jerusalem there is a building, called Bethzatha in Hebrew, consisting of five
porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people – blind, lame,
paralysed – waiting for the water to move. One man there had an illness
which had lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and
knew he had been in this condition for a long time, he said, ‘Do you want to be
well again?’ ‘Sir,’ replied the sick man ‘I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets
there before me.’ Jesus said, ‘Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.’ The
man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.
Now
that day happened to be the sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been
cured, ‘It is the sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.’ He
replied, ‘But the man who cured me told me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”’ They
asked, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Pick up your mat and walk”?’ The man
had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled
the place. After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, ‘Now you are
well again, be sure not to sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.’
The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. It was
because he did things like this on the sabbath that the Jews began to persecute
Jesus.
BAPTISMAL WATER
HEALS AND RESTORES US TO LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EZEKIEL
47:1-9, 12; PS 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9; JOHN 5:1-3,5-16 ]
Many people are like the
paralyzed man in today’s gospel. “At
the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem there is a building, called Bethzatha, consisting
of five porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people – blind, lame,
paralyzed.” We are also paralyzed by the woes of life, meaninglessness
and helplessness in the face of our problems. For others, they are
blind, lame and dying. They feel alone in their
suffering. As the man said, “I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets
there before me.” Like the paralyzed man we are resigned to the state of
life we are in. We have lost the will to live, the hope to be well
again. We have given up on life.
If we are feeling
hopeless about life and the predicament we are in; the Lord is coming to give
us new life. He has come
to heal us, take away our paralysis and enable us to walk again. Without
hesitation, Jesus took the initiative to heal the man. Jesus said, “Get
up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.” He was cured at once, and
“he picked up his mat and walked away.” This is the desire of God for
all. God wants us to be restored to fullness of life. This was what
the Lord said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
This new life is given
to us at our baptism.
The Sheep Pool is the baptismal font in our churches. It was believed in
those days that when the angel stirred the water in the pool, the first one who
got in would be healed. When we are baptized, the angel also stirs the
water figuratively. The water for baptism has been sanctified by Christ
in the power of the Holy Spirit. When Christ entered into the waters in
the river Jordan, He sanctified all waters for the use of baptism. Water
becomes for us the symbol of cleansing, restoration, purification and the
beginning of new life.
In the first reading
from the book of Ezekiel, the angel
told the prophet, “This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and
flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome. Wherever the river
flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very
plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems
wherever the river flows. Along with the river, on either bank, will grow
every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never
fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the
sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves
medicinal.” Indeed, this water has healing properties. It
gives life and makes everything fruitful.
For some reason, the
scripture text for the liturgy omits a phrase, “and when it enters the sea, the
sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh.” (Ezekiel 47:8) As a result, readers miss out the
significance of the waters that flowed down to the Arabah which leads to the
Dead Sea. In this sea, the water is so salty because there is no
outlet. Nothing can survive in this lake; that is why it is called the
Dead Sea. The angel was telling the prophet that even the Dead Sea,
which is a symbol of Israel dead in their sins, would be refreshed again and
bear fruits in plenty, and become life-giving to all, wherever it flows.
This is what the Lord is promising us as well. If we allow ourselves to
go into the waters of baptism, we will rise again, renewed, restored and become
fruitful once again. This is because our sins are forgiven, our soul is
purified, and our body is restored to wholeness.
When our sins are
forgiven, our body will also find restoration. The man who was paralyzed for 38 years
reminds us of how the Israelites who rebelled at Kadesh were made to wander in
the desert for 38 years as a punishment from God because of their lack of
faith. (cf Num 14; Dt 2) What
happened was that a few leaders were sent over to Jordan to recce the Promised
Land which the Lord gave to them. But upon returning, they lost
courage because they said that whilst the land was fertile with crops, the
inhabitants were like giants. Those who had gone up said, “We are not
able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we, all the
people that we saw in it are of great size and to ourselves we seemed like
grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” (Num
13:31-33) So the people were afraid to enter the Promised Land to
occupy it for fear of them.
Now, when we commit sin,
we too rebel against God.
This was why when the Lord saw the healed man again, the Lord reminded him,
“Now you are well again, be sure not to sin any more, or something worse may
happen to you.” It is sin that causes us to be emotionally,
psychologically and physically sick. When we fail to live a holistic
life, a life of integrity, a life of love and surrender to the Lord’s
providence, when we become ambitious, greedy, angry and selfish, we lose our
peace of mind which ultimately also affects the condition of our body.
Of course, forgiveness
of sins and new life is made possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. The stream that flows to the Arabah
is the Holy Spirit that enables us to live the life of Christ. The Holy
Spirit enables us to live again by anointing us with the love of God, the life
of God. Hence, through the waters of baptism, the Holy Spirit is imparted
to us and we are born again, as God’s children. We are made new in
Christ. If we want to find new life, we must come to Christ. This
is what baptism does for us. Faith in Christ enables us to walk in the
life of Christ and share in God’s life. Baptism is the explicit expression
of our faith in Christ and our desire to walk the way Jesus has shown to us.
In this sense, the
scripture readings are not only meant for catechumens preparing for baptism but
also for those of us who already baptized. If we are baptized, and we have lost our zeal
for the gospel, or if our life is sterile, or if we are emotionally and
psychologically sick it is because we do not take the gospel seriously.
We have failed to live according to the way Christ has shown us how to
live. If baptism is to profess in Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the
Life, then we must be ready to turn away from a sinful life and live in the new
life of Christ. St Paul urges us, “How can we who died to sin go on
living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been
buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
(Rom 6:2-4)
This is why the Lord warns us, “be sure not to sin any more.”
However, it is even more
dangerous when we become obstacles of growth to others. Some of us who are stagnant in our
faith, like the waters at Arabah, seek to prevent others from growing in
faith. This is what the world is doing. Worldly people live a
sinful life and a life of vanity and they are not happy that religious and
God-fearing people are living a life of truth and love. Sometimes,
we can behave like the religious leaders who were imprisoned by their narrow
interpretation of the Law of Moses. They sought to practice them in such
a way that hinders the life of God from being shared with others.
A case in point is the
application of the Sabbath Law.
Whilst the commandment requires that we keep the Sabbath holy, the religious
leaders spelt it out that it must be a day of complete rest. Even doing
good was forbidden on the Sabbath unless it was life threatening. Jesus
did not accept such an interpretation of the Law because as He justified His
action later, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” (Jn 5:17)
Indeed, while we should rest from doing unnecessary work, it does not mean we
cannot do anything at all, especially when it is for the good of others.
So we must not allow our narrow understanding of religion and religious laws to
hinder people from coming to God and to know Christ. A Christian who is
not reaching out will not only destroy his own faith but become an obstacle for
the Church to grow. Let us not be obstacles of faith but let our whole
life be fruitful like the river that flows from the temple of God.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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