Today's First Reading Ezekiel 47:1-9
This photograph should recall the words of Ezekiel, "and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the the temple toward the east ...."
The three readings from today's liturgy are reminders of the healing powers of water. From the temple to the raging seas to the restorative waters of the Bethesda pool, the readings take up to an awareness that God is ever present to bring us healing, to restore us both in body and soul when there is a need.
The gospel reading, the well-known Bethesda pool healing story, reminds us that there is more often than not a responsibility each of us has to seek our own healing when it is that is necessary. Miracles do happen but more often than not, we have to ask for those special graces to bring about a needed restoration. I have used the word "restoration" because it does remind me of the up-to-date hardware stores that actually find a home in malls, Restoration Hardware. Walk into the store and you find quite a variety of items to restore your home at an upscale price! But if you do walk through one of these contemporary operations, you are reminded of the many areas in a home that may (or truly may not) need sprucing up, in need of some restoration. Just as Jesus said to the sick man at the Bethesda pool, "Do you want to be well?", the salesperson in the store will ask you "Can I help you (make your home better)?"
From the days of our baptism when we first encountered the "waters of religion," through those moments when our lives may have been like raging seas, to the moment when we sensed that God was knocking at the door of our hearts and souls, the waters of God care have been made available to help us restore ourselves to the self that down deep each of us wishes to experience.
And so it is with this season of Lent. We are given so many different streams of purifying graces, waters that heal our souls. Then, at the end of the Bethesda pool story we hear what Jesus said to the healed man when he later met him: "Look, you are well; do not sin any more so that nothing worse may happen to you." The same message is given to us ... each time we complete the Sacrament of Reconciliation."
Your sins are forgiven now. Go forth from this moment of restoration and don't sin any more.
