Water was a symbol of God’s saving grace.

We’ve seen the brokenness continue, we’ve seen sin and exile and longing.

Flowing out from under the Temple,

It is to be understood as a healing, life-giving water.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12*

The man brought me

Back to the entrance of the temple and I saw water coming out from the threshold of the temple and flowing eastward. (...) The man then said to me, "Son of man, did you see?" He led me on further and then brought me back to the bank of the river. There I saw a number of trees on both sides of the river. He said to me, "This water goes to the east, down to the Arabah, and when it flows into the sea of foul-smelling water, the water will become wholesome.

 

Wherever the river flows, swarms of creatures will live in it; fish will be plentiful and the seawater will become fresh. Wherever it flows, life will abound. (...)

 

Ps 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9 The Lord of hosts is with us;our stronghold is the God of Jacob.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

John 5:1-16

After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went to Jerusalem. Now, by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, there is a pool (called Bethzatha in Hebrew) surrounded by five galleries. In these galleries lay a multitude of sick people: blind, lame and paralyzed. (All were waiting for the water to move, for at times an angel of the Lord would descend into the pool and stir up the water; and the first person to enter the pool, after this movement of the water, would be healed of whatever disease that he had.)

 

There was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him, and because he knew how long this man had been lying there, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" And the sick man answered, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; so while I am still on my way, another steps down before me."

 

Jesus then said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk!" And at once the man was healed and he took his mat and walked.

Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed, "It is the Sabbath and the law doesn't allow you to carry your mat." He answered them, "The one who healed me said to me, "Take up your mat and walk!" They asked him, "Who is the one who said to you: Take up your mat and walk?" But the sick man had no idea who it was who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the crowd that filled the place.

 

Afterward Jesus met him in the temple court and told him, "Now you are well; don't sin again, lest something worse happen to you." And the man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jews persecuted Jesus because he performed healings like that on the Sabbath.

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"God heals."

Today's Gospel narrates the third sign or miracle performed by Jesus in the Gospel of John, which is the healing of the lame man by the pool of Bethzatha.

When Jesus asked the sick man about his desire to be healed, the reply of the latter revealed his sentiment that nobody would care to help him. His words betray the general condition of the people around the miraculous pool. The water of the pool, when stirred by an angel, was believed to be a source of healing for the first person to descend into the water after the angelic stirring.

 

We may wonder that if only the people at Bethzatha then would rather help each other to descend into the stirred water instead of being too concerned about one's own wellbeing, could the story have taken a different course? The healing that God offers is, after all, for everyone and not only for the first in the race. God can always provide healing for everybody all at once but why would this particular story narrate otherwise? Could it be God's way of teaching us the value of reaching out to each other and of caring for one another?