for March 24
Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent

Today’s first reading has an angel taking the prophet Ezekiel somewhere which suggests a kind of visionary experience. We know it’s a vision because Ezekiel is taken to the temple in Jerusalem. He needs to be taken there because he is in exile with his Jewish people and in fact the temple itself has been completely destroyed. The vision has ever larger amounts of water flowing from the temple and Ezekiel is challenged whether he sees, that is understands, what is happening. Part of what he is told is that the water makes the sea, the saltwaters, fresh. That’s a reference to the Dead Sea which we know, and they probably did back then know too, such would never happen. Nor are there likely fruit trees around that bear fresh fruit every month. Thus the concept is that when God, as symbolized by the temple, finally intervenes, it will be as wonderful as if such things actually happened.

The use of water as a symbol of life is traditional and it’s a quite apposite reminder for Christians during this Lent season since in the early church and again today Lent is the special time for those preparing at Easter to be baptized, the reception of spiritual life.

Water is also involved in today’s gospel though in a more subordinate manner. Jesus has gone to Jerusalem to celebrate a Jewish feast as he regularly does. There he encounters a man by a pool with supposedly healing water who has been ill for thirty-eight years. Affirming his desire to be well, Jesus tells the man to rise, take his mat, and walk, exactly what the man does. Notice as often in the gospels that the word rise is related to the word raised which will be applied to Jesus’ resurrection.

But then the story takes a different turn when the healed man is challenged by the Jewish authorities for carrying his mat on the sabbath, possibly a reference to a command from the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament to take care not to carry burdens on the sabbath day. Though at that point the man did not know who Jesus was since we are told Jesus slipped away in the crowd, Jesus encounters him again in the temple area, exactly where you might expect one so cured to go to give thanks to God. Somewhat surprisingly Jesus warns him not to sin, perhaps encouraging him to keep belief in Jesus who healed him, precisely what the Jewish authorities cannot do because they are unable to accept even a healing done on the sabbath.

Besides praying for those preparing for baptism, we also remember how right now we are not able to celebrate our sabbath, the Christian Sunday, as we normally would. And so we invoke God, the source of all life, to strengthen us, and especially those infected with the coronavirus and those caring for them. As our responsorial psalm reminded us, God is our ever-present help in distress.
–Edward O’Donnell SJ

Each day’s readings are available at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.