WATER FROM THE NEW JERUSALEM TEMPLE

 

Tuesday, Fourth week of Lent/2024
Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP

Theme: Water from the new Jerusalem Temple

The prophet Ezekiel presents to us his vision of the new Jerusalem Temple. The passage has many symbolic meanings. “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.” We have understood the new Temple of God to be composed of all who worship God in spirit and in truth; thus, the new Temple is spiritual, just as the new Jerusalem is spiritual and no more localized. This Temple faced the East because they believe and model their lives on that of the Lamb, the rising Sun of humanity. He arises with healing rays. Our Lord in his humanity is the rising Sun because he embodies the will of the Father for us. The will of God is our light, healing, sanctification, and all. Hence, all who believe and worship in spirit and in truth have their eyes on their Head, the Lamb of God. The water flowing from under the Temple is their lives characterized by docility to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The water flows from the south of the altar, away from the North, the direction of those who do their own will in imitation of the evil one. The lives of all the redeemed are like water poured out in imitation of the Saviour; hence, the water flows eastward. It carries healing because these are lives lived in conformity with the will of the Father. 

The lives of the saints pool together to become a stream that flows into and mingles with the divine will in all things and everywhere to form a formidable river flowing to the sea impossible to cross. That is to say that the divine will enters and directs all things everywhere and cannot be comprehended by anyone. We understand the angel’s measuring of the flowing water and Ezekiel's crossing as pointing to the nature of the spiritual life, which starts with a simple profession of faith in Jesus Christ and grows into a formidable river of divine mystery and life. The miracle our Lord worked at the Sheep pool in Jerusalem captures the central truth of the vision of the new Temple by Ezekiel. The pool that is occasionally moved or disturbed by an angel to produce healing for the sick is a symbol of the physical Temple in Jerusalem with its formalized and stale worship of God. This old and ritualized worship of God produces a spark of grace rarely to edify the worshippers. What happens occasionally in Judaism is what our Lord Jesus Christ has made constant and pervasive in the new Christian religion. “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? … 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.” The mystery of Jesus Christ is the mystery of the Father’s will for us. Faith in Jesus Christ heals us and makes us sources of healing to others who cross our path daily.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, a genuine faith in your Son Jesus Christ, that our lives may be wholesome and pleasing sacrifice to you always.        

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BECOMING A DEPENDABLE FRIEND

Image
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 6:5-17; Ps 119:12,16,18,27,34-35; Mk 10:1-12 Making and being a Good Friend The usefulness of a faithful friend is the subject discussed in the passage of Sirach we are considering. From the qualities that make a good friend, we understand that faithfulness depends on the perfection we attain in the formative school of wisdom. The first lesson we learn in nature is faithfulness. The quality of faithfulness is so closely aligned with nature that we consider nature and faithfulness synonyms. The faithfulness of nature, and subsequently of wisdom, is hinted at when we read that wisdom stands at her post/gate daily to beckon the passers-by to turn in and partake of her table. Everything that God made participates in this faithfulness of wisdom in the sense that each remains faithful to his will without failing or leading our minds astray. First, Sirach admonishes us on friendliness to people in general: “A kindly turn of speech multiplies a ...
Read more

UNDERSTANDING OUR AFFLICTIONS

Image
ST. JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR Job 1:6-22; Ps 17:1-3,6-7; Lk 9:46-50 Salvation of the Just from the affliction of evil We have the beginning of Job in the first reading today. The reading has many hidden lessons we can learn to foster our relationship with God. The first that seems very obvious is the fact of Satan attending to God with the sons of God. By this, we must understand that every rational creature of God is among his sons. They all attend to God, from whom they receive life and sustenance. God sustains all his creatures in being, both material and immaterial creatures. They also ask God for permission to carry out a course of action. Nothing moves in the heavens and on earth without God knowing and permitting it. The attending of rational creatures is what we call prayer. The good and bad angels pray to God for permission to carry out actions or bring about ends that agree with his divine will. God usually hears or permits these prayers based on his divine justice in acco...
Read more

The offsprings of the Old man and the New Man

Image
Monday, fifth week of lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Offsprings of Old man and New Man To be able to live the new life within the new Covenant in Jesus Christ, the old life must come to an end. The distinctive difference between the old man and the new man is the focus of desires. The old man and all who live by him have their desires focussed on the satisfaction of self. On the other hand, the new man and those living by him desires only to fulfil God's holy will. Thus, the old man and his offspring obey the law of sin and death. Living for self alone breeds sins, and sin causes death. So, the old man and all living by him are dead and harbingers of death to others. They are adept at manipulating the Law of God to perpetuate their interest and selfish desires. An example of this skill is the treatment the two old judges of Israel in Babylon meted out to Susanna, wife of Joachim, employing the Law of Moses as given in the first reading. “Two elderly men had ...
Read more