April 1, 2025
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 245
Reading 1
Ezekiel
47:1-9, 12
The angel brought me, Ezekiel,
back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD,
and I saw water flowing out
from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,
for the façade of the temple was toward the east;
the water flowed down from the right side of the temple,
south of the altar.
He led me outside by the north gate,
and around to the outer gate facing the east,
where I saw water trickling from the right side.
Then when he had walked off to the east
with a measuring cord in his hand,
he measured off a thousand cubits
and had me wade through the water,
which was ankle-deep.
He measured off another thousand
and once more had me wade through the water,
which was now knee-deep.
Again he measured off a thousand and had me wade;
the water was up to my waist.
Once more he measured off a thousand,
but there was now a river through which I could not wade;
for the water had risen so high it had become a river
that could not be crossed except by swimming.
He asked me, "Have you seen this, son of man?"
Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit.
Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides.
He said to me,
"This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
R. (8) The Lord of hosts is with us; our
stronghold is the God of Jacob.
God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
R. The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.
R. The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Come! behold the deeds of the LORD,
the astounding things he has wrought on earth.
R. The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Verse Before the Gospel
Psalm
51:12a, 14a
A clean heart create for me, O God;
give me back the joy of your salvation.
Gospel
John
5:1-16
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
"Do you want to be well?"
The sick man answered him,
"Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."
Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk."
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
"It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat."
He answered them, "The man who made me well told me,
'Take up your mat and walk.'"
They asked him,
"Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?"
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
"Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you."
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a sabbath.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040125.cfm
Commentary on
Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
About today’s passage from Ezekiel, the Vatican II
Missal states:
“In the Middle East, desert land was commonplace and water
all-important. Water was a symbol of God’s saving grace. The prophet Ezekiel
described a future idealised Temple, the source of deepening waters and fertile
abundance.”
A marvellous river, flowing out from under the Temple, is a
manifestation of the blessings conferred on the land by Yahweh’s return to live
among his people. It is linked in today’s Gospel with the healing of the man
who was waiting for the waters of the ‘Sheep Pool’ to move.
The First Reading describes an ever-increasing stream of
water flowing out from the Temple. It is to be understood as a healing,
life-giving water. And, in the background, there is the image of the river
flowing through the Garden of Eden, a symbol of the life that God gives to all
creation. In the world of the Middle East, a world of parched deserts, water
signifies great blessings, just as dryness and drought signify a curse.
Although not fed by any tributaries, the river continues to
increase remarkably, until it is too deep to wade across. The banks of the
river are seen to have an abundance of trees, again reminiscent of the
fertility of Eden (Gen 2:9). The river flows on into the deep depression that
marks the course of the River Jordan and into the Dead Sea, so named because
its high salt level makes life impossible. But it is to be understood that the
river will make the Dead Sea’s waters wholesome. Literally, the angel says that
the river will ‘heal’ the waters of the Sea:
…when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the
water will become fresh.
That this lowest (1,300 feet below sea level) and incredibly
salty (about 35 percent) body of water should be able to sustain such an
abundance of life indicates the wonderful renewing power of this “river of the
water of life” (Rev 22:1).
The prophet says:
…there will be very many fish once these waters reach
there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes.
Here we have the image of miraculous water flowing from the
Temple and conferring a marvellous fertility. The power of the water is such
that, as it flows into the Dead Sea where nothing can live because of its
saltiness, the sea flourishes with fish, and fruit trees of every kind grow
along its shores. There are overtones of the creation of the teeming waters in
the Creation story (Gen 1:20-21). Ezekiel writes:
Wherever the river goes…everything will live…
In the context of the Gospel, this water is the Life that
Jesus gives:
…whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John
6:35)
Truly, this is a symbol of the kind of life that God wishes
us to share with him. Jesus says:
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
Let us during this Lenten season experience the healing
power of Jesus, a healing power which was initiated at our Baptism, but which
needs to continue for as long as we live.
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Commentary on John
5:1-3,5-16
Today we see Jesus back in Jerusalem for an unnamed
festival. He goes to the pool near the Sheep Gate. John says it had five
porticoes, and indeed, the ruins of such a pool have been excavated in recent
times. Around the pool are large numbers of people—blind, lame and paralysed.
These are the ailments that we Christians often suffer from:
blindness—we cannot
see where Jesus is leading us or where we should go in life;
lameness and
paralysis—we can see, but have difficulty walking or even moving along Christ’s
Way.
During this Lenten season, let us hear Jesus asking us the
question he puts to the man:
Do you want to be made well?
Unable to walk for 38 years, the man has been trying to get
into the water when it is “disturbed”, but someone else always gets in before
him. It seems that a spring in the pool bubbled up from time to time, and it
was believed to have curative qualities. Some older versions of the New
Testament at this point included the line:
For [from time to time] an angel of the
Lord used to come down into the pool; and the water was stirred up, so the
first one to get in [after the stirring of the water] was
healed of whatever disease afflicted him.
While some may have seen this earlier version of the text,
its genuineness has more recently been called into doubt, and it is now
omitted.
Jesus wastes no time. He says:
Stand up, take your mat and walk.
The man is immediately cured and walks away. Again we have
in the words of Jesus the intimation of resurrection to new life of which Jesus
is the Source:
I am the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25)
It is at this point that the legalists step in. After leaving,
the man is challenged for carrying his sleeping mat on a Sabbath day. How petty
one can get! Here is a man who has been unable to walk for 38 years, and who is
now taken to task for carrying his sleeping mat on a Sabbath. Of course, the
wonder is that he can do it at all!
It is like those people who get upset because the vestments
the celebrant at Mass is wearing are not the right colour for the day, or
because they think someone is dressed inappropriately for church. Or people who
worry that they have not been fasting for a full hour before receiving
Communion—as if there can be any comparison between sharing the Body of the
Lord in the Eucharist, and observing a minor man-made regulation.
It is so easy to lose our sense of proportion. For some, a
rubrically correct, but deadly boring Mass is more important than one where
there is a real spirit of celebration and community, and a coming together in
Christ, even if the rules are not being followed to the letter.
In the Gospel story, the man answers that the one who cured
him told him to carry his mat, but he did not know who that person was, as
Jesus had disappeared into the crowds. Later, Jesus and the man meet in the
Temple. The man is told to complete his experience of healing by abandoning a
life of sin, bringing body and spirit into full harmony and wholeness. This is
not to say that Jesus is implying that the man had been unable to walk because
of his sin. Jesus did not teach that. But what he is saying is that physical
wholeness needs to be matched by spiritual wholeness, the wholeness of the
complete person.
This is the third of Jesus’ seven signs—again bringing life
and wholeness. Let us ask him to do the same for us.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/l1043g/
Season
of Lent
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
You have quenched our thirst for life with the water of
baptism.
Keep turning the
desert of our arid lives into a paradise of joy and peace, that we may bear
fruits of holiness, justice, and love. Lord, hear our prayer through Jesus
Christ, our Lord.
Gospel Reading - John 5: 1-16
There was a feast of the
Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep
Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a
large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been
ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had
been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?"
The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there
before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and
walk." Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now
that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is
the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." He answered
them, "The man who made me well told me, 'Take up your mat and
walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and
walk'?" The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had
slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the
temple area and said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so
that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went and told the Jews that
Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute
Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel describes
Jesus curing the paralytic who had waited 38 years for someone to help
him get to the water of the pool so as to be healed! Thirtyeight years! Faced
with this total absence of solidarity, what does Jesus do? He transgresses the
law of Saturday and cures the paralytic. Today, in poor countries, assistance
to sick people is lacking; people experience the same lack of solidarity. They
live in total abandonment, without help or solidarity from anyone.
•
John 5: 1-2: Jesus goes to Jerusalem. On the
Jewish festival, Jesus goes to Jerusalem. There, close to the Temple, was a
pool with five porticos or corridors. At that time, worship in the Temple
required much water because of the numerous animals which were sacrificed,
especially during the great festivals. This is why near the Temple there were
several cisterns where rainwater was gathered. Some could contain over one
thousand litres. Close by, because of the abundance of water, there was a
public bathing resort, where crowds of sick people gathered waiting for help or
to be healed.
Archeology has shown that in the
same precincts of the Temple, there was a place where the Scribes taught the
Law to students. On one side, the teaching of the Law of God. On the other, the
abandonment of the poor. The water purified the Temple, but it did not purify
the people.
•
John 5: 3-4: The situation of the sick. These
sick people were attracted by the water of the bathing resort. They said that
an angel would disturb the water, and the first one who would enter after the
angel disturbed the water, would be cured. In other words, the sick people were
attracted by a false hope – a superstition. Healing was only for
one person. Just like the lottery today. Only one person gets the prize! The
majority pays and wins nothing. In this situation of total abandonment, in the
public baths, Jesus meets sick people.
•
John 5: 5-9: Jesus cures a sick man on Saturday.
Very close to the place where the observance of the Law was taught, a paralytic
had been waiting for 38 years for someone who would help him to go down to the
water to be cured. This fact reveals the total lack of solidarity and of
acceptance of the excluded! Number 38 indicated the duration of a whole
generation (Dt 2: 14). It is a whole generation which does not experience
solidarity or mercy. Religion at that time was not able to reveal the welcoming
and merciful face of God. In the face of this dramatic situation Jesus
transgresses the law of Saturday and takes care of the paralytic, saying, “Get up,
pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around!” The man picked up his mat and
started to walk around among the people.
•
John 5: 10-13: Discussion of the cured man with
the Jews. Immediately after, some Jews arrived and criticized the man who was
carrying his sleeping mat on the Sabbath. The man did not know who the one who
had cured him was. He did not know Jesus. This means that Jesus, passing by
that place where the poor and the sick were, saw that person; He noticed the
dramatic situation in which the man found himself and cured him. He did not
cure him to convert him, neither so that he would believe in God. He cured him because
He wanted to help him. He wanted the man to experience love and solidarity
through His help and loving acceptance.
•
John 5: 14-16: The man meets Jesus again. Going
to the Temple, in the midst of the crowds, Jesus meets the same man and
tells him, “Now, you are well again, do not sin anymore, or something
worse may happen to you.” In that age, people thought and said, “Sickness is a
punishment from God. God is with you!” Once the man is cured, he has to keep
from sinning again, so that nothing worse will happen to him! But in his
naiveté, the man went to tell the Jews that Jesus had cured him. The Jews began
to ask Jesus why He did those things on the Sabbath. In tomorrow’s Gospel we
have what follows.
Personal Questions
•
If I were the cured man, and told not to say
anything, would I be silent or not? By proclaiming what had been done for him,
despite his instruction, did he sin again?
•
Have I ever had an experience similar to that of
the paralytic: to remain for some time without any help? How is the situation
regarding assistance to the sick in the place where you live? Do you see any
signs of solidarity?
•
Do I show the same compassion and help others
without expecting a return and in a significant way every day?
Concluding Prayer
O Lord, both refuge and
strength for us, a help always ready in trouble;
so we shall not be afraid though
the earth be in turmoil, though mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,
and its waters roar and seethe, and the mountains
totter as it heaves. (Ps 46: 1-3)
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