Come to the waters, all who thirst!
(Entrance antiphon for today's liturgy)
Both readings from today's liturgy open up for us God's invitation to come to him by coming to water -- the water flowing from the temple and from Jesus who heals. The angel who leads the prophet Ezekiel to the temple waters and shows the prophet the growth that this water brings to the vegetation and the living creatures in the river that spreads out from the temple into a large flowing body of water. The angel's words to Ezekiel are for us today as well: "Do you see, son of man?"
It is the question before us daily: do we see the goodness of God that flows out to each of us, offering us abundant life? In a culture that offers so many opportunities to us, do we see the graces that can be attained in those opportune moments. Money, for example, of itself has value only as long as a set of economic realities exist that make it strong. (Sound familiar these days?)
Do we see the grace-filled moments flowing out to us each day through the invitation from Jesus to follow him? De we see? Like the invalid at the Bethesda pool, are we paralyzed by sin and the attraction of what is sinful in our culture that we find it almost impossible to meet a loving and giving God, to respond to the invitations to living in his abundant waters?
Likewise, Jesus asks us, "do you wish to be well again?" How do we answer the question? Is it beyond us because we are so over come by the "things of the world"? Remember these words? "The Lord is my shepherd ... he leads me beside the waters of peace."
