Jesus' Glorious Triumph: its Meaning

The Entrance Antiphon to today’s liturgy invites us to “sing to the Lord, for he has gloriously triumphed.”  We then pray: “The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation, alleluia.”  I was deeply touched by t he word “is”.  God is, not was or will be, but IS my strength and my might; He is my salvation.  The work of God is going on every moment of every day, in every circumstance of my life today and yours!  Jesus has “gloriously triumphed,”  that is He is gloriously triumphing over sin and death, over selfishness and greed, over deceit and jealousy, over anger and moodiness, over faithlessness and hopelessness, over hatred, blindness and deafness to the Spirit in my life right now, right here! Jesus is making a difference now!  I am overcoming evil in my life right now  because Jesus “has gloriously triumphed” in His resurrection, in the sacrificing of His life, in becoming sin for us on Calvary.

Yesterday I took a day off and went to see “Heaven is for Real.”  Heaven and earth are one in the resurrection of Jesus.  Heaven and earth are one in the Eucharist, when the Son of God descends upon our altars every single day to feed us with the Bread of Life, the Living Bread, that wells up into eternity making us more and more life Christ every day, reconciling us to the Father, cleansing the Temple of our souls with this Living Water, this Living Bread!  Alleluia!

Do You Want to be Healed?

In today’s first reading, Ez 47: 1-9, 12, an angel of the Lord brings Ezekiel to the Temple, from which flows water to the east of the Temple and from the south of the altar. The angel asks Ezekiel to wade through the water. At first it is ankle deep, then waist deep. The flowing water becomes a river through which Ezekiel cannot wade because of its depth.  In the Gospel of today, Jn 5: 1-16, we are in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate, where there’s a pool called Bethesda that has five entrances.  When the waters of that pool are stirred up, the first person in  is healed.  Jesus spots a man who lay there for 38-years unable to get to the pool before anyone else. Jesus has compassion on him and asked him whether he wants to be healed. The man says “yes” and Jesus made him whole.

 The water in both readings is the Living Water of grace,  of empowerment and life, of reconciliation and healing.  Through the waters of baptism and the waters of grace that flow into our lives from a myriad of sources chosen by God, we are made whole, cleansed of our iniquities, refreshed and enabled to bear fruit that will last.  The Water flowing from Jesus’ side from the cross continues to flow into our  lives, making our deserts fertile and softening the soil of our hearts and minds to God’s Word and God’s will, so that, we, in turn, become Eucharist to one another and sources of healing to ourselves and to the world in which we live.

God’s Word never ceases to amaze me.   May I move beyond amazement, however,  to action. May the leaves of my life “never fade”.  May I never fail to bear fruit because I, too, have acknowledged my need for healing when Jesus, in every Eucharist,  asks me  whether I want to be made whole and released from the sin that binds me.  My answer is “yes”. What about yours?