For the Israelites water was a source of life. Mostly so in the light of their experience in the desert, where wanting for water, God satisfied their thirst by bringing forth water from a rock.

In the First Reading, Ezekiel is telling them that the Temple is the means (like the rock) to the source of life, for them; spiritual and physically. He does this by saying that water was coming from inside the Temple, not the temple itself, but from God who resided inside it. And everyone who thirsts for life should come and drink from it. This is similar to the incident where Moses erected the bronze serpent, so that whoever looked at it and put their trust in Yahweh, were saved from the deathly bite of the serpents. Do note that the source of life is God, the Temple is only the means of grace, signifying a greater truth that you need to engage God in relationship, through prayer and desire for Him.

In the Gospel reading, the lame man is distracted by his desire for healing, not God. When Jesus inquires with him, if he desires to be healed, the lame man’s answer is rather awkwardly directed to his inability to get into the miraculous pool. He had missed the point that all healing and goodness comes from God. And that is what Jesus is doing, presenting Himself as God the very source of all goodness and health. Believe and put aside all distractions, and ask Jesus to come into your life. When He who is life comes into your life, every dead thing, every decay will be removed and all of you will be renewed, just as the water flowing from the temple brought about newness, growth and blessing, wherever it went…

Believe…