To those who will reach this water, will bring salvation (Ez 47,1-9.12)
Biblical reflections of Don Marco Gasparini*
Today's prophetic reading prepares us to understand the scene of the Gospel: the healing of the paralytic that is healed by Jesus near the pool of the Porta delle Pecore in Jerusalem. The common theme - so to speak - is that of the water that heals and that saves, and therefore, in the sacred time of Lent, is the memory of our baptism, which will have its implementation (theological term which means "re -presented" of a past event, but which becomes real for us, here and now, in today's more intense liturgical celebration during the Easter vigil. The waters that flow from the temple, that is, that come from God, in their passage they purify and heal everything, make the fields produce abundant fruits and that the dead sea becomes the living sea, capable of giving life. It is - this - a very beautiful symbolism that we will return to listen to during the Holy Saturday vigil. It refers, on the one hand, with a memory full of regret, to the initial paradise of humanity, irrigated by four rivers and, on the other, to the messianic future, which will be like a new paradise. Also about us, at the beginning of life, a little water dropped: and this made us reborn as sons and daughters of God in baptism. In this way, day by day, we become capable of being a figure of God in the world. It is up to us, then, to rely on Jesus, why he is the one who recreates his image in us with the gift of his spirit, a living water that quenches the world.
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From Ezekiel's book (47.1-9.12)
In those days [the angel] led me to the entrance of the temple [of the Lord] and I saw that under the threshold of the temple, water was left to the East, since the facade of the temple was to the East. That water descended under the right side of the temple, on the southern part of the altar. He led me out of the northern door and made me turn outside, to the external door addressed to the East, and I saw that the water arose from the right side.
That man advanced to the east and with a cord in his hand he measured a thousand cùbititi, then made me cross that water: he reached me on the ankle. He measured a thousand more cùbititi, then made me cross that water: he came to my knee. He measured a thousand more cùbititi, then made me cross the water: it came to my hips. He measured a thousand more: it was a stream that I could not cross, because the waters had grown; They were navigable waters, a stream that could not be switched on. Then he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man?" Then he made me return to the shore of the stream; Voltanding me, I saw that on the shore of the stream there was a great amount of trees on one side and the other.
He said to me, "These waters flow towards the eastern region, go down to the Aràba and enter the sea: they resulted in the sea, the waters restore. Every living being who moves wherever the stream arrives, he will live: the fish will be very abundant to you, because where those waters come, they restore, and where the Tutto Tutto torrent will relive. Along the stream, on one shore and on the other, all sorts of fruit trees will grow, whose leaves will not dry: their fruits will not cease and every month will ripen, because their waters flow from the sanctuary. Their fruits will serve as food and leaves as medicine ».
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* Don Marco Gasparini, diocesan priest, carries out his ministry in the diocese of Vicenza
