Commentary on the Mass Readings: Tue, Mar 17

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 facade

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 weighed through the water which was ankle deep.

He measured off another thousand, and once more had me weighed through the water which

was now knee deep.

Again, he measured off a thousand and had me weighed.

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 weighed.

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 Ereba, 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.

8.

These waters are not to be understood literally, for there were none such that flowed from

the temple, but mystically of the baptism of Christ and of his doctrine and his grace.

The trees that grow on the banks are Christian virtues.

The fishes are Christians that spiritually live in and buy these holy waters.

The fishermen are the apostles and apostolic preachers.

The doctrine of the gospel and the study of the sacred books have the most salutary effects,

while the very leaves or the example of the saints heal the soul.

No more shall the deceitful fruits near Sodom be seen beautiful, but full of nothing but

ashes.

Where Christ instructs, a torrent of grace and glory is presently formed, like the mustard

seed growing into a large tree in which the birds rest, its origin is mean, yet its progress

is grand and astonishing.

The gospel from John 5 verses 1 through 16.

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheepgate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda with 5 portacos.

In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame and crippled.

One man was there who had been ill for 38 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 to take up your mat and walk.

They asked him, Who is the man who told you to 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 anymore 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.

Hayda commentary.

Observe the malice of the Pharisees.

They were more hurt at the cure of the sick man than the violation of the Sabbath.

Therefore they asked not who healed you, but as if they wished to keep that out of sight,

who told you to take up your bed?

He answers, The one who healed me, Why should I not receive orders from him from whom

I have received my health?

So say to Guston.

By the festival is generally understood the Passover and this was the second from the

commencement of Christ's ministry.

In imitation of this sick man, if we wish to return God thanks for his favors or to enjoy

the pleasure of his company, we must fly the crowd of vain and wicked thoughts that continually

tempt us.

We must avoid the company of the wicked and fly to the sanctuary that we may render

our hearts worthy temples of that God who vouchsafes to visit us.

The effect produced by the pool could not be natural as only one was cured at each motion

of the waters.

The longing expectation of the suffering patients is a mark of the persevering prayer with

which poor sinners should solicit the cure of their spiritual infirmities.

No doubt the poor man desired nothing more than to be healed, but Christ puts this question

to raise him to a lively faith in hope.

And the man went not out of malice but out of gratitude to tell the Jews that Jesus

had cured him.

When our souls are covered with the leprosy of sin, we are frequently insensible of

arm as fortune.

Whereas as soon as the body is attacked with sickness, though ever so inconsiderable,

we are not to be pacified till the physician has been consulted and some remedy applied

to remove the complaint.

So say John Chrysostom.

Then our astonished that God for so short a pleasure as is found in the perpetration

of sin should have decreed an everlasting punishment in the fire of hell.

For they say, shall I be punished forever for having indulged a sinful thought for

a single moment?

But their astonishment will cease when they consider that punishments are not inflicted

on sins in proportion to the length of time that was spent in their perpetration, but

that they are proportion to their malice.

Now the malice of sin being infinite, aimed against the infinite majesty and infinite

sanctity of God, the punishment to be anyways commensurate must be infinite.

If therefore the sinner dies charged with the infinite debt of mortal sin unrepentative,

as the time of mercy and repentance finishes with the present life, the sin must necessarily

remain, God's hatred for sin must necessarily remain, and the punishment justly inflicted

must necessarily continue.

Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may happen to you.

These words of Christ are applicable to every penitent sinner when he returns from the

tribunal of confession and show how careful he ought to be not to relapse into his former

sins.

For he who after pardoned sins again is unworthy of mercy, who being cured makes himself sick

again and who being cleansed defiles himself again, so say St. John Chrysostom.