“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
31 …. Jesus Himself applied ‘water’ as a symbol of Himself:
“He who thirsts let him come to me, because as the Scripture goes: ‘from him who believes in me, rivers of living water will spring out.’ “ (John7/38)
To draw a contrast between an upright man and an evil man, the Sacred authors liken the upright, good man to a tree, planted close to the water’s edge. This means we have a tree that bears much fruit (Psalm 1/3; Jer. 17/8). The wicked man is likened to a tree planted on a dry land, it withers and in no times dies. Even our mouth, lips from where good words or bad words come out, is likened to a spring of water, Proverbs 10/11:
“The mouth of the just is a vein of life: and the mouth of the wicked is full of iniquity.”
Water and water energy is so powerful that it is likened to the wise reign of a king. We might refer to Isaiah and read, in 32/2b:
“Look you, the king will reign with justice, and every one of you will be likened to springs of water on a dry land.”
We also find the use of ‘water’ in the ritual cleansing. In the life of every Jew, we find plenty of occasions when ritual cleansing takes place. To begin with cleansing used to take place because of ‘defilement’ was possible in various ways. Once you become ‘defiled’, you become impure, so, it was expected that the ritual cleansing would take place.
If you go to the market you would be considered ‘impure’, or if you attend a funeral, if you touch a corpse, or a sick person …remember the Good Samaritan Parable. So they had to apply the ‘cleansing ritual’. In fact, you might be interested to learn that a month before the Passover Feast, the Jews used to fix and repair all their water basins, or pools. They used to this so that if the thousands of pilgrims would become ‘impure’, ‘defiled’ during the sacrifices they used to offer, they might avail themselves of these water basins or pools for their ritual cleansing..
Jesus spoke at length about this ritual in Mark, 7/4, regarding the cleansing and washing of pots, pans, tumblers, plates and the rest.
In his account John wrote at length about water, and its symbolism. He mentions John the Baptist baptizing with water in the River Jordan (1). Again, the purification water in pots during the wedding feast at Cana (2). Then he mentions the new birth through water and spirit (3).
Christ’s dialogue with the Samaritan waoman on the water of life (4).
Then comes the Pool at Beteshda (5).
The rivers of living waters from those that believe (7).
Then comes the Pool of Siloe where the once blind man went to wash (9).
Then Jesus washes with water the feet of the apostles (13).
The water and blood that came out of the side of Jesus on the Cross (19).
Finally Jesus walking on the Lake of Galilee after His Resurrection (20).
Why does John keeps on mentioning ‘water’ throughout his a account? He must have had a specific reason. The reason is one. John wants to give us a picture of a new birth of a re-birth, of a new creation which came about with the Passion, the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus. That is just what John visualizes when he sees, when he mentions ‘water’. Now to have a new creation, a new birth, we need to cleanse ourselves, from the external to the internal, from the old life to the new life. /32
Certain information ,from “Signs and Symbols in the Bible” by kind permission of Mons. Lawrence Sciberras, Biblical Scholar, Gozo, Malta.
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