THE HOLY BIBLE

“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.”

32 ….One of the main feasts of the Jews is the popular Feast of the Tabernacles. This occurs in our month of October, their month of Tixri (pronounced Tishri). The celebration is marked by very solemn Liturgy. The Priests and Levites form a procession and walk down to the Pool of Siloe, the fill up with water, big jugs, containers, take them to the Temple to water the base, the steps of the Altar of Offerings. During this rite, all those present make a heart-felt prayer, supplication to God to provide them with abundant rain, whilst thanking Him for all the fruits He has provided.

                                                      

It was during this feast when John quoted Jesus as saying:

“He who is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Because as the Scripture says, who believes in me, rivers of living water flows from him.” (John 7/38).

Here we can notice the parallelism, the relation between the phrases: ‘he who is thirsty’ and ‘believes in me’, and ‘let him come to me’ and ‘drink’. Jesus, the Wisdom of God, invites all those who thirst, to go to Him and drink from the source of life, for Jesus IS the source of life.

Dying on the Cross, Jesus gave the Spirit, to all those who believe. The symbol of this Spirit was the water that came out of the side of Jesus after being pierced with a lance by a Centurion (John 19/34).

This reminds me of that beautiful Prayer we all recite:

“Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from the side of Christ, wash me ……..”

The Spirit is the new revelation of the Mystery of Jesus. His disciples ought, should, drink from this water, to change them into other Christ and then, they, themselves, will become a source, a fount of pure water. The Spirit will cause this change to take place with the aid of Faith.

WE must not overlook the fact that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who takes us near pools, springs of fresh, clear water. An interesting note is the fact that John, when writing about the Multiplication of Bread, tells us that on the hill, where the miracle took place, there was a good amount of grass. Another sign, proof that Jesus was a very Good Shepherd because He took His fold where there was ample food …symbolically, much grass to graze on…. Whilst He did provide them, not with grass but with bread. /33

Certain information,from “Signs and Symbols in the Bible” by kind permission of Mons. Lawrence Sciberras, Biblical Scholar, Gozo, Malta.