9 November 2021
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
No water flows out of the Dead Sea. It is at the lowest place on the surface of the Earth. There is no point lower to which its waters could flow. Although rivers flow into it, no rivers flow out of it. That is why it is dead. Whatever water flows into the Dead Sea evaporates eventually, leaving trace amounts of salt. The trace deposits of salt have gradually accumulated over the course of millennia, and now the water is so salty that nothing can live there. The conclusion is that water needs to flow out of a sea for it have life.
The prophet Ezekiel’s vision of Jerusalem included a flow of water out of the side of the temple (Ezek. 17:1). Thus, we know that the temple, unlike the Dead Sea, is a vital, life-giving force. Centuries later, Jesus described his own body as a temple (John 2:21), and he promised that the water that comes from his temple becomes, in those who drink it, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
As the temple of Christ’s body was hanging on the cross, water flowed from the side, and so did blood (John 19:34). The flow of water signifies life and the flow of blood signifies death. Here the flow of blood is joined to the flow of water. The water is the source of baptism and the blood is the source of the Eucharist. To follow Christ, we must, in our turn, allow water and blood to flow. We must not dam up our vitality or our mortality, but rather, by living and by dying with Christ, share in his glory.