By Sister Carolyn McWatters
Ezekiel 47:1-12 – Living Water
I have always been intrigued by this vision of Ezekiel because of its water imagery. My favorite places in nature are where there is water. The freshness, the sparkle, the sound and the beauty captivate me. I am drawn in. I feel an inner magnetism toward and an at-homeness with water. We know that our bodies are composed of a high percentage of water and so, for me, as the psalmist says, “deep calls unto deep.”
Ezekiel shared this vision with a people devastated by the destruction of the temple and living in exile in Babylon. Without the Temple – the locus of their identity and belonging – they were despondent and lost. The moorings were no longer there. Ezekiel reminded them of the truth that their situation was the result of their idolatry and infidelity to the Covenant. But the rest of the message, the more important one, was that in the midst of all this misery God was right there with them and offered them a promise of restoration. They had reason to hope. Their future could be different.
Use your imagination to picture what Ezekiel saw. A beautiful new temple, in which trickles of water began to flow from the sanctuary outward in all four directions. These streams grew larger and deeper and stronger until they came up to his neck. The waters flooded the surrounding land, rejuvenating all life, even making the salt waters fresh and abundant. This river was home to many kinds of fish. Along the banks of the river (and this is my favorite part) grew fruit trees. Due to the flowing temple water, they bore fruit not just annually, but once a month! Isn’t that a powerful feminine image? Through it healing and renewal came to everything it touched.
This river’s power came from its divine life and represents a salvation which included a healing of creation itself. Even the salt waters became fresh – a miraculous phenomenon which nature cannot effect on its own. Only the generative abundance of God could make this happen. To a disheartened, hopeless people it presented a vision of beauty, restoration and healing.
Fast forward to 2026. This prophetic vision is every bit as relevant to us today. We are only too aware of the forces at work in our nation and world which have caused turmoil and violence, division and fear, and a sense of destabilization. Earth herself is in agony, groaning in travail. Devastation is happening everywhere. Species are going extinct; our forests are being depleted; plastics are littering our oceans; Earth is warming at an alarming rate; and extreme weather events abound. Environmental safeguards have been removed. And the list goes on and on…
Earth and all her creatures are suffering.
Like the Israelites in Babylon, we too need this vision. The water of life which Ezekiel described is our inheritance as well. God’s promises to them are God’s promises to us. All of us have been bathed in the waters of baptism and given a share in divine life. The vision invites us to recognize God’s life-giving grace and sacramental presence in all aspects of our lives, especially when we gather around the Eucharistic table. The life-giving waters flow out from this place into areas of dryness and desolation – our hearts sometimes, our communities, our Church, our society, our world – and offer healing and restoration. In their honest moments the Israelites knew that it was their actions that had brought on their suffering. We, too, must acknowledge our own complicity in the troubles of our world and the suffering of our planet. Having faced the truth and having received forgiveness, we can then focus our individual and communal energies on healing action.
Ezekiel’s God-given vision is ours, too. Can we allow our hearts to be touched and captivated by its promise? Can we step into this water that flows from our God, and allow it to wash us, cleanse us, enliven us? Can we surrender to being carried by it, swept up in its flow, becoming by our very lives sources of healing and refreshment wherever we go? And we mustn’t forget or minimize the life-giving power and energy that is ours as women. We can be – we must be – instruments of God’s healing power to address our water issues and climate change and restore fertility to damaged ecosystems. With God’s grace we are responsible for working together to renew and restore our Earth. Will we be sufficiently courageous and loving to accept this challenge?
God is standing ready to lead the charge.