Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - God’s Temple. The Prophet of Ezekiel has a vision of the Messianic Temple (Ezekiel, chapter 47): “He brought me back to the door of the temple; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward…there ran out waters on the right side…” (verses 1-2). The water became a stream and then a river “I could not pass over the water was so high … the water runs into the sea and heals everything … fish will be abundant” (verses, 8b, 9b).
“When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs 34one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water. 35This is the evidence of one who saw it-true evidence, and he knows that what he says is true-and he gives it so that you may believe as well” (Jn 19, 33-35).
At the beginning of his ministry Jesus said to those who asked by he had expelled the vendors from the Temple, Jesus replied: “'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'” (Jn 2, 19). And Saint John explains: “But he was speaking of the temple of his body” (Jn 2, 21).
This is why John tells us how the Risen Jesus appeared to his disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and worked the miraculous catch of fish: he saw the connection between the Temple described by Ezekiel, the water gushing from the right side of the Temple and the water flowing from the right side of Christ on the cross which fulfils Ezekiel’s prophecy: the purified water, pours into the sea giving life in abundance: « Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them» (Jn 21, 11). (J.M.) (Agenzia Fides 22/12/2006, righe 21, parole 297)
