Miraculous Water of Life

 Brothers and sisters in Christ—

     The wonderful thing about the Christian Tradition is that it gives to us inspiration and example in the context of every age and every culture the world over.  The furthest corners of the globe, the Gospel of Christ is changing the lives of human beings, ennobling them as children of God, destined to live everlastingly with their Father. 

     In the mountains of Ethiopia, 14,500 ft. above sea level is a vast cave in the side of a mountain.  If we could climb together up the precipitous cliff face to the entrance of the cave, and see the commanding view of the valley of the Blue Nile below, we would see something even more important in the depths of the cave itself.  If we were to walk a short distance into the cavern, we would find a lake, and, the greatest marvel of the place, a very old church that actually floats on the lake.

     The Church of Yemrehanna Kristos was built many centuries ago as a place for pilgrims to worship, for the water of this subterranean lake was shown to be miraculous, working thousands upon thousands of cures of afflicted souls and bodies, since the time that it was blessed by the hand of the Mother of God more than a millennium ago. In fact, this pilgrimage site is back in the news today, since the healing waters of the lake cure AIDS, along with the water also of two miraculous springs in Gondar, a different region of Ethiopia. The United Nations and the World Health Organization have both spared no effort, through so-called “education,” in trying to keep people from going to these holy sites, since they see people from diverse countries all over the continent and beyond putting their trust in God, in the intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God, and in holy water, rather than in their agenda of contraception and drug therapy, that, although ineffective, costly and poisonous, does not offer a cure. On the contrary, the people come to Yemrehanna Kristos to be cured.

     The locals are well aware of the power that flows from the miraculous water in response to their faith.  According to their testimony, there is no affliction, which the sacred water has not cured, but its holiness is so great that it must be treated with the most profound respect.  It is said that the power of the water is so great that it has actually killed those who approach it with the wrong disposition; it has harmed those who drink it without pure hearts. 

     Today we continue the celebration of the Lord’s Theophany, the feast that celebrates the fact that the Lord descended into the water of the River Jordan in His own baptism, in order to sanctify the nature of water, that is, in order to make water a means of sanctification for us.  By descending into the water, he infused His own Divine Life into the water, so that we who are baptized into His death and receive His imperishable life, which He lives because of His resurrection from the dead. 

     We might well think that we have to wait until we die in order to live the Divine Life that the Lord has given to us in our Baptism into His death.  But actually, we already have a share, here and now, in that life. We have to understand that sometimes we call “Divine Life” by a different name.  That name is virtue.  The virtues have been given to us as free gifts of God through our Baptism, and our communion in the other mysteries of Christ, especially the Eucharist, but the extent that we share the immortal Life of God is the extent to which we make those virtues live in our lives.  Of all the many things in this world, only the virtues are permanent. By practicing the virtues, we throw in our lot with the permanent, rather than the passing; we put our trust in the holy water of Baptism, rather than the passing so-called “wisdom” of this world.

     Like the waters of the lake at Yemrehanna Kristos, the water of Baptism and the life it engenders is an awesome thing that must be treated with the most profound respect.  We who have received it must live according to it, with purity of heart, with the practice of virtue our highest goal.