Fountains of grace: by Jesus’s wounds our own have been healed

Fr David Howell• April 20, 2025

The glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east (Ezechiel 43:4)

No-one witnessed the Resurrection of Jesus, but we can wonder about what happened inside the tomb and reflect on prophecies of that moment. Ezechiel narrates that the glory of God left the Temple through its east gate (10:18-19), and then returned through the same gate (43:4).

Perhaps just as Jesus’ life flowed out though his pierced heart, so it was poured back into his body through the same wound in his side, in the darkness of the tomb that first Easter night. Then Ezechiel relates that life-giving water issued from the same eastern gate after God’s glory re-entered it (47:1-2).

After Jesus rose, he offered Thomas the living water of faith through the open scar between his ribs: “put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing” (John 20:27).

Jesus calls us to receive his healing grace through our own wounds, the same self-inflicted wounds stemming from our sins: right where we lose grace is where we are called to receive it again.

And the more we accept his grace into our wounds, the more they become fountains of grace for others, overflowing with the living water of the Holy Spirit, pouring grace into others’ hearts.

St Peter said “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24), and we can pray: “by my wounds may Jesus heal others!”

Photo: The Resurrection of Christ by Robert Wilhelm Ekman.