The Bible shows that the people that journeyed through the desert and yearned for freedom received the promise of an abundance of life-giving water: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Is 12:3). The messianic prophecies gradually coalesced around the imagery of purifying water: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean… a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezek 36:25-26). This water would bestow on God’s people the fullness of life, like a fountain flowing from the Temple and bringing a wealth of life and salvation in its wake. “I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other… and wherever that river goes, every living creature will live… and when that river enters the sea, its waters will become fresh; everything will live where the river goes” (Ezek 47:7-9).
The Jewish festival of Booths ( Sukkot), which recalls the forty-year sojourn of Israel in the desert, gradually adopted the symbolism of water as a central element. It included a rite of offering water each morning, which became most solemn on the final day of the festival, when a great procession took place towards the Temple, the altar was circled seven times and the water was offered to God amid loud cries of joy. 83Mishnah Sukkah, IV, 5, 9.
The dawn of the messianic era was described as a fountain springing up for the people: “I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they shall look on him whom they have pierced… On that day, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity” (Zech 12:10; 13:1).
One who is pierced, a flowing fountain, the outpouring of a spirit of compassion and supplication: the first Christians inevitably considered these promises fulfilled in the pierced side of Christ, the wellspring of new life. In the Gospel of John, we contemplate that fulfilment. From Jesus’ wounded side, the water of the Spirit poured forth: “One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water flowed out” (Jn 19:34). The evangelist then recalls the prophecy that had spoken of a fountain opened in Jerusalem and the pierced one (Jn 19:37; cf. Zech 12:10). The open fountain is the wounded side of Christ.
Earlier, John’s Gospel had spoken of this event, when on “the last day of the festival” (Jn 7:37), Jesus cried out to the people celebrating the great procession: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink… out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:37-38). For this to be accomplished, however, it was necessary for Jesus’ “hour” to come, for he “was not yet glorified” (Jn 7:39). That fulfilment was to come on the cross, in the blood and water that flowed from the Lord’s side.
The pierced side of Jesus is the source of the love that God had shown for his people in countless ways. Let us now recall some of his words: “Because you are precious in my sight and honoured, I love you” (Is 43:4). “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Is 49:15-16). “For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed” (Is 54:10). “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jer 31:3). “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives you victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zeph 3:17).
The prophet Hosea goes so far as to speak of the heart of God, who “led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love” (Hos 11:4). When that love was spurned, the Lord could say, “My heart is stirred within me; my compassion grows warm and tender (Hos 11:8). God’s merciful love always triumphs (cf. Hos 11:9), and it was to find its most sublime expression in Christ, his definitive Word of love.
The pierced heart of Christ embodies all God’s declarations of love present in the Scriptures. That love is no mere matter of words; rather, the open side of his Son is a source of life for those whom he loves, the fount that quenches the thirst of his people. As Saint John Paul II pointed out, “the essential elements of devotion [to the Sacred Heart] belong in a permanent fashion to the spirituality of the Church throughout her history; for since the beginning, the Church has looked to the heart of Christ pierced on the Cross”. 84Letter to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Paray-le-Monial (France), 5 October 1986: L’Osservatore Romano, 7 October 1986, p. IX.