3rd Week of Lent 2026 - Monday - Naaman and Nazareth: A challenging contrast

 

Each year, I’m always struck by the contrast between Naaman in our first readying, who came to believe, and the people of Nazarath, who hardened their hearts toward Jesus.

You would expect the stories to be reversed, no? You would expect Naaman, a pagan, a gentile, to reject the God of Israel. But he takes a  leap of faith—he follows the strange instructions of the prophet Elisha—he bathes in the waters of the Jordan, and he is cleansed, and comes to proclaim “there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel."

And then contrast Naaman’s faith, with the faithlessness of the people of Nazareth. They drive him to the edge of town to throw him over a cliff.

Mother Church presents us with this contrast during this Lenten season, no doubt to challenge us—to ensure that we are responding to God in faith and not hardening our hearts when we are presented with the call to conversion.

Naaman in a sense makes us think of the Catechumens—pagans, who have now come to believe in the one, true God. During Lent, they are praying, and fasting, and preparing for their Easter Sacraments—to wash in the saving waters. And they are doing so wholeheartedly.

Contrast that to the attitude of many life-long Catholics, who fail to seek any real conversion for themselves during the Lenten season. Many harden their hearts when their priests encourage them to go to confession, practice mortification, pray more fervently.

These scriptures present us with a warning, don’t they: be careful that familiarity and habit don’t  become obstacles to faith. The people of Nazareth thought they knew Jesus already. Their self-certainty became not just an obstacle to faith, but the genesis of hostility toward the Lord’s prophetic call to conversion.

We’re about halfway through the Lenten season, and we’re challenged to ensure that we don’t fall into this same trap. To say: I know God as well as I can, I already know what it means to be Christian, I am as conformed to the Word of God as I possibly can be.

Like Naaman, the Lord will certainly invite us to encounter him in some new way: new prayer, new penance, new act of charity. Let us respond like him in humble faith for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.

4th Week of Lent 2018 - Tuesday - Water, Water, Everywhere

Of the seven miracles in the Gospel of John, three have to do with water. Jesus changes water into wine at Cana, Jesus heals the crippled man at the water of Siloam, and Jesus walks on the water of the Sea of Galilee.

Water is a prominent motif in the Gospel of John. Just like in Genesis 1, in which we hear of the waters of creation, in John 1, we hear of the Baptist baptizing with the waters of repentance. Water, in the very first lines of this Gospel, marks a new beginning of a life sorrowful for sin.

In Chapter 2, Water is changed by Jesus, at the wedding of Cana, to become wine that gladdens the hearts of the wedding guests. And in Chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that his followers must be born again of water and the spirit.

In Chapter 4, Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman. He says, “everyone who drinks the water of this well will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

In Chapter 5, there is the water of the pool of siloam. But this water seems to be ineffective at healing: true healing comes from Jesus. And in Chapter 6, Jesus walks on the water, showing his absolute authority over all the waters of creation.

Just as an abundance of water pours forth from the Temple, in Ezekiel’s vision today, and just as our Psalm speaks of the “stream” of water “whose runlets gladden the city of God”, John describes the  blood and water flowing from the side of Christ. This is the water of baptism, this is the water of Christ which continually gladdens the hearts of those in union with Him. Upon glimpsing the resurrected Christ on the sea shore, Peter jumps from his old fishing boat, right into the sea, to joyfully approach the Lord.

In less than three weeks, hundreds of thousands of catechumens around the world will be baptized in water at the Easter. And a billion Catholics will renew their baptismal promises and be sprinkled with fresh baptismal water.

When we encounter the Lord in the Sacraments, in prayer, and in our works of mercy, we partake of the life-giving, soul-saving, cleansing, freeing, healing water of His own divine life.

May our Lenten observances help us to truly yearn for these waters, that we may partake deeply of them, and to be nourished and transformed by them, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity.

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.