4th Week of Lent 2021 - Monday - Feasting on God's Word

We now begin the second half of Lent.  Leading up to Holy Week, our Gospel readings for daily Mass are taken from the Gospel of John.  

Where St. Luke strives to give a historical, chronological account of the ministry of Jesus Christ, John’s Gospel is arranged, not strictly chronologically, but topically or theologically.  He aims to answer the theological question: Who is Jesus Christ?

Where each of the other evangelists record many miracles, John chooses only seven: the miracle at the wedding of cana, the healing of the nobleman’s son, the healing of the paralytic, the feeding of the five thousand, the walking on water, the healing of the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus.

John carefully records people’s reactions to Jesus’ miracles, as well. After the healing of the nobleman’s son, today, we hear how the whole household began to believe in him.  After his miraculous feeding of the five thousand and his subsequent teaching on the Bread of Life in chapter 6, we hear how many people who were initially following Jesus turned away from him, finding the teaching, that Jesus gives us his flesh and blood to eat and drink too hard to believe.

How do I react to the miracles and teachings of Jesus? Is it in-one-ear-and-out-the-other? Or do I allow the word of God to water my soul? Whether we are attending daily mass or not, we do well, to reflect upon the scriptures throughout the day. 

To ask, what does this teach me? What does this demand of me? Which of my habits does this challenge me to change?

To begin the day with a bit of scripture, and return to it, throughout the day, fills the day with God’s word, and welcomes God’s creative and transformative power into our lives. Like in the prophet Isaiah this morning, God says, “Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create” This is what the Lord desires to do in us, to create a new heavens and a new earth in us. 

The Royal Official should be our companion all day today, his response of faith and that of his household, Isaiah's promise of God's re-creation. should be considered all day.

The season of Lent should be filled with much more of God’s word, not less. Which is why we fast from the non-essentials, so that we can feast on the Word, throughout Lent; for man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. 

Through Word and Sacrament may the Lord continue to strengthen us in Holiness and transform our sins and sorrows into Joy, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

 

For an increase in faith for the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity.

That the Church might be delivered and protected from all spirits of error, heresy, schism, and unbelief.

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.

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

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.

4th Sunday of Lent 2021 - Joyful Lenten Waters

 On the 4th Sunday of Lent, the Church celebrates Laetare sunday.  Laetare is the latin word for “rejoice”. Lent and Joy. Initially, it doesn’t seem like those two things would go together. Joy and Penance? Joy and Fasting? Joy and Tears of Repentance? 

Today, is a reminder that true joy only comes from God.  And when we make room in our hearts for him through penance, we fast from the things that keep us from hungering for Him, when we allow him to fill our hearts through prayer, we become filled with joy.  If you haven’t experience yet, during this season, maybe you aren’t doing it right? For Lenten joy abounds with all of the opportunities to turn our hearts to God.

One of my favorite cinematic images of Lenten joy comes from a very good movie called “The Mission” starring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons.  If you haven't seen it, it's worth the time.  The Mission  is the story of the Spanish Jesuits who go to South America to bring Christianity to the natives there.  Robert DeNiro plays a slave trader.  He had spent years treating the natives as a commodity, often murdering them like cattle.   After he catches his wife and brother in the act of adultery, he murders his brother, and spirals into a terrible depression. Then something amazing happens: DeNiro's character becomes attracted to the Christian faith preached by the Jesuits and embraced by the natives.  

For a life of enslaving and murdering, he makes a confession of his sins, and undertakes a serious penance.  With a backpack filled with weapons and armor, symbols of his old life of violence, he climbs up this gigantic waterfall.  And the deeply moving scene of the movie is when after this tremendous strenuous penitential climb, he reaches the top of the waterfall, and surrounded by the Jesuits and Natives, he is embraced by both, and then falls to his knees.  Overwhelmed by the mercy of Christ and his own sorrow for his sins, he begins to weep and laugh for joy at the same time.  He experiences the sorrow of being a sinner and the joy of being a forgiven sinner at the same time.  Where there was only guilt and depression, through his penance, he opened himself to be touched by God.  I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced anything like that…but it changes your life.

A powerful image of Lenten joy, indeed  With great sorrow for our sins, we go to confession,  we undergo penances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and thereby open ourselves to God in a new way.  We are changed internally, as we seek to conform our actions and our life to God.

St. Paul writes about the profound change that occurs in the soul when it comes to Christ in our reading this weekend: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” In Christ, the sinner is transformed into something new. Something awakens that was dormant in the soul, something that was dead is revived.  Blindness, like that of the blind man in the Gospel today, is transformed into sight. Hatred and coldness and selfishness is transformed into love, when Christ is truly encountered as Savior.

Our Lenten penances, our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—our stripping away the non-essentials to create pockets of silence and reflection—these things are meant to awaken something in us. But, maybe that’s why some of us find Lent so hard or unagreeable. We don’t want anything to awaken. We like our lives just the way they are. We like our earthly comforts. We like our isolation. We sense that if we became quieter, something might awaken that we don’t have control over. And so, we prefer spiritual blindness because we are afraid what we might see. 

Some of us resist the whole idea of admitting guilt. And that is to the great detriment of our church and our mission.  I don’t want to climb up a waterfall with the reminders of my sins on my back. I don’t want the Lord to spread muddy saliva on my eyes. It makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want to look at the ways I’ve  hurt or betrayed others with my words or actions. It’s humiliating. Yes, it is. But it’s the secret of the saints. With the sincere admission of guilt and penance for our sins comes great sanctity. 

Saint John Paul II lamented what he called the loss of the sense of sin.  He called it a crisis in the Church and the world that so many of us fail to acknowledge the destructive power that sin has in our society and our own souls.  Pope Francis echoing Saint John Paul said recently that “When you lose the sense of sin, you lose the sense of the Kingdom of God."  If we deny the fact that we are sinners, we deny our need for Christ.  

But remember, when Peter at the last supper, defiantly resisted the washing of his feet, and said to Jesus “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him,  “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

Again, the good news, especially of Laetare Sunday is that Jesus does offer to wash us, he does offer to forgive us in the Sacrament of Confession, he does offer to place his hands on our eyes to heal our blindness, he offers to place his hands on our hearts to heal its coldness. Jesus beckons us, he calls us to repentance that we may know the joy of being redeemed sinners, and that his kingdom make take deeper root in our hearts.  

With the time that we have left of this most holy season, may the Holy Spirit help each of us to identify those selfish and sinful attitudes and behaviors and attachments which keep us from knowing the joy God wants for us. May we have the courage to do the penances we ought to, and allow ourselves to be washed by God’s mercy, and come to know the joy of his goodness dwelling within us for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

3rd Week of Lent 2021 - Friday - The Greatest Commandment

 

Many of the religious leaders saw Jesus as a threat to their power, and so they closed their hearts to his truth, and conspired to silence him. 

The scribe in today’s reading, on the other hand, seems to approach Jesus with more noble intentions. The scribe asks a simple question, “which is the greatest commandment”. 

The scribe's desire to know the greatest commandment reflects a heart that was seeking to understand what God wants from us, so that he may respond appropriately.  He wasn't just trying to trip Jesus up like many of the Pharisees, nor did he want Jesus to tell him the bare minimum of what God expects of us. The scribe sought from Jesus a single simple principle underlying the complexity of the law—a foundational commandment that gives meaning to all of the ensuing rules and regulation of religious life.  

The command to love God and neighbor is not just an order or duty.  After all, no one can love simply because he is told to do so!  The greatest commandment impels us to align our will to God's will in everything we do; to make loving and obeying God our highest principle.  

Jesus responded to the scribe’s question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the great Israelite confession of faith known as the Shema: Shema Israel, Adonai Eluhenu, Adonai Ehad – Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God. He is Lord alone!  

By the time of Jesus, this statement was understood to mean that God of Israel is not only the one God of the Jews but the one and only God of the whole universe.  In a world of polytheism, the jews were the only people to have been granted this earth-shattering insight: there is but one God, who has created all things and who holds all things in existence by his goodness and power.  His claim on us is therefore total, calling for a total response at every level of our being.  

The Great Commandment to love God with all your strength—to make God’s will the highest and guiding principal of your life—is the only truly appropriate response to the One God and Creator of the Universe. 

The rightly ordered life seeks to love God amidst all of the other activities of life. God is not to be set aside as we engage in business, family life, leisure, or political involvement. God is to be served and sought in every dimension of life. 

St. Paul wrote, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”  Many of us glorify God before our meals, by praying, and saying grace. But we can better order all of our activities by beginning them with prayer: praying before getting in the car, praying before exercising, praying before turning on the television.  We do well to pray before meeting with the group of friends with whom we are prone to gossip, before sitting down to the computer where we are prone to waste precious time.  If we are tempted NOT to pray before any of our daily activities, perhaps we need to consider if we should be doing them in the first place, or why we are resistant to bringing them to God and under God’s sovereignty. 

God knows this commandment is not easy.  Left to our own powers it would be impossible.  But through God's grace, the grace he makes available in the Sacraments, the grace he gives in the Eucharist, he transforms our hearts to rely on his strength in order to love him with all of ours.  May we approach the Lord in the Eucharist, as the scribe in the Gospel, seeking to learn from Jesus to love as he loves, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That obedience to all the commands of Christ and the Church may mark the life of every Christian. 

For all those preparing to enter into Christ through the saving waters of Baptism and those preparing for full initiation this Easter, may these final Lenten weeks bring about purification from sin and enlightenment in the ways of holiness.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have become separated from God through error and sin, for those who reject the teachings of Christ, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. 

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.

3rd Week of Lent 2021 - Wednesday - Words on the Threshold

Having led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, and delivering unto them the 10 commandments, then having traveled 40 years in the desert, Moses finally brings the Israelites to the threshold of the promised land. 

In the powerful book of Deuteronomy, Moses stands at that threshold and speaks, as we heard in today’s reading, the words, and statutes and decrees, that will enable them to live, to survive in this new land. The name of the 5th book of Moses, Deuteronomy, comes from the Hebrew word, debarim, which means “the words”— that is, the words, the laws—that will enable the Israelites to live as the people God was calling them to be.

In the Gospel, the Lord references these words, these commands and laws, “I haven’t come to do away with the law”, he says, and not letter of it, not the smallest part of a letter of it, not even the little dot over the i. 

Sometimes you hear the strange idea that because Jesus died for us, that frees us from having to follow God’s laws. That because we are forgiven of our sins past, present, and future, we aren’t bound to follow any sort of law or rule of conduct. That’s certainly not the biblical message, nor the teaching of the Church.

The Law of Moses was for the purpose of teaching people to live in righteousness, in right relationship with God. Right relationship, righteousness, involves our moral conduct—doing good and avoiding evil.

Regarding the law of Moses, the Old Law, the Catechism says that the law of Moses, was a “preparation for the Gospel” which of course also involves moral conduct, in fact, the Lord Jesus, has raised the bar of moral conduct for us Christians in many ways.

Not only are we to follow the moral law found in the Old Testament, but we are to strive for the way of perfection of Jesus Christ. I have not come to abolish the law, the Lord says, but to complete it. Catechism says, “the New Law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed.”

Smack dab in the middle of Lent, we have the readings about moral conduct, no doubt, because Lent is about helping us right what is wrong in our lives, to help us identify this sins that we have not quite turned away from, and to strive for the perfection that is Jesus Christ—the word made flesh. Hence, making good Lenten examinations of conscience and a good Lenten confession.

Lent is a threshold. Like Moses standing at the threshold of the promised land, we are invited to examine our conduct, and to bring our conduct, and our hearts into deeper union with the law of love taught by and fulfilled by Our Lord, that we may live, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That obedience to all the commands of Christ and the Church may mark the life of every Christian. 

For all those preparing to enter into Christ through the saving waters of Baptism and those preparing for full initiation this Easter, may these final Lenten weeks bring about purification from sin and enlightenment in the ways of holiness.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have become separated through error and sin, for those who reject the teachings of Christ, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. 

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.

3rd Week of Lent 2021 - Tuesday - God's Mercy and the Amendment of our Ways

 In the year 587 BC, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem. The Holy City was conquered, the temple was destroyed, and the Jews were separated from their families and marched into Babylonian captivity. 

Once the Jews had arrived in Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar erected an enormous golden idol. The King ordered that anyone who refused to prostrate themselves in worship of this idol would be thrown into the fiery furnace. Three young Jewish men, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, refused to abandon their Jewish faith, and so the king had them bound up and thrown into the fiery furnace.

The Lord sent an angel to save these young men, and they were able to walk through the furnace unharmed. Today’s first reading, involves Azariah, standing in the furnace, asking God to look kindly upon the Jewish people, to forgive their sins which had brought them such torment and suffering.

The biblical understanding of the Babylonian captivity is that it was due to Israel forsaking the covenant with God, abandoning the commandments and right worship, and then ignoring the prophets that made them vulnerable to their enemies. Their captivity in Babylon, their suffering, was essentially, their own fault. 

And so even in the furnace, Azariah is calling upon God to help them return to the covenant, that the sacrifices, that they hope to offer should they survive, will help them follow God unreservedly. 

The plea to God for mercy was repeated in our responsorial psalm today, “remember, your mercy, o Lord”. And this plea is followed with requests, much like that of Azariah, guide me in your truth, help me to be humble, that I may walk in justice. The plea for mercy must always involve an amendment of one’s life, or else the mercy is wasted, the plea is empty.

A similar dynamic is involved in the Sacrament of confession, isn’t it? The acknowledgement of one’s sins, that expression of contrition, is followed by a plea for God to help us amend our lives. The firm purpose of amendment and the act plea for forgiveness, again goes hand in hand.

Hence in the Gospel, we hear this parable of a servant who receives mercy from his king, but then fails to extend that mercy to others. For this failure to extend mercy, there are severe consequences.

In Christ, God has answered the prayer of Azariah, the plea of the Psalmist: mercy has been shown, and truth has been taught. And now, it is up to us, to walk in that truth and to extend mercy for others, lest we end up like that unforgiving servant, who has failed to forgive as he has been forgiven.

Our Lenten penances are the sacrifices in which we show God how much we desire to follow him unreservedly. We give up those non-essentials, to help us amend our lives from our sins, that our entire hearts may belong to Him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That readiness to forgive may mark the life of every Christian. Let us pray to the Lord.

That all families will recommit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That this Lent we will be faithful to fasting and to all the ways that the Lord sanctifies us.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For generous giving for the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, victims of natural disaster, terrorism, war, and violence, the grieving and those most in need.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  Let us pray to the Lord.

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.

3rd Week of Lent 2021 - Obstacles to Conversion and St. John of God

 Yesterday, on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, we reflected on thirst: the thirst for God. In his conversation with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well, the Lord pronounces to the woman that if she understood who He was, she would ask him to give her the living water of God that quenches all thirsts. 

All people, of all times, of every place have thirsted for God. It is our hearts deepest longing.

Naaman the Syrian, in our first reading, while initially turning to God only because he believed that the God of Israel was able to cure his leprosy, came to discover the One True God: ““Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”

If the thirst for God is universal, who do so many people in the Gospels reject Jesus. Why do they not respond to Him with faith like the Samaritan Woman, and so many of the sick and marginalized? Why did the Pharisees and Sadducees conspire to kill Jesus? Why do his own townsfolk reject Him? Certainly, there are a number of reasons, a number of obstacles to faith. 

In the case of the pharisees, it seems as if their attachment to power and authority fueled their prideful unwillingness to acknowledge Jesus’ identity. For the townsfolk of Nazareth and for many of the people Jesus encountered, it was likely their preconceived notions of what the Messiah would look like: he couldn’t possibly come in the form of a Galilean carpenter! For many others, their attachment to sin, their resistance to repentance, was allowed to grow larger than their thirst for God, and that happens with so many of us. 

Today, the church honors a saint, who though he was baptized as an infant and raised in the faith, walked away from the Church and hardened his heart against Christ for a good portion of his life. St. John of God was a Spanish soldier who had forsaken his childhood faith to pursue a wild and sinful life. He reminds us a little of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, or St. Augustine, in this way. For the 18 years, John allowed his morals to decline, as he completely abandoned the piety of his earliest youth for a greedy and brutal way of life—plundering and pillaging. 

And yet the thirst for God could still be seen. Once, after falling wounded in enemy territory, he instinctively called out to the Blessed Virgin Mary to save him. And again, when he was falsely suspected of theft and nearly executed, he called out to God for help. He also had a special place in his heart for the poor, and would often give alms to those in extreme distress.

As the term of his military service came to an end, he realized he needed to do something to reform his life. He embarked on a pilgrimage  the via de Compostela, the pilgrim’s way of St. James, and as he walked, the choices of his life began to weigh heavily upon him, he began to recognize his errors and sins and began to desire peace with God. At the end of the pilgrimage, he made a good confession and determined to make atonement for his sins. He went on to found a religious order dedicated to the care of the sick and dying.

No doubt, many of us know souls like St. John who have fallen away from their childhood faith. Yet, for them we should not despair. Many former Catholics who are not currently going to church, still keep some of the Lenten penances and observances, and the Lord may work through those penitential practices to restore their faith. Moreso, we do well to offer penances for them, to pray for miracles of conversion, to nurture the seeds of faith, the thirst for God, by our example and our conversations with them.

Daily, throughout Lent, we do well to hold in our minds someone who has fallen away, and to offer increased Lenten penances for them and for their return to the faith for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving may humble our earthly pride and bring about conversion and renewal within the Church.

For all those preparing to enter into Christ through the saving waters of Baptism and those preparing for full initiation this Easter, may these final Lenten weeks bring about purification from sin and enlightenment in the ways of holiness.

That Our Lady and St. Joseph may protect Holy Father Pope Francis as he concludes his apostolic visit to the war-torn country of Iraq, and that the Gospel may be spread, accepted and cherished there and in every land. Let us pray to the Lord

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have become separated through error and sin, for those who reject the teachings of Christ, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. 

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.

 

3rd Sunday of Lent 2021 - Water in the desert to quench our thirst for God

 Our scripture readings for this third Sunday of Lent may sound somewhat familiar. They were the last readings we heard prior to the lockdown last year due to the coronavirus. 

Leading upon to the third Sunday of Lent last year, we began to see news reports of this mysterious virus from an overseas laboratory beginning to hit our shores. And stories of stores being ransacked for basic necessities, especially toilet paper, as we with our fellow countrymen began to brace ourselves for the unknown. How much of the activity of this past year was governed by healthy caution and safety, or irrational fear, it will be hard to tell for some time. 

But amidst the chaos and confusion, what has remained throughout it all, has been the human thirst for God. Whether in good times or in bad, in poverty or wealth, in sickness or in health, whether you’re a republican, democrat, atheist, Christian, Muslim, or Jew, man thirsts for God. 

We all experience many types of thirst. 

Daily our bodies thirst.  We of course desire actual water to quench parched lips and dry throats.  Our bodies need water; it’s part of our bodily nature.  Without water, our bodies die. In the first reading, the Israelites who had been wandering in the desert begin to fear that they might die of real actual physical thirst. It is clear they didn't quite trust God yet, which is why they are described as grumbling, complaining to Moses about this god who would lead them out into the desert. But their fear, and their thirst, was real. 

One summer I visited the African Island Country of Madagascar with Catholic Relief Services.  I remember visiting villages where regular access to clean drinking water was a real problem, as it is in many third world countries. And one of the tasks of Catholic Relief Services was to help people develop reliable access to clean drinking water. Certainly, one of our duties toward the Lord is to give drink to the thirsty--"for I was thirsty, and you gave me drink"

Beyond physical thirst, we also experience many different types of emotional thirst. A thirst for companionship; after months of isolation, thirst for human touch and social interaction, to see people’s faces and smiles. At points in our lives we thirst for fun and excitement, perhaps adventure; at other times we thirst for a stable job and a sturdy roof over our head. We thirst for knowledge and beauty and goodness and justice. Our human nature thirsts for these very good things.

And then of course, the deepest thirst of all, a thirst that nothing, no earthly relationship or earthly pursuit can quench: the thirst, only God himself can satisfy. This deepest thirst is not for some THING, but for some ONE.  For God.  God IS the living water, of whom St. Augustine said, “my heart is restless until it rests in you, my God.”  

Remember that beautiful Psalm 63: “O God, you are my God, for you I long, for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water”  And Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”

Our bodies need H2O and food, our minds need companionship and knowledge, and our souls need God—our souls need intimate, personal contact with Him.

As the Catechism puts it: "Man is made to live in communion with God, in whom he finds happiness" (#45).  God has created the human person to be in Communion with Himself.  We will never find true joy outside of His will.  

Finite things cannot quench the thirst for the infinite living God, and yet, and yet sinful man attempts to quench the thirst for God with so many artificial substitutes. The addict, the drug-addict, the sex or porn-addict, the gambling-addict, the tv-addict or video-game addict, the food or shopping-addicts, seeking God in so many artificial substitutes bring such sadness to themselves and their families. Their addiction cannot satisfy and leaves them hollow. To paraphrase Ken Kesey, every time they take a drink from the bottle, the bottle takes a drink from them. 

When some false God becomes the center of our life—the pursuit of pleasure, power, or the good-life, we are left exhausted and unhappy—because we end up drinking sand—and sand does not quench. The neglect of prayer and right religion leaves us literally dying of spiritual thirst while refusing to acknowledge that God could save us if we but humbly turned to Him. 

In the beatitudes, the Lord promises blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Our deepest hungers and thirsts can be satisfied by God. And not just ultimately in heaven, either. Our spiritual thirst for God begins to be satisfied as we enter into the mystery of God in this earthly life through the sacraments and the life of faith, through prayer and works of charity.

Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” Jesus wants to give us this living water of His very Life with us, but he will not force us to drink.  

During Lent, we acknowledge those times in which we have been misguided in our search for God, when we have turned to sin, instead of turning to him.  And we do penance—we pray, fast, and give alms, not just for ourselves, but for the conversion of the lost souls out there. Those who cannot bring themselves to humbly admit how much they need God. We undertake penances, praying that their pride, their egos, will be softened, that they may hear the voice of Christ calling them to the waters of everlasting life—the living water of God. 

[Tomorrow ]/[This morning] we celebrate a special ritual, the first of three rituals called the Lenten scrutinies, for those preparing for the easter sacraments. Angela and Bruce will stand before the congregation, acknowledging their thirst for Christ, their desire to drink deeply of the waters of the Christian life and the sacraments.  They are reminders to all of us, to seek to be free from all that keeps us from drinking deeply from the waters Christ gives.

In Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we strip away the non-essentials of our lives, and make our lives into a sort of desert, and yet, it’s in the Lenten desert, that those with faith drink deeply of the living water of God flows abundantly in prayer, fasting, and self-giving.

Again, if you haven’t gone to confession this Lenten season, it is so important to acknowledge those times when we’ve have turned away from the living waters. Without confession, we begin to settle for less, we begin to settle for sand, and are left dying of thirst. 

I offer confessions on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings, on Monday nights, and will offer an evening of confessions for three hours, 5 to 8pm on Wednesday march 24. .

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.