(Please purchase your own copy of Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings.)
Third Sunday in Lent
Whoever drinks this water
will be thirsty again;
but no one who drinks the water
that I shall give him
will ever be thirsty again;
the water that I shall give him
will become in him a spring of water,
welling up for eternal life.
— John 4:14
In the midst of Lent I am made aware that Easter is coming again: the days are becoming longer, the snow is withdrawing, the sun is bringing new warmth, and a bird is singing. Yesterday, during the night prayers, a cat was crying! Indeed, spring announces itself. And tonight, O Lord, I heart you speak tot he Samaritan woman. You said: “Anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again; the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.” What words! They are worth many hours, days, and weeks of reflection. I will carry them with me in my preparation for Easter. The water that you give turns into a spring. Therefore, I do not have to be stingy with your gift, O Lord. I can freely let the water come from my center and let anyone who desires drink from it. Perhaps I will even see this spring in myself when others come to it to quench their thirst.
In the Eucharist God’s love is most concretely made present. Jesus has not only become human; he has also become bread and wine in order that, through our eating and our drinking, God’s love might become our own. The great mystery of the Eucharist is that God’s love is offered to us not in the abstract, but in a very concrete way; not as a theory, but as food for our daily life. The Eucharist opens the way for us to make God’s love our own. Jesus himself makes that clear to us when he says:
… my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me and I live in that person.
As the living Father sent me
and I draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will also draw life from me.
Whenever you receive the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, his love is given to you, the same love that he showed on the cross. It is the love of God for all people of all times and places, all religions and creeds, all races and classes, all tribes and nations, all sinners and saints.
On the cross, Jesus has shown us how far God’s love goes. It’s a love which embraces even those who crucified him. When Jesus is hanging nailed to the cross, totally broken and stripped of everything, he still prays for his executioners: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus’ love for his enemies knows no bounds. He prays even for those who are putting him to death. It is this, the enemy-loving love of God, that is offered to us in the Eucharist. To forgive our enemies doesn’t lie within our power. That is a divine gift. That’s why it’s so important to make the Eucharist the heart and center of your life. It’s there that you receive the love which empowers you to take the way that Jesus has taken before you: a narrow way, a painful way, but the way that gives you true joy and peace and enables you to make the nonviolent love of God visible to this world.
Our Prayer
As a deer yearns
for running streams,
so I yearn
for you, my God.
In you is the source of life,
by your light we see the light.
— Ps. 42:1; 36:9
No comments:
Post a Comment