PROMISE TO FULFILLMENT (3)
BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD!
Be in your prayer space, follow the usual steps and settle into silence.
Sit still…..Relax…….Do not rush………
Take a couple of gentle, slow and deep breaths…becoming aware of your breath going in and out… stay focused on this breath of life……
Settle into silence, into peacefulness, into profound silence, into pure joy. Keep listening in such quietness and serenity. Come to that place, that space within, that place of deep silence, Solitude, to just being here and now without having to accomplish something.
Now from the depth of your heart begin to wish your mind well……….
We have been meditating on cultivating a Lenten Spirituality – a spirituality of hope that finds its fulfillment in the risen Christ. In this meditation, we continue to meditate on nurturing this hope that finds fulfillment in Christ.
Take a moment. Bless your day. Let your day Bless you……Take another moment. Bless your world. Let your world bless you……
We continue our journey with Jesus through Lent. The mystery of following Jesus cannot be put into simple words. Since we began our Lenten journey, we met him living through trying, testing times and in moments of great glory. We will continue to meet him in our own personal struggles, in testing, trying times – may even fight a few demons. We will have our periods of fatigue and despair, fear and anxiety, doubts and frustrations. We may make wrong turns and “U” turns……But we will journey, we will move on, we will stay focused and we will rely on his presence with us on the journey…
The third week of Lent invites us to meet Moses and his people on their journey into freedom (Exodus 17:3-7). They cried out for food and drink. The Lord said to Moses, “Strike the rock and the water will flow from it for the people to drink”. Moses struck the rock and water flowed for the Israelites to drink. Israel’s relationship with God required a faith-filled and absolute reliance, a deep abiding trust in God and God’s providence. Israel had to learn this trust as they journeyed through the wilderness.
We are now challenged to learn to live faith-filled lives, to learn to develop deep, abiding trust in God and God’s ways, learn to trust in Divine Providence.
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:5-42).
Physical needs brought the woman to Jacob’s well. She went home from that water source with more than a bucket of water for drinking, cooking and washing. She went on her way spiritually nourished, purified and renewed by her encounter with Jesus.
Jesus said, “if you only knew who it is that is speaking to you…………..” If you only knew! How could she?! A Jewish Rabbi asking a Samaritan woman for a drink! She had known only years of hostility between Jews and Samaritans. It was unheard of for a Rabbi to speak to a woman in public; it was unheard of that any Jew would drink from Samaritan utensils. The woman’s late visit to the well (water was usually drawn early in the morning) may suggest that she was an outcast in the village because of her questionable life style with a man who was not her husband.
The grace of the presence of Jesus and his offer of living water broke down the barriers that ordinarily separated her from her community. That is the nature of “gracefulness”. Gracefulness breaks down barriers that ordinarily separate Jews from Gentiles, men from women and saints from sinners.
GRACEFULNESS IS A HOLY STATE OF BEING. All such barriers were broken down by the person and the mission of Jesus who came to Shechem, to Jacob’s well and offered living water to a woman who would drink deeply that water which Jesus offered. That same water washes each of us at Baptism, cleansing us, freeing and forgiving us and incorporating us into the mystery of the Body of Christ.
Like the woman who was seen by Jesus for who she was and yet was invited to Grace and Salvation, the Lord sees each of us for who are, loves us, even in our sinfulness and in our weakness and welcomes us to be cleansed and nourished by his living water.
GRACEFULNESS IS A HOLY STATE OF BEING. How blessed and graced we are!
The Lord goes where we wouldn’t be caught dead! Lingering, waiting, in the most unexpected places, in the simple, in the ordinary, even in the seemingly insignificant things, places and people – Ashes, dust, clay, water, salt, a sinful Samaritan woman!
How blessed! we don’t necessarily have to be in the right places and doing the right thing or even be the right people, as we see it!
The Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well. She abandoned her water jug, that is, her former life, for him and became a witness to the Good News of Jesus (John 4:5-42). One day a Samaritan man met another human being, half dead, a victim of robbery and violence on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He felt his heart moved to compassion. So, he changed his journey because of this person; he became his “neighbor” and took care of him with great generosity (Luke 10: 29-37).
The Samaritan Woman and the Samaritan Man are symbols of the pathway along which the Spirit is leading each of us today and symbols of the love and compassion that the Spirit is arousing in our hearts. They are sinners, yet grace and openness to goodness are present in them and moving them to conversion and transformation of their life. We are like them and we must feel challenged by her thirst and desire for living water and his compassion for the wounded on the journey of life.
The Samaritan woman entered the scene as “a woman from Samaria” and left as someone very knowledgeable about the spring of “living water,” aware that the Father is looking for her to worship Him. Her transformed identity turned her into a disciple who, by means of her testimony, persuaded many people to approach Jesus and believe in Him. She who was talking about “drawing water” as a task costing great effort now abandoned her jug.
The Samaritan man, who also entered the scene anonymously, identified only by his ethnic background, revealed his true identity at the end. The mercy dwelling in his heart lead him to act as a neighbor for the one depending on him for survival. Jesus gave him a new name: “the one who had compassion”.
Jesus breaks down barriers between people, culture, religion, race, etc. What are those barriers that need to be broken in your own personal life?
That’s what the Lenten season is all about! This is the season of dismantling, breaking down those barriers to God’s loving, compassionate, graceful, peaceful presence in the surprising, even unimaginable corners of our life. This is the season of also re-examining our assumptions about who is worthy or unworthy of God’s gracious presence and our gracious living.
No sin is an embarrassment to Jesus. Bring all your embarrassing moments, actions, events and situations in your life to Jesus. He will transform them into Grace-filled moments and opportunities for transformation of your life.
Jesus gives us cleansing, life-giving water. What are those areas of life that need to be cleansed? Reflect on the life-giving water that you need to drink and the source of that life-giving water in the spring within you, in prayer, in the sacraments, in the scriptures, in the church……………
Jesus empowers us to face the truth. What is the truth in your self or about your self that you need to face? Come to the Lord Jesus, He will empower you to face the truth. Being empowered, we must share His truth with others.
May your Lenten spirituality be creative, constructive, optimistic, positive – hope-filled and may all your hopes find fulfillment in the risen Christ. May God bless you and your family and keep you safe in His Love.
Fr. Gus Tharappel,msfs