‘God proves his love for us in that
while we were still sinners Christ died for us’
People
can be strange, stubborn creatures, and the picture given to us of the
Israelites in Exodus should strike something of a chord – we can recognise
something of ourselves in it. But lest we get too disheartened it is important
to recognise that Moses strikes the rock at Horeb, as the Lord commands him,
and out flows water. This water, like the parted water of the Red Sea
prefigures our baptism, through which we enter the Church, through which we are
regenerate, born again to eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour,
whose side was pierced on Calvary, and whence flowed blood and water, this
water speaks to us of the grace of God poured out upon us, his people, to heal
us and restore us, to help us live his risen life.
So as we continue our Lenten
pilgrimage, we can do so joyfully because God’s love has been poured into our
hearts – what matters is what has been done to us, by God, out of love, so that
we can be like him. He is the reconciliation which achieves what we cannot:
restoring our relationship with God and each other, healing our wounds, and
giving us eternal life in Him.
Picture the scene – it’s the middle
of the day, the sun is blazing overhead, he’s been walking for hours, days
even. Jesus is tired – as a man, a human being, he is no different from you or me
– he ate and drank, and was knackered. Mid-day is no time to be drawing water from
a well – it’s something you do first thing in the morning. He asks the woman for
a drink – he’s defying a social convention – he’s breaking the rules. She’s surprised
– Jews are supposed to treat Samaritans as outcasts, they’re beyond the pale, they’re
like the Roma in Eastern Europe. Jesus offers her living water, so that she may
never he thirsty again. The woman desires it, so that she will never be thirsty
again, or have to come to the well to draw water. Jesus knows who and what she is
– he recognises her irregular lifestyle, but also her need of God – her need for
the water of grace to restore her soul, and inspire her to tell people the Good
News. Her testimony is powerful because she has experienced God’s love as a living
reality and she simply has to tell people about it. She brings them to Christ so
that they can be nourished, so that they too can experience the grace of God.
To live is to change and to be perfect is to have
changed often. If we are changing into Jesus Christ, then we’re on the right
track. If we listen to his word; if we talk to him in prayer and let him talk
to us; if we’re fed by Him in the Eucharist, by Christ both priest and victim,
to become what He is – God; if we’re forgiven by Him, through making confession
of our sins, not only do we come to understand Jesus, we become like him, we
come to share in his divine nature, you, me, all of humanity ideally. We, the
People of God, the new humanity, enter into the divine fullness of life, we
have a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.
Lent should be something of a
spiritual spring clean, asking God to drive out all that should not be there,
preparing for the joy of Easter, to live the Risen Life, filled with God’s grace.
In our baptism we died with Christ and were raised to new life in the Spirit.
Let us prepare to live that life, holding fast to Our Lord and Saviour,
clinging to the teachings of his body, the Church. Let us turn away from the
folly of this world, the hot air, and focus on the true and everlasting joy of
heaven, which awaits us, who are bought by his blood, washed in it, fed with it.
So that we too may praise the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to whom be
ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and
power, now and forever...
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