Tuesday in the First Week of Lent
Is 55: 10-11; Mt 6:7-15
When I came here in Boston two summers ago, everybody was talking about the drought that was affecting this part of the US. We appreciate water most when we do not have access to it. Thank God here we are not directly affected by the drought. Apart from the efficient water supplies, we are also surrounded with reservoirs, lakes, and the Charles River! We can only imagine what it might have been like to be in a time of drought in the Middle East where Isaiah was writing. In this context we can really appreciate the value of every single drop of water in dry and parched land. In places like these, and well, throughout the world, rain is synonymous with life. It is amazing how after the first rain following a dry season you already can start observing signs of life.
That land is us. We all need nourishment in some area of our life or other. There can be areas in our life where we feel as though we are withering under the heat of the scorching sun. There can be areas of our life which we might have neglected such as our relationship with others, our prayer life, our sense of generosity towards others. Today we are being offered the opportunity to reflect on these areas, to become aware of the aridity and lack of life in these particular areas so that we can be motivated to do something about them.
Isaiah speaks of the word of God which gives life to this parched land. The Word of God is not merely a word pronounced like the words that I am saying now. The Word of God is Jesus himself who left the heavens to come and give us life. He has entered into the deepest cracks of the drought of our human condition, emptying himself completely so that we can be filled completely with God. Those very areas of our life which seemed to be dying or perhaps even already dead, Christ has taken them on himself in his death on the cross and gave them a new life through his resurrection. If not a drop of water is wasted without it doing the work it had to do, so can we say that not a drop of blood of Christ can be wasted.
And although Isaiah speaks as though the land is completely passive, we know that at least if is receptive to the water. It craves for it and absorbs it readily. With us it is a bit of a different story. Sometimes we might be craving for God and yet refuse him just the same. It is as though someone is very thirsty, almost dehydrated, and you give him a bottle of Coke. It will only make him more thirsty because what he needs is water.
May this Lenten season make us more aware of the areas of our life which need to be resurrected with Christ this Easter. May we have the courage to identify these areas and to allow Christ to take them onto himself, so that like the land made fertile by the rain, so too shall we bear fruit that the Lord wants us to produce.
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