‘Living Water’
‘Living Water’: bringing life, bringing healing, bringing peace
Fr. Gareth’s homily, St. Gabriel’s Parish, Dollymount, 15th March 2020
Third Sunday of Lent, Year A: Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8; John 4: 5-42
The focus of our first reading and Gospel today is on living water, water that can quench
- the thirst of the Israelites tormented in the desert,
- the thirst of the Samaritan women to know the ways of God as well as to provide for the wellbeing of those at home,
- the thirst for life and meaning and hope we all experience, represented by the woman in the gospel story
- and the thirst of Jesus himself: ‘God thirsts that we may thirst for him’, St. Augustine says
As well as quenching our thirst, we need water to wash ourselves, to cleanse and refresh ourselves. In this particular moment when we are dealing with the Covid-19 virus, we are so conscious of the importance of washing our hands with soap and water, hot water, washing our hands for a full twenty seconds – singing ‘happy birthday to you’ twice.
As we wash our hands repeatedly in these days, we might make a prayer each time we participate in this action, thanking God for the gift of water to the world and to us, clean water, the importance of which we do not always acknowledge - bringing life, bringing healing, bringing peace.
The Israelites in the first reading were happy to have escaped Egypt – and we have often felt glad to live in modern times with so much science and technology to help us know and conquer our world.
The people of Israel, however, found themselves lost in a wilderness, without a home, without the comforts they thought they would build up together in the freedom they had won for themselves. It seems that in this moment we too have come to find ourselves suddenly in a wilderness, in a place we would not have expected - where everything we take for granted is being challenged.
People all over the world, and in every generation, have experienced local wars (even so-called world wars), famine, natural disasters, pestilence and severe loss of one kind or another. Covid-19 is, however, literally, a worldwide phenomenon. We are all in this together as we watch country after country go into lockdown in one way or another.
Who would have thought that we would have to consider it necessary not to gather to celebrate Mass together – but instead to join in from home on the parish webcam! It seems that many people are talking about and realising once more the importance of the Eucharist in their lives - and the significance we place on gathering together around Jesus and with each other. A new conversation is taking place.
‘I am the Living water’, Jesus says, ‘whoever drinks of this water will never thirst again.’ We celebrate the wonderful presence of Jesus to us at Mass and in Holy Communion – the one who brings light, healing and peace into our lives, who is present to us in all circumstances, and we to him.
Today and in these days, we are reminded that we can unite ourselves spiritually with Jesus and with each other - spiritual communion – praying together around and with Jesus at parish Mass on the website in our homes. We have been given an extraordinary moment this Lenten-time to reflect, to renew ourselves, to open the doors of our heart in new ways to God and to each other – even as we keep our distance.
It is the time to press the RESET button on our lives, and think again, on what is important to us. We embrace Jesus today in a new way, and with him, we embrace each other, not physically in this moment perhaps, but spiritually - holding each other in our hearts, in our prayer, in our hopes for the future.
This is surely a time to think again about what community means to us, what the Christian community means to us, what parish holds for us. This is a time to plan new ways of being together for each other in our families, and with our neighbours - conscious of the living spring of water that is within us, Jesus Christ, ‘welling up to eternal life’.
There is a gift for us too in this wilderness place, with time to think about creating space for prayer and reflection in ordinary ways, and for action within and beyond the Christian community. Some suggestions might be:
- a moment each day when we light a candle and recognise Christ as the light of the world
- a place, maybe a favourite chair, or beside the bed, where we place our much-loved prayers, or a book of reflections, or some spiritual reading
- maybe the opportunity to find our rosary beads and remember to ask Mary to be with us and our family, praying for our needs
- and don’t forget to ‘phone a friend’, in that inimitable phrase, or call that someone we haven’t spoken to in an age
- and watch out for our neighbours, especially those who find it hard to get out
- or maybe a donation to a charity, especially a lesser known one that might be struggling to keep going at this time
Let us make time, then, to rethink, to refresh, and to reset in one way or another. Remember, as St Paul says in the second reading today: ‘The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us’. Let us live our lives always in God’s love. Let us care for each other truly, as Jesus has taught us. Led by his Spirit, let us always carry each other in our hearts.