Lent Week 3: Monday
LIVING WATER…
Lent introduces us today to a reflection on the value of water. In the church, when we think of water, we usually think of the holy water font at the door of the church. We approach it and with reverence dip our fingers into the font before making the Sign of the Cross. We also hold in reverence the holy water used to bless sacred images, homes, vehicles, our very selves and others in liturgical settings.
More important than holy water is the baptismal water. Baptism was the early Christian’s sign of repentance, conversion, and commitment to follow Christ. Once baptized, a person is grafted forever into the realm of God’s love and into the community of believers. Baptismal water signifies and truly reflects the soul’s purification from sin and the attainment of new life and salvation.
The first reading speaks of the saving power of water in the account of the leper Naaman’s miraculous cure at the Jordan River. The waters of Israel were nothing compared to the waters of his homeland, and yet this water, blessed by God through the prophet Elisha, healed his abhorrent affliction and restored his youthful flesh.
Jesus speaks of Naaman in the gospel as he describes the person who receives God’s grace because he listened to God, believed in him, and obeyed him with total trust and confidence. This is what happens in baptism: a person receives the gift of faith and commits himself to live for God and not for self, for good and not for evil.
Most Catholics have been baptized as infants and will not have the memory of a conscious decision to receive this beautiful sacrament. Yet as we grow up, surrounded by the family of faith in the church, we realize the meaning of what it is to be baptized, to be called Christian. It is not a cultural thing, not an obligatory requirement, not a mere religious ritual. Our baptism is our personal and public acceptance of the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One God who dwells in our hearts.
At Easter, we will renew the faith professed in baptism. Today let us ask ourselves if we truly know, feel, and live the effects of our baptism. In private or in public, do we rejoice in becoming faithful followers of the Lord Jesus? Do we bring our faith in the daily context of our lives at home, school, workplace, and community?
