Lent Begins

A number of years ago I was speaking with a parent of a child who had been sick from birth.  They took her to all kinds of doctors for many different treatments.  Then they came to the point where she needed a kidney transplant.  One of her parents was a perfect match, so the operation took place.  After the operation she told her parents, "Wow, this is what it means to feel well!" She had been sick for her whole life and therefore never experienced what we would call normal good health.  Then came the operation and a whole new way of seeing and knowing life.

The gospels from this week and last present us with people who have adapted to difficult situations in their lives and then are touched and healed by the powerful presence of God’s love in Jesus.  We don’t know anything about the physical well- being of the woman at the well, but it is pretty clear that she was not spiritually healthy and did not feel good about herself. She came to the well hoping to get a drink without having to encounter anyone else.  Yet it is her quest for water that lead to a totally new way of knowing life.  Once she opened her heart to Jesus and his living water she became spiritually healthy.  Now her heavy heart was cured.  Perhaps she thought to herself, "Wow, this is what it means to feel well!" During Lent we look into our hearts to see where we are burdened and are not who we really know we can be and that God created us to be.  There are so many conflicting voices calling out to us and directing us to find happiness and meaning in life.  In his book, "The Return of the Prodigal Son," Henri Nouwen says, "As long as I keep running about asking:" Do you love me?nbsp; Do you really love me?" I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with "ifs".  The world says: "Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy.  I love you if you have a good education, a good job and good connections.  I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much." There are endless "ifs," hidden in the world’s love.  These "ifs" enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them.  The world’s love is and always will be conditional.  As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain "hooked" to the world - trying, failing, and trying again.  It is a world that fosters addictions because what it fosters cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart."

Lent is our time to sort out the voices in our hearts that keep calling us to listen to them.  The ultimate voice we all seek, the only one that offers truth and life, is the voice of Jesus.  It was his voice that turned the life of the woman at the well around.  She accepted the gift of God’s love in Jesus and responded with joy, gratitude and a deep desire to share with others this way of life that is so healthy for our spiritual, mental and personal well-being.  For once she was fully alive!  The key is to put our defenses down and to heed the call from Ash Wednesday when the ashes were placed on our foreheads, "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel." It is our faithfulness to the gospel, to the good news of Jesus that enables us to see for ourselves and others, "This is what it means to feel well!"

In today’s gospel a blind man has his eyes smeared with mud by Jesus and is told by him to go and wash at a pool.  He obeys the voice of Jesus and is given the gift of sight.  Even more he comes to realize that he has seen God.  When questioned by those who are blind to Jesus because they oppose him and his way, the cured man goes from calling Jesus "that man Jesus", to "prophet", to "he is from God", and finally to "Lord." This blessed man goes from seeing with his eyes to seeing with his mind and heart and experiencing the presence and love of God.  It is only the voice of Jesus that can lead us out of the darkness of self-imposed ignorance to the light of God’s presence.  It is only the voice of Jesus that says, "Come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you." Lent is our time to be refreshed, a time when God reaches out to us as a community and as individuals that we might come to see his loving presence in our lives.  Lent leads to the joy of Easter, the celebration of God’s power in Jesus to overcome sin and death.  It is that power that he so lovingly and mercifully shares with us and leads us to say, "Wow, this is what it means to feel well!  This is what it means to be fully alive!"

Father Walden