Lent is a time where all Christians prepare themselves to celebrate the greatest feast of the Church: Easter. With this wonderful and sacred time, each one of us is preparing ourselves to live with faith and enthusiasm, the redemption given by Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is precisely what the readings in the liturgy are introducing to us. For instance, the gospel according to John (John 4:5-42) tells us how Jesus has an encounter with the Samaritan woman. Even though Jesus asks her for water, Jesus finally is giving her the living water. This living water is Jesus Himself who is calming our thirst for God.
The experience of the Samaritan woman should motivate us to say, “Sir, give me this water.” How many times have we said this to the Lord? This is a question that this Lenten season is asking us. Do I come to the Mass to receive the living water who is Jesus Himself present in the Eucharist? Or do I just come to the Mass because it is Sunday, and I must go? Let us review how we are celebrating this wonderful encounter with Christ.
Saint Luke (Lk. 13,1-9), talks about the different fruits that we are producing. The Lord does not want us to sin any- more; therefore, instead of punishment, we receive all His love. Pope Francis constantly is reminding us that God is merciful. He is always ready to forgive us, just as the gospel of the “Merciful Father” or the “Prodigal Son” tells us. Pope Francis, in the Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Miseria, says, “Mercy gives rise to joy, because our hearts are opened to the hope of a new life. The joy of forgiveness is inexpressible, yet it radiates all around us whenever we experience forgiveness. Its source is in the love with which God comes to meet us, breaking through walls of selfishness that surround us, in order to make us in turn instruments of mercy (MM #3).”
God wants us to turn our faces to Him. He wants that we do not sin anymore but change our lives and get eternal life (Cf. Ez. 18:23). God always is ready to receive each one of us with open arms because He loves us always regardless of our situation or whatever we did. He loves us for who we are, not for what we did. So, are we ready to receive His forgiveness through the sacrament of reconciliation? Let us remember that the priest acts in persona Christi Capitis (in the head of the person of Christ). That means, that everything that the priest does is not in his own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ who acts through him. Why are we waiting to go to His encounter and ask for forgiveness for all things that we did that offended Him? Once we had gone to Confession, we should remember the words that the Lord says to the woman caught in adultery, “Go and from now on do not sin anymore” (John 8:11).
Lent time should take us to a personal and close encounter with the Lord who is always ready to forgive us regardless of what we did, because He is the living image of the Merciful Father. May all of us, in this Lenten season, be closer to God, and then all of us can go out into the world and give a true testimony of the Risen Lord, who redeems all our sins.
Remember, The parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build.
God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!
Fr. Jorge Ramirez
