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Water is known for its many healing properties. There is no living thing that can survive without it. Any nutritionist would emphasize that for the body to function properly, it must be hydrated. Water is the key component of every ecosystem.

“Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish.” Ezekiel 47:9

If there is fresh water, the land, the creatures and the people will be fruitful and multiply. God created water for this purpose. He gave us water to fuel ourselves and to use it in caring for this planet He created for us to live on. Water is the most crucial element on this earth. There is only one substance (or person) more crucial to life than water and He is Jesus Christ.

Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to fast not only from food but from water as well. This proves that Jesus is more powerful than the life-giving properties of water. If it is His will, we could live without water as we rest in Him, for the love of Jesus is strong enough to sustain us and even make us prosper.

This is not to say we should all give up water, believing the Lord will take care of us. God made water for our benefit. Nevertheless, just as Jesus is known as the Bread of Life, He is also called the Water of Life. When we accept Jesus into our lives and are baptized in water, our souls are revitalized with the Holy Spirit, and through faith we can see that Jesus Christ is the one and only life-giving presence we need. If we believe in Him, we will never be thirsty again.

The Lenten readings lately have been filled with seemingly harsh messages presented by the Lord to His people. It might be easy to fall into the comfort our faith usually provides–God is “love” after all. Nevertheless, we need to remember that true love stories are not simply “gumdrops and butterflies.” My dad repeated a quote from Matthew to me recently: “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” (Mt 10:28). My dad made the point that Jesus was not referring to Satan, the one I always assumed Jesus was speaking about. Jesus was referring to His Father, our Father. How easy it is to forget the immeasurable power of God! Satan can tempt us, torture us, and try to kill us but he has no control of who is actually damned to Hell. That decision is God’s and God’s alone.

Lent is a season of reflection, when we look back at our sins and repent. We owe everything to God; without Him, we are dust and into dust we will return. One of the most difficult issues I personally struggle to overcome is selfishness. I become so upset when my life goes awry–I immediate ask God to fix the problem, and because He is my Father, I expect Him to do so. Then I remember that without Him I have absolutely nothing. There is no reason I can present to Him that would provide solid grounds for Him to give me anything I want. The only reason He does what He does for me is His divine mercy.

These lessons that Jesus sets before us in the recent readings are harsh and can create fear in us at times. What is to stop our Master from handing us over to the torturers until we pay back the whole debt, as Jesus speaks of in the parable in today’s Gospel. It harkens back to that central truth: God is Love. Because He loves us so much, He wants us to learn from these harsh lessons. He wants all His children to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and the only way to get there is to love Him enough to take these lessons to heart. Love is hard; it is not meant to be easy. Jesus came to show us not just the beautiful side of love, but its tough side as well.

When the Lord speaks, His people listen. When Jesus came to earth, He was the Word of God made flesh. During His ministry, it is noted several times that Jesus spoke “with authority.” Before Jesus Christ, the Jewish people listened to “rabbis” because they had authority. The Scribes and the Pharisees had learned the law of Moses and this entitled them to their high position.

Suddenly, a carpenter’s son arrives on the scene and speaks with the same authority, but instead of agreeing with the rabbis, He rebukes them. “Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice” (Matthew 23:3). Jesus was speaking the Lord’s words and consequently, people listened.

It must have been truly difficult for Jesus’ audience to accept Him. People still had no idea who He really was. Nevertheless, people gave up everything to follow Him because they recognized the truth. Today, we know who Jesus is and that the words He spoke are truth. However, the temptation not to listen remains.

This might be the greatest example of the power of sin. Through our faith, we cannot deny who Jesus is and what He is asking us to do, yet we continue to stray. We may not have Pharisees and Scribes to whom we could listen, but we have political figures, celebrities, and social media. “All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi'” (Matthew 23:5-7). Just as the people of Jesus’ time were influenced by the Pharisees, people today are drawn to the false glamour of this world promoted by other leaders.

In this time of Lent, we are presented with an opportunity to repent and listen to the word of God once again. The act of humbling ourselves and remembering who our Father is and what He has done for us may not be easy, but the rewards of taking advantage of this opportunity are great, so great that we cannot even begin to imagine the rewards that await us in Heaven.

When I was growing up, saying my daily prayers was just a chore or an obligation that I had to do because my parents told me to. I would recite the words as instructed by them. I probably knew the “Our Father” before I knew my ABCs. My kindergarten teacher called me her “prayer warrior” and said I knew what was important! Now prayer seems to have become impossible to get right for the average person. By the time I entered high school I had mostly given up on the practice of prayer because I assumed I wasn’t doing it correctly.

Reciting prayers didn’t work because I focused on the memorization of the words in each prayer. Once I did memorize one, saying it became more habitual, instead of actually being able to meditate on the words it contained. When I tried simply speaking with God, I fell into the temptation to give Him a long wish list of what I wanted: prayer transformed into the Godly version of a letter to Santa at Christmas. Making the situation more complex, there are countless books about prayer and the “right” way to pray. I have never been a reader, and never did well with being told how to do a task; I usually just gave up.

Taking all these factors into account, I wonder why Jesus Himself says that the right way to pray is through the “Our Father.” For the majority of my life, I thought Jesus meant that the only way to talk to God was by saying those exact words. Jesus was providing a gateway–when I am completely lost and don’t have any words and all my strength is gone, I say the “Our Father.” The true miracle happens next, when the “Our Father” empowers me to keep going deeper into prayer. “Thy will be done” allows my mind to release its own inhibitions and the prayer is no longer my own–it is the Holy Spirit’s. The key to prayer is not to worry about getting it right, but to open your soul and allow the Holy Spirit to take control and guide you to “Our Father.”

Tomorrow another Lenten season begins. Last year, the season seemed markedly different from previous Lents. The world was in the grip of a pandemic and people everywhere were forced to give up more than what they ever considered as a Lenten sacrifice. Despite what appeared to be insurmountable odds, followers of Christ endured 40 days, hoping the time of trial caused by the pandemic would end quickly. Unfortunately, a whole year later, we are still under its control and face another Lent that will require greater than usual sacrifice.

The question this year is what will this Lent bring and how should we approach it? After an entire year of suffering, can we persevere through another 40 days?

Many people have lost loved ones in this pandemic. Many are in despair, wondering when or if it will ever end. Hope is harder to hold onto when there seems to be no end in sight. However, this is not the first time the world has been asked to wait on the Lord. Noah, for example, had to wait much longer than we have for his period of trial to end. Years passed with no sign of progress outside the ark, yet Noah continued to stay true to the Lord and kept his faith.

Times of suffering are not meant to break us but to strengthen us. This is why Lent is such an integral part of our Catholic liturgical year. When we participate in this period of going without, we are entering into Christ’s own passion. Christ came into the world to die, making the greatest sacrifice possible. Although we may never be able to experience exactly what Jesus went through before Calvary, we can try to imitate Him in this penitential season, asking Him to enter our hearts and provide us with the strength not to give up.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus questions His disciples, “ Do you still not understand?” Perhaps He is now asking us the same question. We have undergone a year of incredible pain and the conditions that caused it remain. Most people are hoping for an end to these trials, but that might not be what we should be seeking. God may want us to look deeper into the current situation of our world. Suffering is a key part of being human and what brings us closer to God. Do we still not understand?

How easy it is to get lost in the details. How easy it is to become consumed by the day-to-day routine. How easy it is to lose sight of what is really important. It might be fair to say that many people do not even know how to discern what is really important. The Pharisees and the Jewish people living at the time Jesus was on earth were unable to understand the words they heard Him speak. They were comfortable with the traditions they had established for their faith. They focused on what they had been practicing for hundreds of years and this prevented them from remembering who God was and that He was love.

All humans and the traditions they cling to have the ability to overcomplicate new ideas and new truths. God is love–that is the simple truth and we can trust that completely. We can read the story of creation, which should show anyone the love of the Lord. God created the heavens and the earth and every last detail of our lives, and He saw that it was good.

Whenever we lose our ability to see God or become caught up in the unimportant matters that fill our lives, we should return to the story of God’s creation. It can be easy to forget that we are still living on the same earth God proclaimed “good”. We can be part of His creation just as we are, without worrying about maintaining the proper traditions or rules. We are like the disciples with unclean hands coming as they were to the table of Christ. God wants to be with us as we are because He made us that way. If we ever fall into despair wondering where God is, look at the water filled with the creatures of the sea or the sky filled with birds in flight. Look at the earth and see the plants growing and multiplying. God made all this and it is good. He made us in His image and likeness and saw that “it was good.” We can reflect on our world today, including ourselves and our brothers and sisters who share it, and see that it is still good.