Lent is beginning and with it starts a series of changes in our Christian and spiritual lives that help us get closer to God. Lent invites us to fasting, penance and charity, particularly toward our neighbor.
In the gospels the evangelist Mathew tells us on the first Sunday of Lent about the temptation of Jesus in the desert (Mt- 4, 1-11). We have heard this passage many times, but what does it really teaches us? It teaches us that if we know the Word of God, that is living Word, then we are prepared to face the daily temptations of our lives, focusing on the way to Christ Jesus.
Jesus answered with the Word of God with firm conviction, because the Word of God is powerful and God is faithful to his word.
On the second Sunday of Lent, the evangelist Mathew presents the Transfiguration (Mt- 17, 1-9). Jesus appears to his disciples as he is, with his power and glory, transparent; likewise he appears to us on many occasions in our lives, like the faithful friend without anything limiting his love for us. It was so beautiful that the disciples wanted to stay there, but it was necessary to keep proclaiming his Word and teaching the love of the Father. When that presence of Jesus is in our lives, we feel like the disciples, we want to stay there forever, but unlike the disciples we can be in the presence of Jesus Christ through the Eucharist in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
On the third Sunday of Lent the evangelist John presents Jesus to us as the fountain of living water (Jn-4, 5-42). Jesus answered the Samaritan woman: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4, 13-14). There, at Jacob´s well, the woman meets Jesus and her life is transformed, and she asks for that water so that she will never thirst again. Jesus satisfies us through his Word and his love so that we continue our path to eternal life.
On the fourth Sunday of Lent the evangelist John (Jn-9, 1-41) presents one of the miracles that relates to us in our daily living, the healing of the blind man. Many times we are blind, whether it is by the daily situations or the stress of living, but God heals our blindness, he wants to heal us, but we have to go and get clean through the sacrament of reconciliation. There we are totally cleaned and set free to adore and glorify the mighty name of Christ Jesus. Once we are clean, we see better the path we should follow, our steps will be lighter and our gaze will be fixed toward the Father.
Brothers and sisters that this not be just one More Lent, that we learn to reconcile with God and at the same time to practice charity with our brothers and sisters; that during this Lent our true nourishment be prayer and the Word of God so that we may satisfy our thirst, drinking from the fountain of living water, Christ Jesus. May God bless you and bring us peace.
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Roche leads the young-adult ministry at Holy Apostles Church.
