“On the last day of the feast [of Tabernacles] Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” –Jn. 7:37-38
Lent is a time of returning.
On the first day of Lent, we will be reminded by the prophet Joel: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart…” Returning is at the heart of the Lenten season. Preparation, fasting, mourning, making space for the Lord to come—yes, but above all, returning to Him. We return, to the Living Water to be washed clean, to our first Love to be filled, renewed, and rebuilt, to the Fire of our origin to be purified.
Lent is also a time of building.
Repeated returns to the Lord seem easy to do in a Chapel as beautiful as the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament here at Our Lady of the Angels. The Chapel itself easily represents Mount Tabor where Jesus revealed his glory to three of his chosen disciples—three of those who were called and set apart, consecrated. Can we build our tents [tabernacles] there?
Fr. Barry Braum, MSE, once shared with us from his own meditation on the gospel of the Transfiguration that the sudden descent of the Shekinah cloud of glory and the Father’s voice saying, “This is my Beloved Son, listen to him,” was not a rebuke or rejection of Peter’s suggestion that they build tents, but a revelation that the three disciples themselves are His tabernacles.
Every return to the Lord, every Mass, every Holy Communion, every participation in the Divine Office, every visit to the tabernacle, every Rosary, prayer, and each act of self-denial, charity, humility… all these are little stones to build our interior tabernacle for the Lord. As we return to Him, we become vessels and channels of living water for the Church, as Poor Clare Sr. Ann Marie of St. Joseph (1581-1632) describes in her Relacion espiritual:
“A flood of water began to shower down on me with great violence, and it seemed about to drown the heavens. As the water rained down on me, there came a voice that said repeatedly: ‘Do you want more? Do you want more?’ and I totally absorbed and keen with attention, …was drinking deeply of this endless water. I was so full of water that torrents came from my soul, and these torrents spread through the Church.”
Lent is also an invitation to a constant ablution.
Once one enters the living water, one is constantly being washed and purified. It is said that the best preparation for Holy Communion is the reception of Holy Communion; the best thanksgiving for Holy Mass is to attend another Mass. In other words, the Divine touch of God purifies us from the touch of God in order to be purified for His touch.
Come to the water!