Facing Death Smiling (5th Sunday Lent A)

Nong Titoy was my favorite Kaabag (Eucharistic Lay Minister).  I admired him because of his selfless and uncomplaining manner of serving the Church in many and varied ways. In him I witnessed how, in poverty, a man can still be very generous with his time and the gift of himself. He was old enough to be my own father yet he had shown me deep respect. When he knew he was dying of cancer, he asked for me.  While lying on his bed, he took my hand and brought it to his forehead saying, “Bless me, Father… I’m dying.” Then he sobbed silently still holding my hand. I asked him if he was in pain. He looked at me and told me he was afraid. He continued sobbing.

A little later while I administered the anointing, I told him how much I admired him as a faithful disciple of Christ, that I was really grateful for his generosity in serving the Church, that I was very proud of him.  Jesus was even more proud of him and would certainly not lose him for the Spirit of the Lord had always been with him as manifested in the way he lived.

With the assurance of Christ’s mercy and love, Nong Titoy realized he had no reason to be afraid. As we continued chatting a little bit more, his sobs gradually turned into laughter, albeit, faint and weak. He was smiling when I left. And that was my last picture of him.

Helplessness in death.  Without Jesus Christ in our life, death is frightening.  It could mean the end of everything that we have and are.  As we die, we can be filled with anxiety and fear because, without Christ, everything we have valued and cherished in this life will turn into nothing.  Without Christ, death is the end of everything for us. Period. That’s frightening.

And what is even more cruel is the experience of our helplessness in the face of death.  Death comes, like it or not. While we may be able to postpone it, we cannot do anything to stop it. In the gospel reading today, Martha expressed such helplessness in the absence of Christ: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (Jn. 11: 21). But it seems, in the gospel reading, Jesus allowed the feeling of helplessness to be experienced by Lazarus.  He came four days too late.  Rather than do a miracle for his friend’s sake, He seemed to have allowed death to claim Lazarus.

Why so? Perhaps, helplessness brings forth humility to accept our total dependence on God’s life-giving Spirit.  Without this source of life, we die and that’s it. Helplessness in the face of death makes us realize the power of what Jesus claims in the gospel reading: “I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live” (Jn. 11:25). In helplessness we realize that only God can open our graves, as promised by the Prophet Ezekiel in the first reading, and have us rise from them. Only God can put his spirit in us that we may live. In helplessness we realize, as Lazarus’ family did, that only in and through Jesus Christ that death is vanquished and new life may flourish.

Life in the Spirit.  Lazarus symbolizes the Christian, the believer, who has died in the flesh but has been given life in the spirit by the Risen Lord. Lazarus stands for all the members of the early Christian community in Rome addressed by St. Paul in the second reading (Rom 8:8-11) in these words:  “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. “  St. Paul explains to the Christian community in Rome that they now have the life in spirit through the indwelling of the Spirit of the one who raised Christ from the dead.

Lazarus symbolizes you and me today. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we now possess the eternal life of the spirit. This gift of new life is realized in us sacramentally through our submission to baptism. In baptism, we celebrate our faith in Jesus.  Through the ritual act of immersion into the baptismal water, we symbolically experience our helplessness in death; and by emerging from the water, we joyfully rise with new life, the gift of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us.

Invitation to Live Fully.  We easily think of eternal life as a future gift. By thinking so, often we miss to appreciate the gift of that same divine life—the life in the spirit--already given to us through our baptism. Jesus is the resurrection and life. Anyone who believes in him, even if he dies, will live. This is so because we already possess here and now the life given by Christ. Our physical death is only our passage to the fullness of eternal life.

Easter is approaching.  The joy of Lenten anticipation of Easter looks forward to the celebration of the triumph of Christ over sin and death.  The joy reminds us to live out fully every day the gift of new life that Christ has won for us and has given us in baptism. When we have lived out fully our life in the spirit—characterized by our love and service of God and neighbor--we can face our own death smiling as Nong Titoy did.  For with the spirit of the risen Christ already dwelling in us, death is nothing but a passage to the consummation of the gift of life well-lived.    

Obey Your Thirst (3rd Sunday Lent A)

(grabbed from http://ccdumaguete.com)

The dry season is in the air. The green grasses around our homes are turning brown. The soil is starting to become parched. The rain is scarce. The heat is on. We perspire a lot and our thirst intensifies. Under these circumstances, we cannot but “obey our thirst” as the ads remind us over and over again. Actually, we do not need even a modicum of reminder when it comes to obeying our thirst as we cannot do otherwise. We obey it by necessity. What needs a great amount of reminding in us is our choice of the things with which we try to quench our thirst. The ads entice us to patronize a certain brand of beverage which promises optimum satisfaction. Still, we all know that nothing beats fresh water. Yet whether we drink the advertised refreshing beverages or simply the ice-cold fresh water, what we experience is only provisional satisfaction. We keep coming back as we grow thirsty again and again.

Our thirst seems to be infinite. As such, it cannot be completely slaked by finite things this world can offer.  Hence, if we keep on going back to the temporary answers to our thirst expecting to be fully satisfied, we sure will end up in restless frustrations.

Two Kinds of Thirst. I find very helpful our awareness of the distinction between two levels of thirst that we all experience in life.  The first level of thirst is the horizontal yearning.  We yearn for the good things that this world offers:  refreshing drink, delicious food, a cozy house, a decent income, pleasures and entertainment, friendship and companionship. It is but natural to desire these things and when sought within reasonable limits, these are actually not bad. But much deeper than this yearning for earthly goods is our experience of the vertical yearning.  This is our thirst for meaning.  All human beings are in search for this meaning.  Experience tells us that no amount of goods in this world can totally satisfy this thirst. Only the vertical friendship with God provides the answer to this infinite longing.  Only the infinite love of God satisfies this deepest thirst.

Obeying our thirst wisely, then, means distinguishing between these two kinds of thirst which are naturally operating in us.  It is foolish to seek satisfaction of our deepest longing for meaning in the temporary horizontal goods like food, wealth, fame, pleasure, human relationships.   They all provide temporary answers.  People who have tried this foolish way ended up frustrated, lonely, unhappy, and empty.  St. Augustine had tried this for many years before he realized that, as he wrote in his Confession, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." 

Source of Living Water.  In today’s gospel reading (Jn 4: 5-42), Jesus is in conversation with a Samaritan woman who is drawing water from Jacob’s well.  Jesus takes the opportunity to enlighten this woman regarding the source of living water that can truly quench her thirst. Commentaries explain that this woman had lived in disappointment, loneliness, and insecurities.  She had lived with five husbands and now she was with another man whom she hadn't even married. On account of this status, she was drawing water from Jacob’s well at the hottest time of the day in order to avoid the other women in the town as they would just ridicule her.

We can discern that this woman had been trying to quench her deepest thirst for meaning and for infinite love with worldly goods like human love, comfort, and earthly pleasures.  In the process, she ended up miserable and lonely. But her meeting with the Lord at Jacob’s well changed everything. She came to the cistern to draw water that had kept her coming back for more but she encountered the source of living water, the “spring of water welling up to eternal life,” Jesus Christ.  With her encounter with Christ and her acceptance of him in faith, not only did her life turned around completely, she even became an enthusiastic missionary to the people in her village announcing the good news.  The whole town came to believe in Jesus.

A Season for Obeying our Thirst. Lent is a time for obeying our thirst—not so much the thirst for horizontal stuff which leave us craving for more but our deepest thirst for meaning, our thirst for the infinite love of God.  In this season of grace, let us allow Jesus to quench our thirst as we unmask the emptiness of the promise of satisfaction offered to us by the things of this world:

To what well do I keep coming back in life in order to seek satisfaction of my thirst? Just like the Samaritan woman, we can go through life, searching for the little things in life that satisfy our thirst – perhaps pleasure, material things, a challenging job or a friendship. All these things satisfy, but their satisfaction is provisional and we must return to them again and again. Again, to what do you turn to satisfy your thirst? Don’t you think you have enough of these?

Have I discovered the source of the living water that truly satisfies? Just as Jesus offered the living water, the life of grace, to the Samaritan woman, He offers the same to all. He shares this life of grace with us in abundance.  When we accept his offer of life-giving grace, our lives can turn around from endless frustrations to a meaningful and joyful life.  This season of Lent is our opportunity to make this change happen.  Am I ready to open my heart to Jesus the source of the living water?

Obey your thirst. Like the Samaritan woman, beg the Lord to give you the living water that you may not be thirsty or have to keep coming back to the well that never satisfies.