IN challenging and difficult times, how can we maintain peace? What we can we do to keep our minds sane and our spirits high?
“We’ll just have to keep hoping that it will get better,” we would say. “We’ll just have to trust God,” we would add.
Perhaps the drink from the bucket that the Gospel talks about must be a drink of serenity. It’s the most precious drink that we need now; not the drink of prosperity nor the drink of extravagance.
It’s the drink to calm our worried and tired spirits; it’s the drink that can keep us united as a family, as a community, and as a nation.
For us Christians, the Person of Jesus Christ and our intimate relationship with him are what would provide us with this drink. But we cannot take this drink in a noisy world; we’ll have to take it in a lonely place and in moments of solitude.
This can be in one’s private room in the early hours of the morning or in the middle of the night. This can be during those stolen moments inside a car or at a coffee shop away from phones, from crying babies, or from hundreds of unread emails. And, absolutely, this can be during times of Confession, Mass, and personal prayer inside the church.
The Samaritan Woman in this Sunday’s Gospel had a noisy and troubled life, perhaps not physically but interiorly. She jumped from one relationship to another, having not only one husband, but five! And she had been living a life of lies.
This did not give her inner peace and true joy. She had to drink from the bucket of water that Jesus offered her to drink. She had to enter into a loving and honest relationship with God.
Likewise, today, with our angsts and troubles, we are called to drink the water from the well that Jesus offers. As we experience personal fears and anguish, and as we feel disturbed by unhealthy relationships, we must heed the call of Jesus to come to this well, to drink from the bucket of Living Water. Lent is an opportune time to respond to this call.
Those of us who have drunk from this Living Water must learn to share this drink with others.
We must convince others that this is the most satisfying water that has ever quenched our thirst. Our life with Jesus has given us security, happiness, and peace. It may not have gotten us rich or famous, but it gives us a sense of fulfillment and true joy.
It keeps us alive and passionate about life. It keeps us believing in the immense love and compassion of God, despite our sinfulness. It keeps us strong and determined to make a difference in the lives of others and in the world.
We must never allow our lives to be empty of this drink. We must keep getting it from a life of prayer, a devotion to the Scriptures and the Sacraments of the Church, and dedicated service to our family and to those in need.
Jesus always offers us this drink. May we take it with complete faith in Him, who never gives up on each of us and who loves us unconditionally! Amen.
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
