Living Water – A Gift of the Holy Spirit

Third Sunday of Lent

Gospel Narrative of the Samaritan Women

Living Water – A Gift of the Holy Spirit

In my homily, I used the metaphor of an open water channel connecting the source of the Living Water to those who thirst for it and are tired of inadequate cistern water.

Jesus Christ is the source of Living Water, and the Church is a channel, a conduit to the desert of persons’ hearts.

Sometimes, the channel is blocked by self-centredness, self-sufficiency, self-preservation, and self-reliance. Lenten disciplines become the shovel unblocking the channel for a free flow of the Holy Spirit.

At the end of Mass, in the quiet of the small sacristy of the Living Water Community Chapel, the Mass lector unassumingly approached me before I unvested my liturgical garb and said, “Can I hold your hands and pray for you?” My response was unhesitant but curious. Gently holding my hands and facing me in a non-threatening posture, she prayed that the Holy Spirit might unblock whatever was in the way of my preparation for an upcoming pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She reassured me that God has an incredible plan for this Holy Land pilgrimage. Her simple and short yet profound prayer had a similar impact as Saul, who fell from his horse upon hearing a voice on his way to Damascus.

The lector’s “Holy Moment” was a channel of Living Water, strengthening my struggle to unblock a drain blocked by the debris of “selfism” or hang-ups related to the pilgrimage.

May Grace continue to unblock my heart and mind so that I may become aware of Her presence in the Land of the footsteps of the source of Living Water.