12/03/2023
Sunday Reflection (March 12, 2023)
Rev. Fr. Charlito D. Milano, OAD
In our quest to meet God in this time of lent, let us try to examine our spiritual life in lieu to our steadfast communication with the Lord through our prayer. In view of the fact that prayer is the substance that provides strength and vigor in our assiduous act of fasting, and it also gives constant joy in our corporeal acts of mercy to the marginalized persons in the society.
While we are now in the 3rd Sunday in preparation for the upcoming celebration of the passion and death of Jesus; the readings in the liturgy offer us delightful thoughts to contemplate the beauty of prayer. Prayer indeed is beautiful, since it is a spiritual pursuit to immerse into an extraordinary event, wherein God comes down and makes Himself reachable for manβs innermost yearning.
Another thing we contemplate in prayer, why it is beautiful because God gratuitously offers unto us the spring of water welling up to eternal life. Likewise, the prayer of the Divine Mercy is a suitable example to understand what it means for the spring of water welling up to eternal life; it is the unfathomable love and the ocean of mercy of God.
Let us confidently believe that before we come into the church or any places to pray, God is already there fervently waiting and lovingly expect for our presence. Similarly, when the Samaritan woman came to draw water at Jacobβs well; Jesus was sitting down there perhaps waiting for her coming. This encounter between the two characters in the Gospel gives us an impression that God is the one who makes the initiative for the people to come to Himself and acknowledge His presence.
God really desires us to unite ourselves into His presence, but He cannot force somebody who has no aspirations and willingness to meet with Him in prayer. However, those who yearn for communion with Him, even though they are not worthy to receive Him because of sin; God never refuses and turns His back from them. Instead, like the merciful father in the story of the prodigal son; βwhile his son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed himβ (Luke 15: 20).
And yet, while we are praying unconsciously our attention is diverted, since we are carried out with our inordinate emotions and feelings. Perhaps, this is the reason why in prayer we keep on uttering plenty of words, rather than heeding the words of Jesus who speaks into our heart. Besides, we should be like the Samaritan woman who is conscious of the overwhelming appearance of the Stranger. Wherein she allows Him to speak with her and makes herself receptive for the divine words that gradually move her to acknowledge the presence of God.
When we are praying let us meditate the word of the Samaritan woman, βSir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." In our prayer we may not ask constantly for the temporal water that we remain thirsty again; instead the living water that welling up to eternal life, which is the love and mercy of God. Though temporal things are considered as our fundamental needs, but God really takes care of us more than the flowers in the fields and the birds on the sky (Matthew 6:25-34).
Brothers and sisters, we persistently ask God in prayer for the constant outpouring of the living water, so that we may not be worried of the temporal things we need each day. Instead, we entrust to Him our lives, our desires and our plans in life. And, we give up to Him everything, so that He would transform us like the Samaritan woman who once became the living messenger of the mercy and love of God. Amen.
