“I AM HE, THE ONE SPEAKING WITH YOU.” JN 4:5-42
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Prayer Prompt before reading JN 4:5-42: Come, Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray, interpret the Scriptures for me so that I may know the Truth about who God the Father and God the Son are so that I may know who I am.
According to the Scripture Scholar’s side notes, John is writing about the second self-revelation of Christ. This time to a Samaritan woman. She is a half-Jew and Jesus would not be allowed to drink from any utensil she gave him because it would be unclean. Therefore, Jesus is revealing himself to half-Jews proving that His salvation is to come to all.
Bishop Barron in his meditation reflects on Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well as Jesus marrying his Bride, the Church. The Samaritan woman representing us as sinners who are trying to find happiness in wealth, honor, pleasure, and power (St. Thomas Aquinas). She has married 5 times representing 5 paths of misery, anxiety, worry, sin, false teachings, unfulfilling theology. Jesus offers us the water that fills us up to eternal life in the Church, his Bride.
There is no replacement to God giving himself to us at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, bringing us back to the foot of the Cross and the Last Supper, and giving us himself in the Eucharist to forgive our sins then sends us forth to do something with what we have received. The second way we receive Jesus is the Word. I think it is important today during Lent to think about how you view the Word.
It is God’s breath. Do you run to it, thirsting for knowledge and understanding of who God is? This in turn will help us understand our own identity in God? This helps us bring Jesus to the center of our life, not just a part of our life.
I believe the first stage of repentance for me was making a decision to wake each morning and devote myself to the Scriptures, to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn. This required sacrifice of sleep or going to bed earlier, but it has been well worth it. Second, I had to learn to sit in silence and reflect on what Jesus was revealing to me with the circumstances of my life that day.
This in turn moved Christ from a part of my life to the center of my life. This lead me to the 2nd stage of repentance for me. This did not take away my sin or suffering, but put it into perspective so I could see how it was hurting my relationships. It is important to read the whole Gospel and reflect on it daily, not just every Sunday.
It will not be easy and sometimes it will be boring (I never find it boring anymore because the Holy Spirit guides me to always see a lesson Jesus is trying to teach or reteach me that makes a big difference in my journey). We fight through these things in our work and our life all of the time. Anything I have ever fought hard for had a great reward, the same for our spiritual life with a much greater reward.
The third stage of repentance came with fighting my sin because I had developed a personal relationship with Christ. I wanted to really fight my sin and try to quit. I knelt down on the kitchen floor in front of the Crucifix and just prayed. I had never really been taught how to pray. It didn’t matter.
I just started talking to Jesus and telling Him I couldn’t do life on my own any more. I needed His grace, love, and mercy. I had learned through reflecting on the Scriptures that He is God and I am not. God’s love is the most powerful thing in the world, not me and my ego. I learned true humility for the first time from the One who is most humble.
In this stage I experienced the meaning of humility, this helps us begin to fight Satan who hates humility. When I began to play defense, wake up early in the morning, pray, and recognize I have three things going against me each day, fallen nature, the world and Satan, I began to avoid the near occasion of sin.
God is found in communion, the Devil wants to separate. Remember this throughout your day and in your relationships. God and the Devil are at work in your mind. We have complete freedom to choose one over the other, a free will. Jesus is continually trying to encounter us throughout our day. God’s love is the most powerful thing in the universe and He loves you more than you love yourself. It seems the easy choice but sometimes it is not.
The fourth stage of repentance in my life when I failed to conquer sin completely was a desire for holiness. In recognizing what I was fighting, I began to distrust myself and rely fully on God. I realized I must give my every thought, word, deed, prayer, sacrifice, sin, suffering, life, and possession to God.
I learned through reading many spiritual books on my journey to understanding who God is that I needed to consecrate myself to Jesus through Mary. This has been revolutionary. I stopped depending on myself and gave everything to God and trust in Him.
The fifth stage of repentance for me in seeking holiness was bringing myself to the holiest things God has given us. The Eucharist, consistent confession, daily prayer, devotion to the rosary and the Blessed Virgin Mary, spiritual books, recognizing God in me and everywhere around me in every person I come in contact with or just turning to prayer any time throughout the day.
This lead me to unpack the idea that God is in us ready to guide us any time we say, “Come, Holy Spirit”! We are empowered(given strength and confidence) by God in the Holy Spirit. We recognize and understand Truth. At our Confirmation, Jesus breathed the same Holy Spirit on us as he did the Apostles 2,000 years ago. Once we reflect on the power we have within us, lose our ego, give everything to God and in return begin to give ourselves away to others, we begin to live an overwhelming joy and happiness that are unexplainable.
Does it really matter to you if you miss Mass and check something else off the to do list? Is Jesus a figment of your imagination or the living God you desire to imitate and have a personal relationship with? Does Jesus get in the way of your sports, Netflix, work, material goods, your ego, your money, pleasure, your awards or is He the center of your life?
Today’s challenge: Today is a good day to reflect on where you are at with Jesus in your life.
Be a servant, be a saint today!
#Christian YODO (You Only Die Once; We will live again!)
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