A Life-Giving Transformation

Lent is a path of transformation. Lent is a path of radical transformation, like a winter turning into spring. It is like a resurrection. Lent is an appeal to leave behind infidelity and the sadness that comes with it, and embrace a new life, a life we have never imagined before. The three readings speak about this.

In the first reading (Isaiah 43:16-21), the Lord reminds the Israelites of the wonders He had already done for them, the crossing of the Red Sea: “Thus says the LORD, who opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, who leads out chariots and horsemen, a powerful army, till they lie prostrate together, never to rise, snuffed out and quenched like a wick.” Israel can say, “The Lord has really done great things for us; we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126). But the Lord responds, Does this really surprise you? “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!” If that seemed wonderful to you, see! I am doing now something even greater. “Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.” Before, I dried up the waters of the sea so that you may walk away from the slavery of Egypt, but now I will water the dry land so that you may rejoice in life. “Wild beasts honor me, jackals and ostriches, for I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise.”

When you are satisfied, you rejoice, and when you realize that God has done something wondrous in order to give you joy, you cannot contain that joy in yourself, you praise Him aloud, you give Him thanks. God wants us to praise Him, but not just out of a sense of duty: he desires to do wonderful things for us so that we may praise him willingly, passionately. So that we may say, “He could not do more for me. How good he is! I love you, Lord!”

In the second reading, we hear that St. Paul had that experience (Philippians 3:8-14). “Brothers and sisters: I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him”. St. Paul had known the Lord, he had had such an astonishing experience of the Lord that he could not love anything else, all he had previously treasured now seemed to him like garbage. It would be like having eaten prepackaged, processed food all your life, then suddenly one day enjoying your first home-cooked meal—how could you go back to your former food after that? Or, like a child after enjoying a tiny backyard plastic pool discovering the beach with its endless shore, its warm sand and its big waves. Now, how can the little plastic pool be enough for that growing child? “I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess Him, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus… forgetting what lies behind (my past sins, the world, everything) but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.” You may call it an obsession, but I would call it falling in love. St. Paul is totally overwhelmed by love, and can see nothing but Jesus. It is not that he doesn’t suffer, but nothing seems to matter to him any more. This is the transformation we are talking about. The path towards that transformation is hard, like the Lenten season; but once the transformation has happened, it is not so hard any more. It is difficult sometimes to light a fire in the winter, but once the fire is lit, it can burn everything around it. We are all called to light that fire in our lives, by persistently fighting against the coldness of our sins and disorderly affections.

Fire has a wealth of meaning here. Fire “burns” everything but at the same time “consumes” it, makes it part of itself, as it were. The Love of Jesus should do the same in our hearts. It should “destroy”, so to speak, every love which is not Jesus, but in order to transform all other loves in the love of Jesus. To fall in love with Jesus does not mean that you no longer love other things, it means rather that you love all other things in Jesus and for Jesus. And in that way you love them more and better… A person on fire with the love of Jesus is the one who gives his or her life for his brothers and sisters.

In the third reading, the Gospel (John 8:1-11), Jesus says to the adulterous woman: “Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” Each one of us can take the place of that poor woman. Each one of us can hear from Jesus: “You be the first to throw a stone, if you have no sin.” But let us hear Jesus saying to us as He said to the woman: “Go your way, and from now on do not sin.”

Out of love, Jesus releases her from punishment and, also out of love, binds her by a Commandment.
He is saying to the woman who was adulterous: “Love flesh no more, love Me. I bought you with My blood, don’t leave Me. You are Mine, I am your happiness, don’t try to find happiness somewhere else, because you will fail. Don’t be adulterous, sin no more. I want all your love for Me. Love God above all things, because God is goodness itself, God is happiness, God is perfect, God is love, and God loves you.

“What else do you need on earth? If you want life, I am eternal life. If you want joy, I am your Paradise. If you want love, God is love. I am the water for your thirst. Go your way, and from now on, do not sin again. Don’t try to find in others what can be found in Me alone. I know your heart, I know your thirst, I know it is infinite. Let Me quench your thirst. Love Me above all things, and sin no more.”

May we catch fire, like St. Paul. May we arise in a passionate commitment to do whatever the Lord commands, and may we fall in love with Jesus who says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)