Calamities do not discourage a Christian. They test his faith. God speaks through events. He is constantly inviting us to conversion: “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other” (Is. 45:22).
The season of Lent, and even more this particular season of Lent, in which grave physical and moral dangers threaten the whole world, is ideal for pausing, reconsidering, reflecting, and, as a consequence, correcting what we know is not pleasing to the Lord.
Conversion has an origin: the experience of the immeasurable goodness of God; feeling oneself immersed, surrounded, embraced, and pressed by the incomprehensible goodness of God.
From that deep, existential experience, authentic conversion is born.
That is why conversion is joy. Christian penance is always peace in joy.
Penance-conversion is the path of reunion. Is there anything happier than the reunion of those who were made to love and to be loved?
To convert is to return to the lost home of God the Father. Therefore, the penance of conversion is always joy and gladness.
Conversion involves repentance. Becoming aware of the error in which one lives and repenting of living that way. It also involves turning away from that erroneous way of life, abandoning it. Thirdly, it involves complete surrender to that new Lord toward whom I return and to whom I am converted.
To sin is... to deprive God of a child. To sin is to join forces with the devil; it is to stand shoulder to shoulder with the devil, facing God. To sin is the cancer of my soul. To sin is... to interrupt the flow of life. To sin is... to bring disorder into myself, and with disorder comes war, and with war come death and suffering. That is what sin is.
If you knew the GIFT of God
But the mission of Jesus is to win over man through love. To lavish love, and for that He uses chariots of humility and meekness... Listen.
A Samaritan woman arrives, and Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down and leaned against the edge of the well, in a subtropical land where water is scarce. And He was thirsty because He had been walking... throughout the entire morning... and the apostles had gone to find food.
Then a woman came with her jar to draw water from the well. His apostles had gone away. Dialogue with God takes place in solitude... Love is always heart speaking to heart; it absorbs... it requires solitude.
TO LOVE... is dialogue in solitude.
And so, alone, Jesus faced that woman... And you will see what divine artistry... Woman, give Me a drink.
What artistry! To ask for something that the other person can easily give. It is the best way... because deep down we all want to do good, for we come from GOD, who is the fullness of Goodness.
Woman... It is very easy for you, just lower the bucket and draw one more... give Me a drink.
And the woman, harshly, answered Him: How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me, a woman, for a drink...? Jews do not speak with Samaritan women, nor even among Jews does a man converse with a woman... To me, who am a woman and moreover a Samaritan, do You dare speak? Full of pride.
Jesus answered her... with meekness... Had He struck back, everything would have ended there... No... meekness. He said to her: Woman, if you knew the GIFT of God and who it is that says to you, Give Me a drink... He who can open to you the treasures of God... You, woman, who are ambitious, would have asked Me for water, and I would have given you living water.
The woman changed completely. What power there is in meekness! The Holy Spirit works through meekness.
The woman changed... You to me? Lord!... All admiration... Lord! You have no bucket..., and the well is deep. Where will You get this living water?
And Jesus, seeing that she had responded as much as she could... — God asks no more of you than to respond as much as you can... but beware! you must respond, otherwise you close the door completely.
That woman responded. And then Jesus moved forward: Woman, everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst again; rather, the water that I shall give him will become within him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. That is, water that satisfies for eternity.
And the woman understood only halfway. But Jesus was content with that.
The woman answered Him: Lord! Give me that water always, so that I may not have to come here every day under this blazing sun... at midday... and so that my thirst may be gone and I may no longer have to come every day to draw water to drink...
She understood Jesus in a material sense. But that was enough for Jesus, because He desires openness of heart. That woman was open... She was beginning to have faith... It was enough... Everything was saved.
And Jesus continued. And now He touched the wound and said to her: — Woman, do you want this water?
— Yes, Lord.
— Go, call your husband and come back here.
— I have no husband.
Jesus answered her: Indeed, woman, you have spoken truly in saying that you have no husband. You have had five, living improperly with them, and the one you now have is not your husband. Woman, set that situation right, otherwise you close yourself to God.
Woman, call your husband and come back here. Woman, remove that sin. Do you want the water? Remove that sin.
Sin is a sting that produces death.
The true death, the death of the soul. A life-death, a rotten life. Life burning, gnashing its teeth, eternal death.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall crush your head while you lie in wait for his heel” (Gen. 3:14).
Holy Mary has only one concern: our misfortune, our suffering, our second death: eternal death.
Holy Mary has only one sorrow: our sin. Our sin is at the root of all our misfortunes.
Let us not fear physical illness, nor any other sickness. Let us fear sin, offending an infinitely good God.
Let us take advantage of Lent—and help others do the same—to turn with confidence to the Virgin, pray the Holy Rosary daily, increase our love and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist, and make a good sacramental confession.
As the holy King David recited: “Your grace is worth more than life” (Ps. 63:4). Let us seek to live in grace and, let us not doubt it—as the Lord has promised—all the rest will be given to us besides.
