Monday Within the Third Week of Lent
2 Kings 5:1-15a
Luke 4:24-30
Water
What is the link between yesterday's liturgy and today's? It is water. Yesterday: the water of Jacob's well: a sign of "the spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14. Today: the water of the Jordan by which Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy, the water of Jesus' own Baptism.
Psalm 50
In the Holy Rule, Saint Benedict places Psalm 50 at the beginning of Lauds seven days a week. Why? Because he understood it as a daily renewal of Baptism, as the psalm of resurrection to new life with the joy of a heart made clean. What makes every day so exhilarating is the possibility of a fresh start, of a clean slate, of a new beginning. Each morning we can say, "Today, I begin" (Ps 77:11). Try saying that every time you take Holy Water: "Today, I begin, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
God Alone Can Make Me Clean
In Psalm 50 we repeatedly and persistently ask God to cleanse us. "Blot out my iniquity" (Ps 50:3). "Wash me clean from my guilt" (Ps 50:4). "Purge me of my sin" (Ps 50:4). "Sprinkle me with a branch of hyssop, and I shall be clean" (Ps 50:9). "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow" (Ps 50:9). We cannot cleanse ourselves because we do not see where we are soiled. We are as blind to our own sins as we are quick to notice the sins of others. The stain of sin has seeped deep into the very crevices of our souls. God alone can reach into those hidden places and make them clean.
Holy Water
I don't know why, but a lot of folks, even among practicing Catholics, seem to pooh-pooh the use of Holy Water just the way Naaman, in his pride, pooh-poohed the water of the Jordan River. They find it hard to believe that God would make use of something so simple. Do you remember what Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, wrote about Holy Water?
From long experience I have learned that there is nothing like Holy Water to put devils to flight and prevent them from coming back again. They also flee from the Cross, but return; so Holy Water must have great value. For my own part, whenever I take it, my soul feels a particular and most notable consolation. In fact, it is quite usual for me to be conscious of a refreshment which I cannot possibly describe, resembling an inward joy which comforts my whole soul. This is not fancy, or something which has happened to me only once. It has happened again and again, and I have observed it most attentively. It is, let us say, as if someone very hot and thirsty were to drink from a jug of cold water: he would feel the refreshment throughout his body. I often reflect on the great importance of everything ordained by the Church and it makes me very happy to find that those words of the Church are so powerful that they impart their power to the water and make it so very different from water which has not been blessed.
