If you look at today’s first reading, we can see a powerful message that should affect us all week.

 

First, according the US Bishops, this passage actually comes to us from the end of the Babylonian exile. That was a time when the Jews were living as captives in Babylon after Judah was decimated by that nation led by King Nebuchadnezzar.  Today Babylon is within the territory that is now Iraq. This is happening in the late sixth century BC. So, the Jews are suffering the devastation of living as captives  in a foreign land for almost four decades and they seek some hope from God for freedom. We also see a twofold prophecy here, one that affects them and one that affects us.

 

The people had to learn again why God created them and chose them. They abandoned their promise to  to serve God and became lost in sin and injustice. So the Lord has to get their attention and He does so in this period of forty years lost in what is now Iraq. There, they have to relearn the meaning of their existence and why they were created and chosen. It was to glorify God in the world. The same can be said for us. We too are here for the same reason.

 

Notice the imagery, however, especially in the latter part of the passage. He talks about the wilderness. However in that area of the world, the wilderness is the desert. What is a desert? Having been and lived in the deserts in the American Southwest, it is a harsh dangerous environment that is powerfully beautiful but deadly as well. Get lost in the desert and you may not survive.

 

God brings life to this desert; He brings water where there is none. It is so powerful a change that the wild animals become tame as they gratefully approach the river to quench their thirst, despite the fact that otherwise all would be in fear of them.

 

He says those powerful words: See I am bringing something new! Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?

 

Now I can ask you that question as well. Do you not perceive it?

 

Where can you see God’s power? In bringing life to the desert. In order to bring life to the desert, you need the infertile reality of dry sand with little water that stretches for miles. In Colorado, at Sand Dune National Monument you can see dunes that are probably five stories high of nothing but sand sitting at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. That sand stretches throughout the valley there and although there is some cacti in the area, the place is a true desert. There is a similar area about three hours east of the Southern California coast that stretches into Nevada and New Mexico; it is a desert. There is lots of sand and there is little to sustain life there.

 

There is a different kind of desert and that is the desert in which we also live, the desert of a world that rejects God and does not embrace His wisdom. It is this desert that surrounds us. There is no life in that desert ultimately, there may appear to be, but it leads to death. This is why you are here. If you want to see God’s power look at where he brings life giving water into the desert.

 

We were been baptized into that life giving water and we are called to be a source of life giving water of God’s wisdom to those around us. We are not that in a fertile land, we have to be in that in the desert for that is where water is truly needed and life giving.

 

Many look around us and say that we are in a harsh environment for living the Catholic faith. People are always ready to criticize us, to seek reasons to reject us. They mock us on TV, they make snide comments in the movie; they take to twitter and facebook. That is the desert in which we live. Of course that is true, we have the vocation to be life giving water in a desert environment. We do not look for the river, we are the river. We are the source of life that even the greatest hater of the world may come and seek life that he can find nowhere else. Like the wild jackal he becomes tame at the desert springs.

 

God is using us to reach out to others. He is using us as a source of grace and reminding us why we are here. Yes, this can be a harsh environment. Yes there are those forces that seek to silence our voice and our faith, locally, nationally and internationally, that seek to deny us freedom of religion, they are the forces of the desert. However, you have been put here to draw on the strength and the power of the Lord, not to defeat them, but to bring life where they bring death.

 

Do you want to bring life where death reigns? Live the gospel. Do you want to bring peace where war reigns? Live the gospel. Stay close to the sacraments, repent of your sins, seek to do the will of God and then the Lord will work through us to bring life into this desert.

 

It is no secret that in today’s world, living Church teaching can be difficult. It is easy as a Catholic to say to others that stealing is wrong. Who does not believe that? It is hard as a Catholic to say that marriage in the church can only be a sacramental heterosexual marriage that is open to life. It is easy as a Catholic to say we should not sin; who does not believe that? It is hard to go to confession to receive the living water of grace that frees us from sin. By living Church teaching, we become a source of life in a desert that is otherwise void of living water. Never forget God places us here to bring the source of living water to the people who have yet to find it. That will always be a difficult task and for some the task is so difficult that they would rather live in the desert among the thirsty than to be the source of living water.

 

We are living in a harsh time, but that is the point and you can see what the Lord is bringing through every one of us. Do you perceive it?

 

Live the gospel of Christ and you will be like living water in a dry desert. You will accomplish the task for which you were created, the glory of God spread through the desert lands in which we live bringing life to those in the clutches of death through sin. We bringing water to those thirsting for the new life that Christ creates in each and every one of us.

 

There are those that say we should be the change that we want to see in the world. No, we must be the source of life to those around us living in a desert world where death reigns otherwise. That we must do by seeking to living holy lives that God’s life giving water may flow.

 

God bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr

 

Fr. Carr is member of the Segundo Elo  of the Canção Nova Community. He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MAand is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find on Youtube.  You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google plus as+FrRobertCarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook