Reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Fifth Sunday of Lent: Reading I, Year C
Isaiah 43:16-21
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.
Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
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.
God relentlessly pursues the human heart, freeing it from bondage, healing it, and drawing it back to Himself in creative and surprising ways. In this passage from Isaiah, He promises Jewish exiles in Babylon that He will return them to Jerusalem by mighty acts more awe-inspiring than their exodus from Egypt. God says, “See, I am doing something new!” What is the “new thing” God is doing? In the immediate context of this prophecy, He is establishing a new covenant with the Israelites, one in which He promises to give them new hearts: “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33) and “[f]rom their bodies I will remove the hearts of stone, and give them hearts of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). Evidently, the restoration God seeks is not simply one of geographical translocation, but one of transformation of the heart, the deepest part of man.
Why do we read this passage for the Fifth Sunday of Lent? It is because God does a “new thing” by sending us His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to free us from our sins and restore us into communion with Him. As the Israelites were under bondage in Egypt, so too were we under bondage to the devil by the sin of our First Parents. Satan and the demons under him are the “chariots and horsemen, [the] powerful army” whom God promises to defeat. By the Incarnation, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, enters into the “desert” of our humanity, emptying Himself of the trappings of divinity: He endures poverty, mockery, torture, abandonment, and all kinds of pain. This desert is fruitful because it is the means by which He redeems us and draws us back to the heart of the Father. Jesus “opens a way in the sea,” for He is the way to the Father (John 14:6). By the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood, He establishes a new covenant with us, and by the institution of the Sacraments, He opens for us channels of grace to grow in deeper union with God. The wounds of Jesus are the life-giving “water in the desert” and the “rivers in the wasteland.” The blood and water that flowed out of His pierced side on the Cross (John 19:34) represent the Sacraments, which heal and sanctify us, giving us new life. The water imagery in this passage prefigure the sacraments of Baptism and Reconciliation, which wash us of our sins. Baptism “opens a way in the sea” because it opens the channels of sanctifying grace. When we sin, we block those channels, but Reconciliation restores them. By the institution of the Eucharist, Jesus gives us His very self “for my chosen people to drink,” so that by eating His body and drinking His blood, we may be united to Him more deeply and transformed into His likeness more and more until we leave our earthly exile and enjoy eternal beatitude in Heaven.
The monastery is a desert where we are stripped of worldly goods in order to give God permission to do “something new” in our hearts. The desert purifies us of our idols, attachments, and distractions in order to create a space in our hearts for God to pour life-giving waters. This desert is fruitful not only for our personal sanctification, but also for the salvation of souls. By our prayers and penances, we bring down graces to water the soils of hearts hardened by sin. Our joys and sufferings allow us to participate in Jesus’s redemptive suffering. Lent gives everyone, not just those in the monastery, an opportunity to live monastically, that is, to enter into the desert. During this season, we can ask ourselves: What is the “new thing” God is doing in my heart? In what ways is He transforming my heart and drawing me closer to His heart in this desert?