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From the Pastor... Fingerprints in the Sand |
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There are fingerprints in the sand. Sand, that is, with which
I filled the fonts around the church for the Lenten Season. They
are fingerprints that indicate to me how many of us have grown
up blessing ourselves when we come into the church. Fingerprints
that just might indicate the reason for surprised expressions
on the faces of those who were not at the Masses in which I
spoke of what I was doing with the sand, or folks that forgot and,
as is so habitual to us, dipped their fingers without remembering
that they would hit sand - and not holy water. And that is precisely why I did it. To call attention to even the smallest thing we take for granted as Catholics, and in taking something as sacred as blessing ourselves with holy water for granted, strips it of its true meaning. Admittedly, it is a gimmick of mine to get us all to think a little, to pay attention. Hopefully a positive gimmick, one that might just help us to pay attention to this smallest of Catholic actions, and to other much larger practices as well. When baptized, we were all marked with the sign of new life, the cross of Jesus Christ. As water was poured upon our heads, or for those who were immersed, as we were placed in the water of life, the name of our Triune God was proclaimed. Father, Son and Spirit then became the source of our life and the goal to which our lives must lead. Be it when we were infants or adults, the result is the same. We were washed clean of original sin and set on an earthly journey to “hear the word of God and to proclaim that word to all we meet”. From that day onward, our lives should have been directed toward that one goal in life: a living relationship with our living God. We all know the truth, however. Not one of us has lived life as one perfectly conformed to the will of God, and most if not all of us must admit that much of our lives have been lived without much REAL thought given to our relationship with God. Through reconciliation, personal prayer, celebration of the Eucharist and a daily returning to the Lord in thought and deed, we can overcome this pattern. Our God welcomes our return. Our God longs for our turning back to Him. Our God waits patiently, knowing what we will gain when we finally reach out to Him and be reconnected and reconciled. Every time we make the sign of the cross, we are not to only make an empty movement of hand and arm, but our hearts and minds need be moved to honor who we acknowledge in such a gesture. When we use holy water along with the sign of the cross, we are to remember all that has been given us in baptism, and personally recommit ourselves to living as well as possible our baptismal call to hear and proclaim in word and deed. Water has cleansed us and made us whole. The cross has redeemed us in Jesus Christ, and we have life eternal. The dipping of finger in holy water and tracing the cross upon our person with that same finger, unites these two fundamental gifts of our God. In Lent we reflect on both the intimate relationship that God calls us to have with Him and the distance that we maintain from such wonderful vulnerability. Any degree of sin keeps us from sharing the life that God is so readily offering, and our refusal to even give attention to such gift, and such need, be if out of “faith” that is more habitual than real or ignorance formed in fear, leaves us in emptiness. We want the water of life back, and be assured it will be back. I promise - at the Easter Vigil, blessed anew with the freshness of new life. Until then, may we experience the absence of it, symbolized in the grit and lifelessness of sand. May this experience, in something so small, challenge us to also see the larger parts of life that needs attention and focus. |
