Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent - April 1
In today’s first reading, we join Ezekiel as he follows the angel from a trickle of water to a river that nourishes a land. We’re invited to reflect on the end point of this journey, but I couldn’t help but think of the beginning. Before that trickle, there was a single drop. And that drop meant...nothing. Alone, it was simply a drop. It could have easily remained apart and evaporated.
But it didn’t. It joined with other drops to form first a rivulet, then that trickle, which then grew as more drops joined. And as Ezekiel followed the water, I felt the collective presence and power of millions of drops; the river of life as not a single body but as a community.
Our gift from God is not just the love and grace that fills us each from within; it’s our calling to connect it with that of others.
Today’s Gospel showed me that this connection and expression of love isn’t only for those that give it back. The lame man waited all those years for someone else to make the first move for him and simply took it for granted when Jesus healed him. He remained an individual drop, focused solely on himself; but we know this work of Jesus caused a ripple elsewhere, amplifying with those who believed.
We aren’t asked to perform miracles like Jesus, but sometimes things can feel so big. We wait and watch and wonder who is big enough to bring about change, to continue the good, to live God’s word on a grand scale. These readings remind me that the answer is us. It’s how we embrace and protect each other in the day-to-day acts that form and feed a life-giving community.
Lent offers us the opportunity to slow down and decide what kind of drop we are. One that stays still to protect itself and eventually evaporates, or one that reaches out to join with others.
Q: What impact has my own “drop” made in the river of life?
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