March 29, 2022
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Today, in God’s Mercy, our readings describe a deep and hidden stream revealed by God –

first to Ezechiel …

then to a long-paralyzed man …

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So many stories in Scripture are laced with the same theme: there is a infinite mystery hidden under the surface of life:

• Keep searching. Keep searching. 
• The precious pearl that awaits discovery. 
• The lost coin that must be found. 
• The mustard seed buried in circumstance. 
• The stream running deep under appearances.

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We might be tempted to dismiss our first reading from Ezechiel as over-described allegory. But its rendition of the slow, steady deepening, through which God leads the prophet, offers us an apt image to reflect on our own graced journey. 

Hasn’t God led us gently to the faith we have today? Like young children learning to ride the ocean breakers, we have been taught by a patient God Who returns in every tide to take us deeper into our next capacity for grace.

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For thirty-eight years, the man in today’s Gospel has been paralyzed by the water’s edge. Maybe we know how he feels.

He believes that his life is beyond transformation. He cannot dive under the surface of his circumstances to find the quickening waters.

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Jesus gives him the key to unlock his paralysis. In a short phrase, Jesus offers the man a multilayered question:

• What do you really want in your deepest heart?
• When you find the answer, break through all that has kept you from that deepest desire. 
• Step with Me through the next wave, and the next until, finally, we swim together in the great ocean of covenanted trust.

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As our Responsorial Psalm-poem promises:

God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.

There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.

Music: I Am – Marty Goetz (Lyrics below)

Come, behold the works of the Lord
How He has wrought the desolation
How He has brought His early help
The Lord of Hosts is with us
The God of Jacob is our refuge
When the nations rage and all the kingdoms fall
He says I Am, I Am, I Am all

And there’s a river whose streams make glad the city of God
They flow to His Holy habitation
They flow to the home of the Most High
The Lord of Hosts is with us
The God of Jacob is our refuge
He breaks the bow, he shatters the spear
And says I Am, I Am, I Am here!

So we will not fear
Though the worlds should change
Though the waters roar
Though the mountains shake and tremble
For He’s a present help in trouble, in trouble

Be still and know that I am God
I Am exalted in the nations
I Am exalted in the earth
The Lord of Hosts is with us
The God of Jacob is our refuge
To the ends of the earth He causes wars to cease and says
I Am, I Am, I Am peace
He says I Am, I Am, I Am peace