Come To The Water

As a mother comforts her child,
    so I will comfort you;
    you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 66:12

Whenever I read of Jerusalem in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, I think of Holy Mother Church. The fulfillment of Jerusalem is the Church, which is the gift given by God to us and for our salvation. When Jesus tells the apostles before he ascends into heaven that He will be with them until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20), He was not speaking metaphorically. Jesus’ real presence is in fact with us in and through the Catholic Church.

Today we are in a time of great division, both in our world and in the Church. The words from Isaiah, “you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:12), or you shall be comforted in Holy Mother Church, do not seem to ring true to us today. Yet even though our Church, the Holy Jerusalem of old, may not be comforting us through the actions and words of many of those who represent her, we can take this time to look deeper into the mystery of the Church, where we find the Heart of God.

When we do find comfort in the people who represent the Church it is a great gift, but this can sometimes lead us to forget who is the source of all comfort. It is the divine grace of God, which flows from the Church through her Sacraments that give us life. This is our only true comfort. So only when the people who represent the Church are themselves comforted by this grace are they in turn able to comfort us.

The divine grace of the Sacraments come from Holy Mother Church and can only be found in her. This is the hidden treasure of the Church, it is the precious pearl that we are called to seek with all our hearts. This is the wellspring, which comes to us through the celebration of the liturgy, through which we receive the Sacraments of grace. In every celebration of the liturgy of the Sacraments, we are equipped with divine grace and given the mission to go forth and live the liturgy in our daily lives. In the celebrating and receiving, God readies us to go and do.

So the Church can never really be dead, she is in fact fully alive even today. She cannot lose the presence of Jesus Christ, who is the life-giving water that we drink from through the Sacraments. Although her people may be sick and wounded, God is the Divine Healer and He can and desires to bring healing to His people. He desires to bring healing to each one of us, so that we may live in the freedom of who we were created to be; free to love and be loved, free to forgive and be forgiven, free to be and do what we have been called to do without fear, hesitation or doubt. It is when our desires align with God’s that we can find our life and live it to the fullest.

So let us continue on in this time of division. Let us come to the water of life. Let us look deeper into the mystery of the Church, which has been given to us by God, through Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us not get distracted by what we see and hear with our earthly eyes and ears. Let us instead see with the eyes of Christ, who will help us to discover the Heart of God, which will never cease being poured out for us through Holy Mother Church.