the Word is like water - 1st week lent tuesday

Today we reflect on this short reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah.  I believe every scientist can relate with this passage.  This is the reason why they are looking for signs of water in Mars.  Why are they looking for signs of water?  Because when there is water or in the case of Mars, if there was water, then there must have been life.  The earth does not make life, the world does not make life.  It is not the world that gives life.  What makes life is water.  What makes life is moisture.  The rain, the snow, they come down and make the earth fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats.  When earth does not receive this moisture it shrivels up, green turns brown, everything dies, nothing grows.

But God here is not just talking to Isaiah about water.  God is talking to Isaiah about His word - So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth, God said. 

So what is God's word?  First like water, like moisture it gives life.  If you are not nourished by God's word your life will shrivel up, it will slowly die, green will turn to brown, there will be no growth, it will not even survive – your faith cannot survive.  Read the word of God.  If you cannot go to mass daily, read the bible.  When you are at mass listen to God's word.  Allow it to nourish you.

Second like moisture, like water, God's word does what it is intended to do – it shall do my will, God said to Isaiah, it shall achieve the end for which I sent it.  This is difficult to believe when one sees rain water falling on the desert floor as in the case of Isaiah.  It would rain probably for a few minutes.  The next morning it is as if nothing happened.  And yet that rain, short it may be, is crucial.  It may not be obvious at once; the change may not be immediate but it is not without effect.  In the same way you have to trust God's word.  Sometimes we say, dugay na nga pamati ko daw wala man ko nagbag-o, dugay na nga basa ko ni sa iya daw wala man nag-maayo?  Sige lang mal-i mo naglala pa gid kon wala.  My point is the change may not be immediate and obvious but it is crucial, it is not without effect.  It will deliver as it promised.  God's word will deliver as it promised.

Third.  Like moisture, like water, God said, His word shall not return to me void.  Rain and snow do not return to the heavens in the same shape, in the same state – it drops as rain, it returns as vapor; it drops as snow, it returns as vapor.  So also is God's word.  Things are not up to us.  All we need to do is to preach the word, to read the word and allow it to accomplish what God intended it to do.  Sometimes coming here for the past 5 years every Tuesday I also question myself – after all those years of proclaiming to you God's word; after reading and praying and studying and reflecting and typing my homilies every Tuesday have I really made a difference in your life, did you profit from it, did the word changed you?  I don't know.  Making a difference in your life is not my work, that is God's work, that is the Word's work.  I simply believe that rain will not return to the heaven in the same state.  It will go back as vapor.  Snow will not return to the heavens in the same state.  It will return as vapor.  It will accomplish what God has intended it to become.

Believe.