Three Days

A Reflection on the Second Reading for February 21st, 2021:
First Sunday of Lent

---

​1 Peter
3.18-22

Beloved: Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison. In former times these did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

Baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you — not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with Angels, Authorities, and Powers made subject to him.
​

Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

Three days.


Human beings can only survive three days without water.


Can you imagine being without this necessity? In North America it’s hard to fathom. Water is vital to human existence.


And so is God.  


Yes, there are those who would question that. Yet scripture tells us over and over again of when God has fought for us, when God has taught us, and when God has loved us beyond human comprehension. Water is something we can comprehend. Noah certainly had more water than he could contend with. However, while all that water was detrimental to so many of God’s creations at that time, Noah — and seven others — were saved; through that same water. I am so in awe of the power water has to take away life but to also give it. As the letter from Peter reminds us, we are saved through the water of our baptism. I often get teary at baptisms (Go figure! More water!). The words: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” are spoken as water is poured over one’s head to make a new person in Christ. Those exact words are proclaimed each and every time, claiming the newly baptized for Christ. This water that gives new life also symbolizes a pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the baptized to gift and guide their life in Christ. This is a big moment! There should be tears!  


Baptisms are also a communal event. The individual is baptized into a community that knows the kind of relationship that God offers. As a member of that community, I sometimes ask myself: do I speak/show God’s love to this individual? Do I remember the water and ultimately the Holy Spirit that was poured over me? Do I bring Christ’s life-giving water to others so that they can know Him too? Have I let this water be life giving or life destroying?


We have begun Lent. It is a season of penance but also one of baptism. Not only for those who are preparing to be baptized at Easter, but also for those of us who are already baptized. Lent offers us time to recall the gift of the waters of baptism, and our successes and failures in sharing that water. Lent gives us forty days to prepare our hearts and minds to get back in the game; to renew our sense of the call we received at our baptism. Our lenten journey opens us up to the places in our lives where the waters have run dry; where droughts have appeared. Then, at the end of our 40 days, we recall the trial and death of Jesus.


For a time we are without Christ — without God. 


In that void — that emptiness — is where I have come to know my need for God; as vital as water is to my survival. And yet, there is Hope.


All in a matter of: Three days.




Aurea Sadi

---