Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from March 11, 2007
"Our ancestors were all under the cloud and passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea." 1 Cor 10:1
Many of our ancestors did pass through the sea, the Atlantic. This ocean was described by an Irish writer as a 'Bowl of Tears'. The exiles from Ireland and Europe wept, for they would not return. Yet they were happy to escape poverty and oppression. The Atlantic became their difficult voyage to a new and freer world. Others today make the same journey, with the same hope, across the muddy waters of the Rio Grande.
The vase of water beside the altar calls us to reflect on the meaning of water.
I remember a little boy in the Dominican Republic asking, "Is it true that in America people shower in drinking water?" He was shocked when I answered, "Yes." In his world, water has to be boiled with costly carbon before it is fit to drink. It is jealously guarded in an earthen jar called a tinaja. We take water and its essential life-giving properties for granted.
If you listen closely, you will hear the water trickling at the font. Lent is our season to accompany the elect to the waters of their baptism. When Catholics are asked the significance of water in baptism they are likely to respond, "Cleansing from original sin." That answer is correct. Yet it is not the full answer.
The first reading today provides the clue. "Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. But the Lord said, 'I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well that they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.'" Exodus 3:8
God was compassionate and wanted to liberate a people in bondage, and unfairly treated. Moses was angry and indignant. Perhaps because of that righteous anger, God chose him to lead His people. Moses led them on their exodus of 40 years. They were rescued by water, the water of the Red Sea. The final leg of the journey to freedom was achieved when they crossed the Jordan River. At the beginning of his healing ministry, Jesus walked into the waters of the Jordan. As the African American hymn says, "The river of Jordan is muddy and cold, but it chills the body and not the soul. All my trials, Lord, soon be over." Jesus entered the river to indicate that he would complete Moses' journey to freedom in his own life and ministry.
It is no accident that last Sunday's gospel features Moses at Jesus' side. The Savior would free people from all the external bonds and all the internal forces that oppress the human spirit. Through his cross and resurrection, the new Passover, he would conquer our last fear, death itself.
Water is cleansing. Yet its primary biblical significance is freedom.
Let us join Moses in his journey of 40 years in the desert. Let us accompany Jesus in his 40 days in the wilderness. Let us spend our 40 Lenten days journeying to the freedom of resurrection. Let us strip ourselves of all the bonds that hold our spirit captive. Let us witness the suffering of others and reach out to lift their burden.
"The Lord secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed. He has made known his ways to Moses." Psalms 103:6-7