The “lazy, hazy days of summer” can affect our spiritual lives not only when the temperatures are high, but whenever life’s circumstances take an amotivating turn. In today’s reflection, Carter Fahey invites us to respond to this spiritual stagnation by opening our hearts to Love – in prayer, but also in action.

September 8, 2024: Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

‍Isaiah 35:4-7a

Psalm 146:6-10

James 2:1-5

Mark 7:31-37

Refreshed by the Living Water

A Reflection by Carter Fahey

Late summer in Oxford is a peculiar time, when life matches the River Cherwell’s sluggish pace. Most of the students have vanished, leaving me to wander amongst the shells of grand old buildings, lying dormant as they await autumn’s great academic migration. Each day begins to feel like a mirror image of every other, and time lazily creeps forward while I seem to accomplish nothing at all. In this lingering season, it's easy for me to lose sight of what’s important, and I often wonder whether I will forever be caught up in its clutches.

I know, of course, that I am not truly stuck. After the languid days of late summer, autumn will drift in, and the hours will skate by until “the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth” (Song 2:11–12). I will take one tentative step forward, and suddenly, everything will look different; the ground will shift beneath me, and I will see just how far I’ve come, saying to myself, “Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new” (2 Cor 5:17)!  Looking back, I’ll be able to recognize that things were changing all along – if only I had taken a moment to look around me – and that I was changing, too.

The same is true in our spiritual lives – we are often so caught up in the particulars of the day-to-day that we can’t see our own progress. We might feel ourselves to be wandering in circles in the desert, never really moving forward; maybe God seems absent, we are frustrated with the Church, or our spiritual lives appear to have all but dried up. How easy it can be, when these uncertainties come knocking, to lose sight of our end, to forget that total union with God for which we strive, and wonder if we will remain mired forever in this sense of being lost.

We can catch a glimpse of our promised future and see the signs of renewal amidst the desert if only we allow ourselves to be changed by our faith. This is not something we can do on our own; rather, it is something we must allow God to enact within us. Like the deaf man in today’s gospel, it requires us to step away from the tumult of our daily lives to be alone with Jesus (Mk 7: 31–37). By turning to the Lamb of God in prayer, we must hear God’s Word and allow our hearts to be opened. Only then shall we see the spring of salvation which flows forth from the side of Christ, quenching our thirst and rejuvenating our spirit (Is 12:3). “Waters shall break forth in the wilderness,” and it is when we are nourished by these, the sweetest of waters, that we are revived (Is 35:6).

This sacred renewal is not some interesting intellectual pursuit, nor a personal conviction with no outward fruits. If we have allowed ourselves to be changed by Christ, we will see that we are called to bring this rejuvenation about not only in our hearts but in the Church and the world. It is part of our baptismal vocation to make it manifest to others, to spread the light of Christ through the flame of love. We are called to preach – when our ears and hearts have been opened to the Word, so too is our tongue loosened so that we might share with those around us.

But preaching is not only composed of our words. Yes, we are summoned to “say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear,’” but our actions must also embody the faith we proclaim (Is 35:4). The waters in which we were baptized, and which continually renew our spirits, reflect a more perfect charity than exists in this life, and in modelling our lives on the pattern of Jesus, we should strive to make this foretaste of heaven present to others. As a community that has often been pushed to the margins of the Church, we can work to remind others of the faith proclaimed in the letter of James, acting with love in the face of favoritism and breaking down distinctions in a world that is liable to place people in boxes (Jas 2:1–5). By living the truth wholeheartedly and making our lives ever more Christ-like, we can share the water of life, but only if we are truly committed to being changed by our faith.

So let us not slip into easy complacency or become too comfortable in our well-worn routines – we are called to strive for more, to reach for that reflection of heaven we glimpse in the waters of renewal. Instead, let us implore God to open our hearts to the Word and allow ourselves to be cleansed, refreshed, and strengthened as we go out into the world to make our lives perpetual acts of thanksgiving.

Carter Fahey (he/him) is from Boston Massachusetts. He is a recent convert and has an interest in doing outreach work to Catholic communities to combat misinformation and create opportunities for community among LGBTQIA+ people.