[LA EN]
Monday of Passion Week introduces us more deeply into the redeeming mystery that is approaching, marking a liturgical phase where mourning and penance intensify in the face of the imminent Passion of Our Lord. Historically, this period of the Vetus Ordo is characterized by the veiling of sacred images, a visual invitation to interior recollection and meditation on the concealment of Christ's divinity during His sufferings. The liturgy of this day does not celebrate a specific saint, but focuses entirely on the urgency of conversion and the promise of eternal life that will spring from the Cross. The traditional Station in Rome takes place in the venerable Basilica of Saint Chrysogonus, built over the remains of primitive tituli in the Trastevere region. Saint Chrysogonus, martyr of the Diocletian persecution, is an eloquent example of faith that does not recoil before death, reminding the faithful that the true living water, the Spirit promised in today's Gospel, strengthens the martyrs and sustains the Church in all trials. On this day, we are called to unite our Lenten mortifications with the sufferings of Christ, preparing our hearts for the glory of the Resurrection.
📖 Introit (Ps 55, 2 | ibid., 3)
Miserére mihi, Dómine, quóniam conculcávit me homo: tota die bellans tribulávit me. Ps. Conculcavérunt me inimíci mei tota die: quóniam multi bellántes advérsum me.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for the adversary tramples me underfoot and seeks to oppress me all day long. Ps. My enemies have trampled me underfoot all day long; for many are those who fight against me.
📜 Reading (Jon 3, 1-10)
In those days, the Lord spoke a second time to the prophet Jonah, saying to him: Arise and go to the great city of Nineveh; and proclaim there the preaching that I will inspire in you. Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Nineveh was a great city, a three days' journey. Having entered the city, Jonah walked for one day and cried out, saying: Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. And the men of Nineveh believed in God; and they proclaimed a fast, covering themselves, from the greatest to the least, with sackcloth. When this came to the knowledge of the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal garments, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. Then he had this order published in Nineveh, as coming from the king and the nobles of the kingdom: Neither men, nor animals, nor oxen or sheep shall eat, graze or drink water. Let men and animals cover themselves with sackcloth and cry out to the Lord with strength, and let each one convert and abandon the evil way and the iniquity that is in their hands. Who knows if God will not turn to forgive us, if He will not appease the fury of His wrath, so that we do not perish? God saw their good works and that they were converting from their evil ways and had mercy on His people, the Lord our God.
📖 Gospel (Jn 7, 32-39)
At that time, the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them: I am still with you for a little while, then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and will not find Me, and where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said among themselves: Where will He go that we cannot find Him? Will He perhaps go to those who are scattered among the Gentiles to teach the pagans? What does this word mean that He said: You will seek Me and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come. On the last great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. From the bosom of whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, torrents of living water will flow. He said this, referring to the Spirit that those who believed in Him were to receive.
💧 The conversion of the heart and the living water of the Spirit
The promise of living water proclaimed by Our Lord on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles reveals the apex of the mystery of our redemption. Christ's departure to the Father transcends carnal understanding, for, as Saint Augustine warns (Sermon 103 on Saint John), the crowd murmurs seeking Him with earthly eyes, being unable to enter the glory inaccessible to unbelief. However, to those who approach with faith, Jesus reveals Himself as the inexhaustible source that quenches the deep thirst of the soul, a thirst that cries out for God. The promised living water is the ineffable gift of the Holy Spirit, which transforms the interior of the faithful into a river of purifying and renewing grace. However, this Spirit awaited the sublime moment of Christ's glorification, demonstrating that the sacrifice of the Lamb on the Cross is the absolute foundation of this divine outpouring, opening the heavenly floodgates for all humanity that believes.
This reception of grace requires, indispensably, the preparation of a contrite heart, as the Reading on the fast and penance of the Ninevites demonstrates to us. The profound repentance of the great city of Nineveh, which covers itself with sackcloth and ashes before Jonah's preaching, figures the necessary stripping away to abandon the evil way and iniquity. Without genuine repentance and the mortification of disordered appetites, the soul remains arid and incapable of sheltering the Spirit of God. Divine mercy fell upon Nineveh because the Lord saw their good works and their authentic conversion, teaching us that divine wrath gives way to compassion when man turns entirely to the Creator in reparative penance.
In this way, the liturgy admirably intertwines the humiliation of repentance with the exaltation of the divine life infused in us. The conversion of Nineveh is the paradigm of our Lenten journey, which aims to empty our being of attachment to sin so that we may be fit to receive the rivers of living water promised in the Gospel. As Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bonaventure emphasize, natural reason devoid of faith does not attain the supernatural, and it is the Holy Spirit Himself who is the channel of sanctification, communicating divine life to those who believe. Humanity's thirst finds satisfaction only through faith in Christ crucified and glorified, whose reconciling sacrifice is the price paid so that we might be transformed into living temples of the Spirit, filled with the eternal charity that unites us to the Father.