Search
From the Pastor's Desk: March 12, 2023
-
From the Pastor’s Desk: March 12, 2023
The Third Sunday of Lent takes us to the heart of the season of Lent and offers us an incredible opportunity to pause briefly on our pilgrimage toward Jerusalem. Perhaps the last three weeks were particularly challenging as we try to apply the precepts of the Lenten season of penance, prayers, and generosity into our daily lives. This Sunday, we need to sit down and contemplate upon the scripture readings, especially our Lord’s encounter with the Samaritan Woman. But also it offers an invitation to recall our own encounters with the Lord. Perhaps, we may ask ourselves a question – Who is Jesus for me? In the Gospel, the Samaritan woman reveals to us, that Christ is the living-water…“love of God, poured out into our hearts.” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said, “Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman, ‘Give me a drink,’ expresses the passion of God for every man and woman.” Jesus wants to give us this living water, this life-giving flesh and blood, but His Will is not enough. He placed a condition on His own omnipotence; He won’t force us to drink of that water.
Paraphrasing the old cowboy aphorism, we can say, “Jesus will lead us to water, but He won’t make us drink.” He wants us freely to ask for it, to truly desire it. We are reminded that Jesus “wishes to awaken in our hearts the desire for the gift of a ‘spring of water within, welling up for eternal life,” for the water given by the Son that alone “can irrigate the deserts of our restless and unsatisfied soul until it ‘finds rest in God.’” It alone is the water that “extinguishes every thirst.”
“Many of us will readily admit that we don’t really thirst for God like we ought to, like a man in the desert would. Rather than having hearts out of which “flow rivers of living water,” our hearts are hardened, stubborn, and lifeless. But the same God who had Moses strike the rock and bring forth water in the desert can strike our stony hearts and bring forth living water. But we need to ask him to do it. Our spiritual life is like a family that gets a company to come drill a well in their yard. Often they need to burrow through layers of rock and various geological formations to tap that underground stream or aquifer. But that’s only the beginning. They then need to keep that well free of leaves, free of debris, free of various contaminants. Then they need to pipe that water into their house, then they need to use the water to give life to their daily activities. It’s the same way with our souls. We need to ask God to drill the well. He’ll need to get below the surface or superficial layers of our life, to burrow through the various rocky strata, to go deep, to tap that source of living water.” (Fr. Roger Landry)
When we drink the water, we come face-to-face with the Lord, our Savior, we admit the truth of our own lives, we run to proclaim Jesus’ presence and message to all who will hear. It is His living water that satisfies beyond mere human thirst and leads us towards transformation and new life in the movement of our Lenten journey.
With the Third Sunday of Lent, we also begin the process of Scrutinies for the elect in the RCIA process as the final steps in their journey to the Easter sacraments. Scrutinies are meant to "inspire in the elect a desire for purification and redemption," and instruct them about the mystery of sin and our salvation in Christ. The Scrutinies focus on self-searching and repentance, to uncover areas of sinfulness and strengthen what is good. We pray for all our elect, that the final weeks of preparation for the Easter Vigil will be a time filled with God’s grace, peace, and support of the entire community of St. Luke parish.
Next week, March 20-22, we will have our Lenten Parish Penance Services. Every day will offer reflection and confessions. Please make sure to adjust your schedule in such a way that you can take full advantage of the time of spiritual growth and preparation for the joyful celebration of Easter.
I pray that as we continue our journey through Lent, we will be attentive to awaken the greatness God has placed within us with Holy Moments. Every time we collaborate with God to create a Holy Moment, it reveals who we are capable of being, and who we are capable of being is amazing. May the life-giving water of God satisfy the thirst of our hearts this week and always!
With prayers,
Fr. Andy
