Blessed with a Long Gospel

Third Sunday of Lent–Scrutinies

As you stood and heard this long Gospel passage today, the Gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well, I am sure that certain words were going through your mind: words like “blest,” “privileged,” and “fortunate.”  Those were the words that were going through your mind, right?

Those should be the words that came to your mind as you heard this Gospel, because this Gospel is only read during this year when the Church is celebrating the Scrutinies.  And we only celebrate the Scrutinies when we have the Elect of God, those who are to be baptized, confirmed, and receive the Eucharist for the first time at the Easter Vigil.  The Elect are the children in the womb of this parish, who are about to be born to new life in the Sacraments.  The Scrutinies, the ritual book tells us, 

are reinforced by an exorcism, are rites for self-searching and repentance and have above all a spiritual purpose.  [They] are meant to uncover, then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the elect; to bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong, and good.  [They] are celebrated in order to deliver the elect from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Now, this isn’t the kind of exorcism where heads spin and pea soup gets spit out.  This is a minor exorcism, meant to establish in the Elect the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  

This long Gospel is read because it is an example of conversion, to which the Elect have been called, and by which they can be strengthened.  And this is a perfect example of what happens when we encounter Christ.  At first the woman fights the conversion, speaking about how Jews and Samaritans are not supposed to mix.  But Jesus doesn’t give up.  He offers the woman living water, not just the water that she came to draw to quench her physical thirst.  And the woman wants it, but doesn’t quite understand just what Jesus is saying.  When we encounter Jesus, He offers a gift to us, and we may fight it, or may not fully understand what He wants to give us.

But then, as the encounter continues, Jesus identifies the ways in which there is separation between God and her.  She tries to avoid the situation by saying the truth, just not all the truth.  When confronted with the truth by Truth Himself, she tries to avoid again, and tries to start a fight about how worship should go.  But she is still drawn in.  At the beginning of the encounter, Jesus was just, “a Jew.”  After He promises her living water, He is “Sir.”  When He reveals her past, He is “a prophet.”  

When we are in the presence of holiness, our sinfulness has to be confronted in order to be cast out.  This is not always fun, and it’s not something we always want to do.  So we, too, often try to change the subject, rationalize away our sins, or even try to complain about the Mass being too long or celebrated in a way that we don’t like.  But when we truly encounter Christ, we, too, move from just Jesus the morally good guy, to Jesus the teacher, to Jesus the prophet who speaks for God.

Jesus sidesteps her argument about the Mass, and speaks about who God desires her to follow Him and worship God in spirit and truth.  He then reveals Himself as the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the desire of her heart.  And the woman cannot hold in her joy at becoming a follower of Jesus, but tell others.  

Jesus doesn’t stop with our sinfulness.  He tells us how much He loves us and wants us to follow Him and worship God in spirit and truth and reveals Himself to us as the desire of our hearts.  And if we truly have come into contact with Jesus, then we should want to tell others.  We see Jesus as the Son of God, who reveals us to ourselves so that we can truly be happy.  

Our Elect of God started by inquiring about who this Jesus guy is.  They were drawn to Him.  Then they drew closer in starting the process of learning what it means to be Catholic.  And recently, they were chosen by God through the ministry of the bishop to become Catholic at the Easter Vigil.  Let us pray for them that they will continue to know Jesus more fully until they are configured to Him in baptism.  Let us pray for ourselves, that we will also be converted more like the Samaritan woman, and tell those we know about Jesus the Messiah.