3rd Week of Lent 2023 - Wednesday - Scrutinizing sin, yet trusting in God's mercy

 In the early centuries of the Church, the Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent was the day on which the first of the Scrutinies was celebrated.  The three scrutinies are solemn rituals which help to both purify and enlighten and strengthen the catechumens as they prepare for the Easter Sacraments.

The three scrutinies are now celebrated on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent with those who are preparing to enter the Church at Easter.  The First Scrutiny was celebrated here at St. Ignatius of Antioch at the 11am Mass this last Sunday. 

The word "scrutinize" means to examine in minute detail, and in the scrutinies, the Church prays that every last minute detail of the lives of the Catechumens may be handed over to Christ.

In the Gospel today, the Lord speaks of how his followers are to follow the smallest letter and the smallest part of the letter of the law, even the least of the commandments are to be followed. 

We are to scrutinize our behaviors, attitudes, and decisions in light of the Word of God in its entirety, including the challenging parts! And we are to seek conversion for all that is sinful, even minutely sinful. For the Lord desires to deliver us from sin, even the smallest amount of it. For not the smallest amount of sin will enter into heaven, not the tiniest amount. And we must cooperate with God in this matter to the furthest extent of our strength and our being.

The ritual book for the scrutinies says that the purpose of the scrutinies is to "heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the elect" and "to give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life".  And that’s something each of us need to seek, every day: to turn to the Lord to heal anything that is defective or sinful in our hearts.

Catechism says, “In order to reach perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ’s gift, so that . . . doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.”

We should be scrutinizing but not scrupulous. While we should bring our sins before God every day and seek conversion from them, we must not lose sight of God’s immense love for us, and his patience with us. An examination of conscience should be done in the light of God’s immense love. 

In the first reading, Moses says that he teaches the people the statutes and decrees of God “that they may live”. May we, too, seek faithfulness to every statutes and decree of the Lord, handing over every dimension of our life to Christ, to be healed, strengthened, purified, enlightened, sanctified and blessed, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That obedience to all the commands of Christ and the statutes and decrees of the Church may mark the life of every Christian. 

For all those preparing to enter into Christ through the saving waters of Baptism and those preparing for full initiation this Easter, may these final Lenten weeks bring about purification from sin and enlightenment in the ways of holiness.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have become separated through error and sin, for those who reject the teachings of Christ, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. 

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, for the repose of the soul of dear parishioner and staff member Rich Wild, who died yesterday, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

August 19 2019 - St. John Eudes - Mercy of the Sacred Heart

You will often see depictions of St. John Eudes, holding an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; for the saint was a great devotee and proponent of the devotion.

John Eudes preached the mercy of the Sacred Heart to combat 17th century French Jansenism which had spread to many corners of the Church, including the seminaries.  Jansenism included a number of heresies, a very negative view of the human person, and a moral rigorism that tended toward scrupulosity, an unhealthy and unreasonable fear that God would condemn a soul to hell for the smallest infraction.

In our modern day, moral rigorism is not the scourge it once was. However, the opposite vice, seems to be operant: moral laxity—the belief that nothing we do could result in damnation—an indifference to sin. Pope St. John Paul II lamented the loss of the sense of sin which leads to complicity in it.
John Eudes preached a middle road, the Catholic road: that a total love and trust in the merciful heart of Jesus leads us to repent, to seek freedom from sin trusting that our Good and Loving God wants to see us thrive in the spiritual life. “Let us therefore give ourselves to God,” says St. John Eudes, “with a great desire to begin to live thus, and beg Him to destroy in us the life of the world of sin, and to establish His life within us.”

“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation,” he says “must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desire, and his disposition live and reign there.”

In his treatise on the Sacred Heart, St. John Eudes gives us a marvelous summary of the life of the Christian: “There will be no true life for you except in Jesus Christ for he is the source of true life.  He must be both the source and purpose of your life.  You are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head; you must then have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one will, one mind, one heart.  And he must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all.”

May St. John Eudes help us to repent of sin, to trust in the Lord’s mercy, to live and love in union with His most sacred Heart, the furnace of All Love, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the return of all who have wandered from the Sacraments, for those who do not believe in God and for those whose love for God has grown tepid, and for all those who sadly suffer from scrupulosity, for a trust in the Mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

That the young students of our school beginning classes this week may know the love of Christ in their families, that each school family may seek to practice right religion to the honor of God.

That the mercy of the Sacred Heart may bring peace to all those who suffer: for the sick and diseased, for those undergoing surgery this week, for the destitute and despairing, for all victims of war, violence, and abuse, and for those who will die today and the consolation of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this mass is offered.

 O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.