3rd Sunday of Lent 2026 - Scrutinies and the Samaritan Woman

We celebrated today, with our Catechumens, the first of the three Scrutinies. The three scrutinies are celebrated on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent with those who are preparing to enter the Church at Easter.  The three scrutinies are solemn rituals in which we pray to help to purify, enlighten and strengthen the catechumens as they prepare for the Easter Sacraments.

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 converted to Christ. The ritual book for the scrutitines says that their purpose 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.” We are to utilize all of the strength at our disposal--the strength of our intellect and will, the gifts of the spirit—to root out sin so that we may live more fully for God.

We do this before Sacramental Confession of course. We thoroughly scrutinize our moral decisions since our last confession. But it’s a very good idea to get in the habit of doing this every day; before bed, make an examination of your day—your choices and decisions and conversations and interactions—scrutinize your day in the light of Christ. That daily scrutiny is a powerful spiritual help for growth in holiness.

“Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” promises Jesus. We seek to purify ourselves of sin, so that we may see God in this life and in the next. Sin obscures spiritual vision—it clouds the intellect. We will hear more about the curing of spiritual blindness next week—in the gospel of the healing of the blind man at the pool of siloam. Yet, this Sunday’s Gospel also had to do with spiritual vision in a sense, as the Samaritan woman came to spiritually see Jesus for who he really is—the one who can quench our thirst for living waters.

This is really a powerful Gospel. There are a couple important details right at the beginning of the story: “Jesus came to a town of Samaria.” Jesus enters this place, where no pious Jew would go. . Samaria was filled with half-breeds—Jews who had intermarried with the Assyrians invaders of centuries past.

First, insight: Jesus doesn’t go around the unclean land or the unclean person. Jesus loves the unclean, the marginalized, the outsider. In the Second Reading, we are reminded by St. Paul that Jesus loves the sinner so much, he lays down his life for them.

Secondly: this woman, goes to the well, at the hottest part of the day, by herself. She is likely ostracized by her own people. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that she had five husbands and was living with a man to whom she was not married. She is surrounded with stigma, she’s living in sin. And it is precisely with her, that jesus converses and offers the gift of life-giving waters.

The Samaritan woman represents every one of us.  She is wounded, complicated, burdened by her past, and yet still sought out by Christ. Jesus waits for her at the well. And Jesus waits for us too. He is not afraid of the mess of her life, and He is not afraid of the mess in ours. He sees everything. He sees every sin, every compromise, every disappointment, every attempt we have made to find fulfillment apart from God—and still He speaks to us. Still He desires to give us living water.

This too makes the Samaritan woman’s faith is so striking—“Sir, give me this water”. She doesn’t quite yet understand who Jesus is completely. She doesn’t have a master’s degree in theology. But she recognizes that Jesus can do for her what no one else can. Her life may not be completely in order—but she gets this right. Recognizing Jesus as Savior, was life changing.

And then the next striking thing about this story: this encounter was so meaningful that she immediately becomes a missionary. This woman who had been avoiding others now runs to them. Once she encounters Christ, she can no longer keep Him to herself.

Here is a sign of authentic conversion. A real encounter with Jesus never remains private. It bears fruit. It changes how we speak, how we act, how we love, how we see others. When we ourselves have been healed, we are moved by love to desire that healing for others.

We know the suffering that comes from living apart from God, and so we desire to help others know Him. We know the emptiness the world has to offer, and so we desire to help others experience the fullness that comes from Him.

We do not want the people around us to remain thirsty, burdened, wounded, confused, or far from God. We want them to know the One we have come to know. We want them to encounter the mercy that has begun to heal us. That is what we see in the Samaritan woman. Once she begins to recognize who Jesus is, she leaves behind her water jar and goes her family and fellow townsfolk. She becomes, almost immediately, a witness. She does not yet understand everything about Jesus. Her faith is still new, still developing. But even so, she has found something—or rather Someone—too important to keep to herself.

And that is often how conversion works. A person who has really encountered Christ may not yet be able to explain every doctrine or answer every theological question, but we know this: I was thirsty, and He met me. I was burdened, and He spoke to me. I was wandering, and He began to lead me. I was hurting, and he comforted me. That’s evangelization.

Evangelization is not only the task of apologists, theologians, clergy, and catechists. Certainly, we have an important role in the Church. But at its heart, Christian witness is simple. I was wounded and empty, and he healed me. It is one beggar showing another where to find bread; one thirsty soul showing another where to find water.

This Lent, the Lord invites us to scrutinize our lives—to lay them bare that we may drink every-more-deeply of the life-giving waters, then sends us out to make that invitation to others—for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

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.

4th Sunday of Lent 2022 - Second Scrutiny - To be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ

 This morning we celebrate the second of three scrutinies for those preparing for baptism and full initiation this Easter. 

You’ll hear prayers for the dispelling of darkness in their lives, for the light of Christ and truth and faith to shine in their lives, and you’ll notice how the exorcism prayer references today’s Gospel reading about the healing of the man born blind.

All of us, emerging from our mother’s wombs, are like the man born blind, but we are born with a more terrible malady, original sin, the deprivation of the loss of God’s grace in our souls. And so we require the saving grace of baptism, to restore what was lost due to sin. And through baptism we are given the gift of faith which enables us to see as we should.

The great church father Origen said, “to be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ.”  Blindness is used often in the New Testament to point out that we do not see as we should. We don’t see our neighbor as we should with eyes of loving compassion, we don’t see God as we should,  we don’t see ourselves as we should, we don’t see Truth as we should.  Sin has clouded our vision to rightly perceive truth, goodness, and beauty. 

And so to be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ.  The Saints are those who through a life seeking after holiness have begun to see clearly. They see evil and error and sin for what they really are, and rid them from their lives. They see the poor, as the beloved of God. They see the need to bless those who curse them, and to pray for those who mistreat them, like Christ. The see the cross as the royal road to heaven.

Jesus sees this man born blind.  The blind man was probably begging at the gate, as many blind people were often forced to do.  And Jesus sees him. Jesus sees all of us. The eye of God sees us always, as Padre Pio would say. 

Then Jesus approaches this man, he spits on the ground, and makes a kind of paste, a sort of salve—salve, from which we get the word, salvation.  St. Augustine says, his spittle represents his divinity, the earth, his humanity.  Divinity taking on the flesh, the incarnation of Christ, is the salve God uses to heals our deepest wounds. Jesus rubbing the salve in this man’s eyes, well, that’s Christ himself being rubbed into our eyes.  His incarnation, his presence among us is what allows us to see. 

On Ash Wednesday, we put not earth and spittle on our eyes, but we did put ashes mixed with holy water on our foreheads. That was a salve of sorts. The salve of repentance. The reminder of the need to do penance for our sins, is a salve indeed, that helps baptized and unbaptized alike to take a hard look at our lives, to discern if any sinful attitudes, habits, or behaviors have begun to blind us to goodness of the moral life of Christ.

After placing the salve on the eyes of the blind man, Jesus tells him to then go wash in the pool, and he is then able to see. The pool is evocative of baptism.    

For it is through baptism that we are grafted on to his body and become members of the Church. Isn’t it wonderful to know that when you come to Church, you are gathering with formerly spiritually blind people who are learning how to see again. We are all at different stages of regaining spiritual sight, some of us make better use of the time we’ve been given to regain our sight, some of us have a hard time taking our focus off of the world or off of ourselves. Many of us sadly, at some points in our lives reblind ourselves with the red-hot poker of mortal sin. But even mortal sin after our baptism can be healed in the Sacrament of Confession.

Today I am wearing the rose-colored vestments, because today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, is "Laetare Sunday".  Laetare means rejoice.  We rejoice because we recognize the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of Lent helps us see clearly, and helps us to prepare well for Easter which is the source of our spiritual rebirth. We will celebrate the Easter sacraments with our candidates for full initiation, and so we are barely able to contain our joy. 

Again, if you haven’t made a good Lenten confession yet, there is still time. 

We’re 4 weeks into Lent, and I’ve made the invitation to you all several times to go to confession, and many have gone. I was so delighted that Evening of Confession a week and a half ago. I heard about 30 confessions for almost 3 and a half hours, and I would have heard them for three and a half more if I needed to.

But, I can do math. And, there are still many souls in this parish, who haven’t been to confession in a while, too long. Jesus is waiting for you with the salve of his mercy and grace. Go to confession. Especially if you have unconfessed mortal sins. We don’t know the day nor the hour, and the greatest tragedy is when a soul fails to turn to God for forgiveness. There is more joy when one sinner repents than 99 who don’t. Don’t be a member of the 99% who fail to repent. Please. You’ll feel so much better. You’ll begin to see more clearly than you have, perhaps, in a long time.

May this Lenten season continue to bring about the healing of spiritual sight, a dispelling of darkness in all of us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

3rd Sunday of Lent 2021 - Water in the desert to quench our thirst for God

 Our scripture readings for this third Sunday of Lent may sound somewhat familiar. They were the last readings we heard prior to the lockdown last year due to the coronavirus. 

Leading upon to the third Sunday of Lent last year, we began to see news reports of this mysterious virus from an overseas laboratory beginning to hit our shores. And stories of stores being ransacked for basic necessities, especially toilet paper, as we with our fellow countrymen began to brace ourselves for the unknown. How much of the activity of this past year was governed by healthy caution and safety, or irrational fear, it will be hard to tell for some time. 

But amidst the chaos and confusion, what has remained throughout it all, has been the human thirst for God. Whether in good times or in bad, in poverty or wealth, in sickness or in health, whether you’re a republican, democrat, atheist, Christian, Muslim, or Jew, man thirsts for God. 

We all experience many types of thirst. 

Daily our bodies thirst.  We of course desire actual water to quench parched lips and dry throats.  Our bodies need water; it’s part of our bodily nature.  Without water, our bodies die. In the first reading, the Israelites who had been wandering in the desert begin to fear that they might die of real actual physical thirst. It is clear they didn't quite trust God yet, which is why they are described as grumbling, complaining to Moses about this god who would lead them out into the desert. But their fear, and their thirst, was real. 

One summer I visited the African Island Country of Madagascar with Catholic Relief Services.  I remember visiting villages where regular access to clean drinking water was a real problem, as it is in many third world countries. And one of the tasks of Catholic Relief Services was to help people develop reliable access to clean drinking water. Certainly, one of our duties toward the Lord is to give drink to the thirsty--"for I was thirsty, and you gave me drink"

Beyond physical thirst, we also experience many different types of emotional thirst. A thirst for companionship; after months of isolation, thirst for human touch and social interaction, to see people’s faces and smiles. At points in our lives we thirst for fun and excitement, perhaps adventure; at other times we thirst for a stable job and a sturdy roof over our head. We thirst for knowledge and beauty and goodness and justice. Our human nature thirsts for these very good things.

And then of course, the deepest thirst of all, a thirst that nothing, no earthly relationship or earthly pursuit can quench: the thirst, only God himself can satisfy. This deepest thirst is not for some THING, but for some ONE.  For God.  God IS the living water, of whom St. Augustine said, “my heart is restless until it rests in you, my God.”  

Remember that beautiful Psalm 63: “O God, you are my God, for you I long, for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water”  And Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”

Our bodies need H2O and food, our minds need companionship and knowledge, and our souls need God—our souls need intimate, personal contact with Him.

As the Catechism puts it: "Man is made to live in communion with God, in whom he finds happiness" (#45).  God has created the human person to be in Communion with Himself.  We will never find true joy outside of His will.  

Finite things cannot quench the thirst for the infinite living God, and yet, and yet sinful man attempts to quench the thirst for God with so many artificial substitutes. The addict, the drug-addict, the sex or porn-addict, the gambling-addict, the tv-addict or video-game addict, the food or shopping-addicts, seeking God in so many artificial substitutes bring such sadness to themselves and their families. Their addiction cannot satisfy and leaves them hollow. To paraphrase Ken Kesey, every time they take a drink from the bottle, the bottle takes a drink from them. 

When some false God becomes the center of our life—the pursuit of pleasure, power, or the good-life, we are left exhausted and unhappy—because we end up drinking sand—and sand does not quench. The neglect of prayer and right religion leaves us literally dying of spiritual thirst while refusing to acknowledge that God could save us if we but humbly turned to Him. 

In the beatitudes, the Lord promises blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Our deepest hungers and thirsts can be satisfied by God. And not just ultimately in heaven, either. Our spiritual thirst for God begins to be satisfied as we enter into the mystery of God in this earthly life through the sacraments and the life of faith, through prayer and works of charity.

Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” Jesus wants to give us this living water of His very Life with us, but he will not force us to drink.  

During Lent, we acknowledge those times in which we have been misguided in our search for God, when we have turned to sin, instead of turning to him.  And we do penance—we pray, fast, and give alms, not just for ourselves, but for the conversion of the lost souls out there. Those who cannot bring themselves to humbly admit how much they need God. We undertake penances, praying that their pride, their egos, will be softened, that they may hear the voice of Christ calling them to the waters of everlasting life—the living water of God. 

[Tomorrow ]/[This morning] we celebrate a special ritual, the first of three rituals called the Lenten scrutinies, for those preparing for the easter sacraments. Angela and Bruce will stand before the congregation, acknowledging their thirst for Christ, their desire to drink deeply of the waters of the Christian life and the sacraments.  They are reminders to all of us, to seek to be free from all that keeps us from drinking deeply from the waters Christ gives.

In Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we strip away the non-essentials of our lives, and make our lives into a sort of desert, and yet, it’s in the Lenten desert, that those with faith drink deeply of the living water of God flows abundantly in prayer, fasting, and self-giving.

Again, if you haven’t gone to confession this Lenten season, it is so important to acknowledge those times when we’ve have turned away from the living waters. Without confession, we begin to settle for less, we begin to settle for sand, and are left dying of thirst. 

I offer confessions on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings, on Monday nights, and will offer an evening of confessions for three hours, 5 to 8pm on Wednesday march 24. .

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.