3rd Week of Lent 2021 - Obstacles to Conversion and St. John of God

 Yesterday, on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, we reflected on thirst: the thirst for God. In his conversation with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well, the Lord pronounces to the woman that if she understood who He was, she would ask him to give her the living water of God that quenches all thirsts. 

All people, of all times, of every place have thirsted for God. It is our hearts deepest longing.

Naaman the Syrian, in our first reading, while initially turning to God only because he believed that the God of Israel was able to cure his leprosy, came to discover the One True God: ““Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”

If the thirst for God is universal, who do so many people in the Gospels reject Jesus. Why do they not respond to Him with faith like the Samaritan Woman, and so many of the sick and marginalized? Why did the Pharisees and Sadducees conspire to kill Jesus? Why do his own townsfolk reject Him? Certainly, there are a number of reasons, a number of obstacles to faith. 

In the case of the pharisees, it seems as if their attachment to power and authority fueled their prideful unwillingness to acknowledge Jesus’ identity. For the townsfolk of Nazareth and for many of the people Jesus encountered, it was likely their preconceived notions of what the Messiah would look like: he couldn’t possibly come in the form of a Galilean carpenter! For many others, their attachment to sin, their resistance to repentance, was allowed to grow larger than their thirst for God, and that happens with so many of us. 

Today, the church honors a saint, who though he was baptized as an infant and raised in the faith, walked away from the Church and hardened his heart against Christ for a good portion of his life. St. John of God was a Spanish soldier who had forsaken his childhood faith to pursue a wild and sinful life. He reminds us a little of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, or St. Augustine, in this way. For the 18 years, John allowed his morals to decline, as he completely abandoned the piety of his earliest youth for a greedy and brutal way of life—plundering and pillaging. 

And yet the thirst for God could still be seen. Once, after falling wounded in enemy territory, he instinctively called out to the Blessed Virgin Mary to save him. And again, when he was falsely suspected of theft and nearly executed, he called out to God for help. He also had a special place in his heart for the poor, and would often give alms to those in extreme distress.

As the term of his military service came to an end, he realized he needed to do something to reform his life. He embarked on a pilgrimage  the via de Compostela, the pilgrim’s way of St. James, and as he walked, the choices of his life began to weigh heavily upon him, he began to recognize his errors and sins and began to desire peace with God. At the end of the pilgrimage, he made a good confession and determined to make atonement for his sins. He went on to found a religious order dedicated to the care of the sick and dying.

No doubt, many of us know souls like St. John who have fallen away from their childhood faith. Yet, for them we should not despair. Many former Catholics who are not currently going to church, still keep some of the Lenten penances and observances, and the Lord may work through those penitential practices to restore their faith. Moreso, we do well to offer penances for them, to pray for miracles of conversion, to nurture the seeds of faith, the thirst for God, by our example and our conversations with them.

Daily, throughout Lent, we do well to hold in our minds someone who has fallen away, and to offer increased Lenten penances for them and for their return to the faith for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving may humble our earthly pride and bring about conversion and renewal within the Church.

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.

That Our Lady and St. Joseph may protect Holy Father Pope Francis as he concludes his apostolic visit to the war-torn country of Iraq, and that the Gospel may be spread, accepted and cherished there and in every land. Let us pray to the Lord

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, 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.