A JESUS ENCOUNTER

READINGS: THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

This 3^rd Sunday of Lent is the beginning of “Scrutiny Sundays” which is part of the process for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults—the Rite for preparing and initiating unbelievers, non-Christians, and non-Catholics into full communion with the Catholic Church— if a church has candidates. Readings for “Scrutiny Sundays” are taken from Circle A if we are in any other Circle of our liturgical year. The gospel, for this Sunday, therefore, is about the Samaritan Woman who encountered Jesus at the well (John 4:1-42). What a fascinating story! It reveals to us the different ways  we resist getting closer to God and His Son, Jesus Christ, while showing us what happens when we open ourselves up to this relationship. 

In this story, the Samaritan woman, due to her sense of sinfulness and unrighteousness, did everything she could to avoid engaging with Jesus Christ. She pulled the race card arguing that Jesus was Jewish and she, a Samaritan (for Jews and Samaritans do not see eye to eye), just as we use race and ethnicity, today, to build walls of hatred and bigotry. She jested Christ’s ability to fulfill His promise of giving her the living water. with a humorous contempt “You don’t even have a bucket, and he well is deep. [Okay then] “Give me this water so that I will never get thirsty again and do not need to keep coming to this well”. This is no different from when we look down upon people, who we don’t even know, and make judgements about their abilities based on gender, color, religion, or even orientation. She attacked the Jewish religion and accused them of religious imposition, all in the bid to avoid this relational encounter. Sounds like when people say, “Why should the church “tell me what to do”, or “prohibit this or that”, or “teach this doctrine and against that belief””, all in attempt to resist conversion. She then tried to hide her true self from Jesus because of her sins. Amazingly, many a time we are tempted to think that God will not discover our sins if we do not get close to Him, or that we can do whatever we want because the guilt weighs less on our hearts. But Christ did not come for the righteous but for those of us who are sinners and in need of mercy. Scripture says that Christ did not come into the world to judge the world but to save it. 

Notice that during her resistances, Christ simply told her that only if she knew what she would benefit by coming into a relationship with Him, she would realize that her excuses pail to nothingness compared to what she would gain; and so it happened. She was gradually led to confront herself, got in touch with her true self, confessed, and conversion happened. She became a joyful and liberated woman, bringing the message of salvation to others.

My friends, this story reveals an amazing truth: that we never know ourselves or see ourselves truly as we are until we can see ourselves in the presence of Christ. The presence of Christ confronts us with the realization of who we truly are and our need for grace. In the presence of Christ, we wake up to ourselves and we wake up to our need for God; we wake up to the true meaning of life, discover our greatest potentials, find life and joy in the community of the Church and the Sacraments, and become the best version of ourselves. We discover realities about us that we never knew existed and begin to live life to its fullest. When we come close to God, he draws closer to us, delivering redemption, freedom, and liberty unto our souls. It is truly worth it!  May the good Lord continue to lead us back to Himself, Amen!