“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:15
As we celebrate the first of three scrutinies with the elect, our Gospel reading reflects the invitation to faith – the invitation that Jesus Christ makes to the Samaritan woman is the invitation that He’s made to the elect. The woman is drawn to the well, a place of encounter, where she meets Jesus and is invited into a relationship with him. In the same way, the elect are invited to the well – the baptismal font – to receive promises Jesus made to the woman at the well and baptizing them into a relationship with him, moreover into his life. At the well, Jesus offers the woman his life to dwell in her, as the water that quenches all thirst. This water purifies, justifies, and sanctifies those who receive it, and therefore, this is the life that now dwells in us who are baptized and the life which will dwell in those to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. During this season of Lent, we continue to pray for the elect as they prepare to receive this life within in them, but as we reflect on the first scrutiny and the reading of today, we’re also given the opportunity to reflect on our baptism and this life that dwells in each of us. How do we continue to trust in his promise? How are we fulfilling the gifts and the mandate that we receive through this invitation – through our baptism?
This week, the Church gives us a good example in Saint Frances of Rome, a woman who combines the best aspects of the secular and the religious life. She saw prayer as her deep encounter with Christ, and though married with children, she had a passion to support the poor, eventually opening her home to their care. This became her inspiration to found a society of women bound by no vows, the Oblates of Mary. They simply offered themselves to God and to the service of the poor. It is said that “the life of Frances of Rome calls each of us not only to look deeply for God in prayer, but also to carry our devotion to Jesus living in the suffering of our world. Frances shows us that this life need not be restricted to those bound by vows.” Saint Frances of Rome … pray for us.
In Christ
Fr Robert