Third Sunday of Lent
Think back to your first Catholic retreat. Was it a mandatory Confirmation retreat your parents signed you up for in middle school? Maybe it was one you went on in high school with your friends from youth ministry or Catholic school? Or maybe you went on one on your own when you were a little older? What do you remember from that retreat?
I went on my first retreat when I was a freshman in college. A couple of my new friends and a cute boy (spoiler alert, he’s now my husband) talked me into going on a weekend retreat in the middle of nowhere run by the Campus Catholic Ministry. I don’t remember the theme of the retreat, the talks given or what Matt Maher songs were popular that year, but I do remember leaving different. Changed. It was on that retreat that I went to confession for the first time since being confirmed over seven years prior, and I opened my heart to God’s love and joy during Eucharist Adoration like I never had before. I knew my past didn’t matter and couldn’t hold me back anymore. I was forgiven and loved, and I wanted to share my experience from that retreat with anyone who’d listen. I asked myself, “How have I gone my whole life up until that point without meeting Jesus in this way?!”
Since that retreat the story of the woman at the well has been one of my favorites. Unlike images of sheep, rams, and wheat fields which can be confusing and a little harder to understand in our suburban New Jersey experience of life, this story always made sense to me. There was a woman who was a sinner and an outcast in her society. She wanted to go about her day avoiding others and any criticism they had for her. Instead, she had an encounter with Christ at the well, and she was changed. After meeting Jesus, she didn’t hide and follow her daily routine, but went into her community and shared her experience. Doing so, she changed others. She may not have understood everything Jesus said to her, but she knew that he was the Messiah and she wanted others to meet him too.
Venerable Fulton Sheen, when commenting on the Epiphany, said, of course the Magi went home by a different route after meeting Jesus, for no one encounters Christ and goes home the same way he came. This was true for the Magi, the woman at the well, me, and anyone who encounters Christ in prayer and in the Sacraments. How can you not be changed after an encounter like that?
This Gospel reading is read on the third Sunday of Lent every year when a Parish has adults becoming Catholic and preparing to receive the Sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil. It is not only during a period of final preparation for them, but also an opportunity for the rest of the community to join the elect on their journey and increase our faith this Lenten season. The women at the well reminds us of the redeeming love of God and the power that we have to change others when we boldly share our witness. Let’s not walk away from this Lent the same way we entered, but through prayer and the sacraments, we can let our hearts be changed.