We are now one full week into our Lenten journey and have already entered the third month of the calendar year — the month of March. This month will be one that is fully dedicated to the Lenten season. On its Sundays, you and I will find ourselves not only on Mount Tabor with Jesus and Peter, James and John; but also at the well with Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, with Jesus and a man born blind, and at the tomb of his friend Lazarus with Martha and Mary. What do these encounters have to do with us some 20 centuries later? What difference can these people and their experiences with Jesus make for our lives today?
On the first Sunday of March — the Second Sunday of the Lenten season — we will hear Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration of the Lord on the top of Mount Tabor (cf. Mt 17:1-9). During the event, Peter will voice the sentiment, “Lord, it is good that we are here” (Mt 17:4). Peter, James and John are being given a bird’s-eye view despite the pending shadows that will cross their paths on the road of life. Of course, Peter wants to capture the moment, by erecting three tents as a means of confining the moment, but the voice of God and Jesus’ touch intervenes to remind the disciples that time marches on. However, the one thing that can guide them even more than the vision is by holding on to what Jesus speaks — what he teaches.
Think of what this means for most people who have not been on a mountaintop or enjoyed a peak experience! By listening to Jesus’ voice in the Gospel, even today you and I can connect with the renewed vision Jesus came to bring to the human family. There are no barriers to the communication of such good news except the barriers we erect by not listening or paying attention to what Jesus wishes to reveal to us.
This directs us to our next encounter with Jesus this Lenten season at a well in Samaria (cf. Jn 4:5-42). The woman who comes here is carrying a heavy load — and I am not referring just to her water buckets. It is the noon hour and the heat is on. Even Jesus is “tired from his journey” (Jn 4:6) and is looking for a cool drink (Jn 4:7). She comes to the well at this hour because there is normally no one around to harass her and to gossip about her. She has a checkered past and has burnt a lot of bridges with five husbands and even more in-laws and now she has a live-in. Literally, she is the talk of the town.
Yet, Jesus does not seem to focus on any of these details. He is aware of them, but he is more interested in her reconnecting with God who can give her water not just to quench her parched lips, but her parched soul as well. Jesus invites her to come to know the truth of who he is and in turn, she not only reconnects with God, but with neighbor as well. The significance of this moment is highlighted by her leaving the water jar at the well and going back into town to invite people to come and meet Jesus. So much for avoiding people!
Consider what all of this means for you and me. None of us is too far gone for God to intervene in our lives! In fact, the woman leads others to Jesus who through their own encounter come to know Jesus as Savior. Today, more than ever, people are looking for Christ … for the Savior — how do you and I help others encounter him?
This brings us then to the story of the man born blind (cf. Jn 9:1-41). In this instance, it is Jesus and his disciples who come upon the blind man as they are walking along. His disciples are eager to pin the cause of his blindness on the man’s sinfulness or that of his parents. Jesus responds to them by saying, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9:3).
In just three verses, we are invited to go from the blame game to belief in the God “who can write straight with crooked lines” (Portuguese proverb) — who can lighten our darkness (cf. Jn 9:5). The other 38 verses focus on those who refuse to listen to the evidence given. Their stubbornness of heart drives people from the synagogues. A reminder that in our own faith communities we need to examine how dismissive we can be of others who don’t meet our expectations. How quick are we to call them out without examining our own sinfulness. As the Working Document for the Intercontinental Phase of the Synod on Synodality seeks to underscore with the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Enlarge the space of your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly, lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs” (54:2).
Our final meeting in March finds us with Jesus and Martha, Mary, and Lazarus (cf. Jn 11:1-45). It centers on illness and death and friendship and the ultimate question of “Where is God in all of this turmoil?” Even Thomas appears to be convinced that if they go to Bethany with Jesus they are going along “to die with him” (cf. Jn 11:16). What one discovers as they make their way through the 45 verses is the ultimate power of Jesus Christ to remove barriers and to raise the human person to new and everlasting life. This sharing in the resurrection and the life of Jesus for the believer does not come in death, but actually as one walks the road of life as illustrated by the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35). Moreover, as disciples we are challenged to take the stumbling blocks away that close off people from following Jesus or those things that seem to tie people in knots when Jesus is all about setting people free! Again, in this Gospel passage, for onlookers seeing is believing! How does our own living out of Jesus’ teaching help others to know and see the Christ and where he can be found today?
In his General Audience on Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis stated:
The Church, if it does not pray to [the Spirit] and invoke Him, closes in on itself, in sterile and exhausting debates, in wearisome polarizations, while the flame of the mission is extinguished. It is very sad to see the Church as if it were nothing more than a parliament. The Church is something else. The Church is the community of men and women who believe and proclaim Jesus Christ, but moved by the Holy Spirit, not by their own reason. Yes, you use your reason, but the Spirit comes to enlighten and move it. The Spirit makes us go forth, urges us to proclaim the faith in order to confirm ourselves in the faith, to go on a mission to discover who we are. That is why the Apostle Paul recommends: “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess 5:19).
As we continue our Lenten journey may these Gospels provide us with new impetus to follow the Spirit’s lead. Happy Lenten Trails!
