3rd Sunday in Lent A

3rd Sunday of Lent – Year A

I watched a programme on television this week called – “An Hour To Save Your Life”. It was a medical emergency programme that showed three incidents where individual people experienced a trauma of some sort and then the medical services set about saving them.

The incidents were a severe stroke; a motor-bike accident and a fall from a tree. In each of them, the doctors asked the patient what had happened and where they were hurt. The stroke-victim could show reduced mobility but could not say much. Did she have a blood clot or a blood-bleed in her brain – nobody knew: her treatment had to be by informed guesswork and this was successful eventually.

The fall-victim had no visible injuries that he could point out but complained of pain in various places on his body. The X-Rays later showed many fractures in his pelvis. But he continued to complain of pain in his head and it was only after an extensive CAT-Scan that a hairline fracture of the skull was found. He was successfully treated and returned home.

The motor-bike-crash victim had a compound fracture of his right leg, visible to anyone and that the medics at the scene tried to straighten and ease. He was in shock and could say very little about where else he was hurt or felt pain. His condition deteriorated while on the way to hospital and he became an emergency case. It was only when doctors operated on him that they found his internal injuries and treated them. The delay in diagnosis cost him his leg but saved his life.

So – apart from sharing my gory television highlights with you – how does any of this fit in with our gospel message for today?

In each of these incidents – the patients presented a picture that others could see and could comment on – a woman with signs of stroke; a healthy-looking man lying on the ground and a man with a visibly broken and bleeding leg.

But in each of the incidents – there was so much more going on than met the eye. There was far more important information that had to be gathered and gleaned and considered to allow and enable the Medics to do their healing. This information had to be gathered from X-Rays, CAT Scans, blood-tests and much more checking and probing to paint the fullest picture for each patient.

Imagine how much easier it would be if someone could come up to any of these three and say at a glance what exactly was wrong with them: where the bleed was; where the crimped nerve was; where the blocked artery was; where the pressure on the brain was; where the bruised or torn organ was.

How easier would life be and how much more secure would each of us feel in the knowledge that this expert existed.

And so we have Jesus at the well. We have Jesus with his openness and with his invitation to the woman to join him in conversation and in drink. We have Jesus who could see through all of the painted caricatures that were associated with Samaritans – a hated and despised people by the Jews. We have Jesus who could see through the veils of life worn by the woman – her many marriages and current living arrangement – and see a soul seeking love, a soul seeking redemption, a soul in need of diagnosis. We have Jesus seeing another human person in need and open to receiving aid, support and sustenance.

We have Jesus seeing a messenger who can take his words and his message of love to her neighbours and friends; seeing the potential in this group of foreigners for planting, for growth and for harvest and then for further cycles of seeding and harvest.

We do not unfortunately have the ability to see hidden broken bones or hidden bleeds or the like. But we do have the ability to be open like Jesus to invite, welcome and listen to others; and to be like the woman at the well to receive God’s message of love. We do have the ability to listen to His Word and to take it into our hearts and our souls and to then reach out to others to tell them what we have heard and felt: to say to others, “Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did. He is the saviour of the world.

We have the opportunity during Lent to prepare ourselves for our own one to one conversations with Christ, to let him explore our hidden selves and to help us see all that is hidden – the good as well as the needs. We have the opportunity to receive his help to fix the broken, bruised or battered parts and those aches, pains and burdens that we are totally unaware of and to mend them.

We need to be able to show to others where and how Christ is alive in us. We need to make use of Lent to prepare ourselves to receive our risen Lord into our healed and mended hearts, minds and souls.

So ask yourselves – what am I doing in Lent to uncover and reveal my true state of spiritual health? What additional check am I making to allow and enable restoration and recuperation for my soul? What best-health-practice am I taking on to help strengthen my faith and my standing with my Lord? What am I doing to help others in their battles of faith?

Lent is not about sackcloth and ashes but rather it is about preparing for the greatest day in our church calendar – the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. A time of great rejoicing. A time when we want to shout to the world as the Samaritan towns people did, -

“Now we no longer believe because of what you have told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.”

Bidding Prayers

1.      That we make and take time to reflect on where we are at with our faith and what exactly we need to become bolder and stronger in our profession of that faith. Lord in your mercy

2.      That we work harder to welcome others that we meet and to let them see God’s love in us and through us by our lived example. Lord in your mercy

3.      That we work to create a world in which all peoples feel welcomed and respected and are given the chance to grow and to shine. Lord in your mercy

4.      That all countries that are at war or conflict can come together to talk and act as brothers and sisters in peace, harmony and tolerance. Lord in your mercy

5.      That those people from within our parish who are suffering in body, mind or spirit can be uplifted and supported by our prayers and our actions. Lord in your mercy

6.      That those who have died recently can find eternal rest with the Lord. We remember especially Frank Morris and Peggy McAllister whose funerals are in the coming weeks. Lord in your mercy

7.      That Mary our Mother and the Mother of the church will join her prayers with ours as we now pray together, Hail Mary, full of grace. . . .