“When I
prove my holiness among you, I will gather you from all the foreign lands; and
I will pour clean water upon you and cleanse you from all your impurities, and
I will give you a new spirit, says the Lord.”
- Entrance
Antiphons for the Third Sunday of Lent
We have
mentioned that the Season of Lent is concerned with three things, the upcoming
Passion of our Redeemer, our own reconciliation with God and conversion of
heart (previously symbolized by the Penance and Reconciliation of the Public
Penitents), and the Elect to be baptized at the Easter Vigil, as well as the
renewal of our own baptismal promises. It is especially the third of these
things that today and the following two Sundays of Lent will be concerned with,
whereas the previous two Sundays were concerned with the second, and the last
Sunday will be focused upon the first.
These three
Sundays are traditionally the days upon which the Scrutinies are celebrated.
These are some of the final prayers and preparations of the Elect. When
celebrated during Mass the readings are always taken from Year A, or even if
the Scrutinies are not celebrated during Mass, the readings may still be taken
from Year A, and these readings focus especially on Baptism. Therefore, the
Gospel for this Sunday may either be from Year B (the current Liturgical Year’s
readings), in which case the Gospel is Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple and His
declaration of Himself as the New Temple, or from Year A, in which case it is the
account of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well.
For our
purposes, we shall stick to what seems to be the overall idea for the Liturgy
and focus upon Baptism, especially the upcoming Baptism of the Elect.
Therefore, we will devote ourselves exclusively to the readings from Year A,
and the corresponding other propers, where applicable.
Let us look,
then, first at the second antiphon, for it is easy to see how it relates to
Baptism, for through one Baptism, we though, many different peoples, nations,
and tongues, are brought into the One Church of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). In
order to gain the full import of the meaning of this antiphon, however, we must
correlate it with the Gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well, for this
provides us with an implementation of the meaning.
We shall
begin then, with a brief recap of what occurs within this Gospel. Jesus, separated
from the disciples, rests at Jacob’s well, apart from the city of Sy’char of
Samaria, at noontime, and while he was resting there, a woman comes to draw
water. It is important to note the time and location, for midafternoon is not
the normal time a person would come to a draw water from a well, since it
requires walking back to the city with a heavy bucket in the heat of the day.
The only person who would do such a thing is one who was forced to, i.e. a
social outcast.
Jesus, would
also note this feature, yet He enters into conversation with her anyway and
even goes so far as to ask her for a drink. Here we may note two important
features, one given us by John. The first is that the Jews would have nothing
in common with Samaritans, yet Jesus asks to use her cup to drink from, a very
personal thing, even in today’s society. Secondly, Jesus would know there is
something unrespectable about this woman; why is she out drawing water in the
middle of the day when it’s hot? Nonetheless, He still speaks to her and asks a
very personal favor, for He has nothing to drink from or draw water with, as
the Samaritan woman notices.
Herein we
may pause to realize that Jesus wishes to enter into communion with her, just
as He does for each one of us, no matter where we are at in our lives. Jesus
loves us! This is directly related to His holiness, for part of holiness is
love. The holier a person is, the more filled with love they are, love for God
and love for neighbor, and this brings us back to the antiphon, which begins, “When
I prove my holiness among you, I will gather you from all the foreign lands.”
Jesus loves
us, but before He can gather us to Himself, we must experience that love; we
must know His holiness. It must be
proved to us, not just intellectually, but experientially. And this is where we
shall return to the Samaritan woman.
Our Lord
immediately answers the Samaritan woman’s retort of, “Why do you ask me for a
drink,” with a revelatory remark. He says He has living water which may grant
eternal life, which she needs but ask for, and He will give. Nevertheless, when
she asks for it, He immediately changes the subject, and tells her to go call
her husband. Why this apparent contradiction in what Jesus promises and does?
Let us first
consider what this living water is, and we must conclude it can only be sanctifying
grace itself, for by grace we are brought to eternal life. We may also say that
grace is holiness, for it will bestow holiness, and consequently from what we
have said, grace is then love. What Jesus is here saying is, “If you but ask me
for love, I will give it, but you must first realize that I have it to give;
you must first experience it so that
you may know what you ask for.” This is mirrored in the Rite of Baptism, which
begins with “What do you ask of the Church of God?” and the response is, “Faith.”
Through the theological virtue of faith, we are led to a deeper love of God,
but before we can even ask for faith, we must have something we desire,
something we love, and that is God.
Love then is
the very foundation of all the virtues, as St. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians
13, but for us to love God, our hearts must be open to first experience His
love, and this is what Jesus does with the Samaritan woman. She cannot receive
the living water she asks for, because she doesn’t really ask for it. Her heart
is not open to it; she has closed herself off to true love, the love of God.
This is closed heart is what prompts Jesus to tell her to call her husband, for
as is quickly revealed, she has gone through five husbands and she’s not even
married to the man she’s currently with. Something has her heart completely
closed off to love.
Yet Christ crashes into her world of self! This world that she is living in where she seeks love in many different husbands finding nothing, is completely shattered by the revelation of Jesus Christ when He shows her that He's interested in her. He enters into her life, and she perceives Him for Who He is, not only a prophet, but the Messiah, the Christ. It is then, that Jesus gives her a direct answer of, "I am." He had to first prove the love of God for her, that God was concerned even with her in her sinful state and her entire people, nay all peoples, not just the Jews.
What may we derive now from this in relation to the antiphon we are meditating upon? As we mentioned above, due to God's holiness He loves us most profoundly, nonetheless this love must be experienced before we can be gathered to Him. When we see the Elect in the church, we must ask ourselves if we have truly contributed to helping others experience the love of God, for this is the ordinary means through which Christ shows Himself to the world, i.e. through His Body the Church - us.
We must be invitations to others of God's saving love, for it is by our witness that Jesus will gather people, "from all the foreign lands," for foreign lands do not necessarily have to be diverse cultures or ethnicity. They can simply be people living a life not of the Gospel; those who have estranged themselves from Christ and His Church are living in "a foreign land," just as the Prodigal Son was living in a foreign land when he squandered his inheritance (Luke 15:13).
This Lent, then, let us make it our intention to especially live the life the Gospel calls us to live, but let us try to go out of our way to invite others to be a part of our Christian lives. This may take many forms, it may be as direct as asking them if they have ever considered joining the Church or coming back to Mass (this must be done prudently, of course), but more often it may be as simple as telling someone they're in your prayers, or that you'll have Mass offered for them, or even the simple invitation to pray with you personally. This may be the simple thing needed to open their hearts to the Gospel; this may be the experience with the spirit of Christ which will open them to desire the Spirit in their lives, the second part of the antiphon we will now consider.
After Christ has proved His holiness among us, i.e. after we have experienced His love, He will gather us to Himself, and this will be done through Baptism, which cleanses us of our former lives and makes us live for Christ and in His Church. The second half of the antiphon is an obvious reference to Baptism, the Baptism the Elect are preparing for, and the Baptism we are preparing to celebrate by renewing our Baptismal Promises.
Now as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, Baptism:
"By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam's sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God (1263)."
This is the wiping away of all impurities spoken of in the Entrance Antiphon, done by the washing with clean water, i.e. the grace which comes to us through the physical water of Baptism. In order to renew our Baptismal Promises, then, and to be made new through the celebration of the Paschal Mystery we should do as much as we can to wipe away our personal sins and the punishment due to them (Original Sin is forever wiped away in Baptism). This is done primarily through our works of penance (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving) and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Pope Francis, in his Easter Urbi et Orbi Message of 2013, said:
"God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones . . . Let us be renewed by God's mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish."
The Lord wants to water us with His love, mercy, and holiness. He wants to pour sanctifying grace into our hearts, and this He does in a special way during the Sacrament of Penance, for once again the Catechism teaches us that, "the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ (1469)," and, "the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true 'spiritual resurrection,' restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God (1468)." In order to experience these effects of the Sacrament fully, we should now turn our attention to the first Entrance Antiphon for today.
We must keep our eyes, and thus our hearts, always fixed upon the Lord. The eyes, both of the body and of the mind, will be subservient to the will, which will follow after what it loves. Let us recall what occured to Peter when he took his eyes off of Jesus while walking across the water; he began to sink (Matthew 14:28-32)! Even in spite of this, though the Lord rescued him, for as the antiphon says, "he rescues my feet from the snare."
God will never forget or abandon us. "'Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?' Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you (Isaiah 49:15)." How difficult it is for the woman to forget the child she is nursing! We cannot imagine such a thing, for she would be constantly reminded of the child through their relationship of nursing. But God's love goes even beyond this! Indeed, His love goes all the way to the Cross. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15)."
For the remainder of this Lent then, let us keep our eyes firmly established on the Cross; let us realize our own sinfulness and misery, how "poor and alone," we are, and then we may allow the love of Christ to enter into our hearts, and to transform our lives. Then, when we renew our Baptismal Promises this Easter, we shall be filled with the living water of Christ which, "will become in [us] a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14)," and we shall be given the new spirit and heart of the Lord (Ezekiel 36:26-27)!
Yet Christ crashes into her world of self! This world that she is living in where she seeks love in many different husbands finding nothing, is completely shattered by the revelation of Jesus Christ when He shows her that He's interested in her. He enters into her life, and she perceives Him for Who He is, not only a prophet, but the Messiah, the Christ. It is then, that Jesus gives her a direct answer of, "I am." He had to first prove the love of God for her, that God was concerned even with her in her sinful state and her entire people, nay all peoples, not just the Jews.
What may we derive now from this in relation to the antiphon we are meditating upon? As we mentioned above, due to God's holiness He loves us most profoundly, nonetheless this love must be experienced before we can be gathered to Him. When we see the Elect in the church, we must ask ourselves if we have truly contributed to helping others experience the love of God, for this is the ordinary means through which Christ shows Himself to the world, i.e. through His Body the Church - us.
We must be invitations to others of God's saving love, for it is by our witness that Jesus will gather people, "from all the foreign lands," for foreign lands do not necessarily have to be diverse cultures or ethnicity. They can simply be people living a life not of the Gospel; those who have estranged themselves from Christ and His Church are living in "a foreign land," just as the Prodigal Son was living in a foreign land when he squandered his inheritance (Luke 15:13).
This Lent, then, let us make it our intention to especially live the life the Gospel calls us to live, but let us try to go out of our way to invite others to be a part of our Christian lives. This may take many forms, it may be as direct as asking them if they have ever considered joining the Church or coming back to Mass (this must be done prudently, of course), but more often it may be as simple as telling someone they're in your prayers, or that you'll have Mass offered for them, or even the simple invitation to pray with you personally. This may be the simple thing needed to open their hearts to the Gospel; this may be the experience with the spirit of Christ which will open them to desire the Spirit in their lives, the second part of the antiphon we will now consider.
After Christ has proved His holiness among us, i.e. after we have experienced His love, He will gather us to Himself, and this will be done through Baptism, which cleanses us of our former lives and makes us live for Christ and in His Church. The second half of the antiphon is an obvious reference to Baptism, the Baptism the Elect are preparing for, and the Baptism we are preparing to celebrate by renewing our Baptismal Promises.
Now as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, Baptism:
"By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam's sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God (1263)."
This is the wiping away of all impurities spoken of in the Entrance Antiphon, done by the washing with clean water, i.e. the grace which comes to us through the physical water of Baptism. In order to renew our Baptismal Promises, then, and to be made new through the celebration of the Paschal Mystery we should do as much as we can to wipe away our personal sins and the punishment due to them (Original Sin is forever wiped away in Baptism). This is done primarily through our works of penance (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving) and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Pope Francis, in his Easter Urbi et Orbi Message of 2013, said:
"God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones . . . Let us be renewed by God's mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish."
The Lord wants to water us with His love, mercy, and holiness. He wants to pour sanctifying grace into our hearts, and this He does in a special way during the Sacrament of Penance, for once again the Catechism teaches us that, "the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ (1469)," and, "the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true 'spiritual resurrection,' restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God (1468)." In order to experience these effects of the Sacrament fully, we should now turn our attention to the first Entrance Antiphon for today.
We must keep our eyes, and thus our hearts, always fixed upon the Lord. The eyes, both of the body and of the mind, will be subservient to the will, which will follow after what it loves. Let us recall what occured to Peter when he took his eyes off of Jesus while walking across the water; he began to sink (Matthew 14:28-32)! Even in spite of this, though the Lord rescued him, for as the antiphon says, "he rescues my feet from the snare."
God will never forget or abandon us. "'Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?' Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you (Isaiah 49:15)." How difficult it is for the woman to forget the child she is nursing! We cannot imagine such a thing, for she would be constantly reminded of the child through their relationship of nursing. But God's love goes even beyond this! Indeed, His love goes all the way to the Cross. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15)."
For the remainder of this Lent then, let us keep our eyes firmly established on the Cross; let us realize our own sinfulness and misery, how "poor and alone," we are, and then we may allow the love of Christ to enter into our hearts, and to transform our lives. Then, when we renew our Baptismal Promises this Easter, we shall be filled with the living water of Christ which, "will become in [us] a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14)," and we shall be given the new spirit and heart of the Lord (Ezekiel 36:26-27)!
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