Review: Lenten Companion

 

The Ascension Press book, Lenten Companion Year A, is daily reflections on the Sunday Gospels, Thursday through Wednesday reflections on the Sunday Gospel in between.  Each day looks at the Gospel from a different angle, and is headed by a one-word description of that day’s focus, like: Mercy, Love, Forgiveness, or Weakness.

In my view, the value of the daily meditations varied widely, from boring to insightful.  Perhaps this is a reflection of my mood or attention, as I was not too diligent in choosing the times to read the reflections, although most days that was in the Adoration Chapel.  The book is meant to be used by a study group, which meets weekly.  Among other things, my study group was requested to pray on the daily one-word descriptions and to see if they could be fit into a sentence or two describing the Gospel’s impact on us.

Today’s Gospel was on the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at the well (Jn 4:5-42).  Some of the reflections and supplemental readings on this particular Gospel resonated with me:

“Jesus Christ gave her hope.  She encountered love, mercy.  Jesus is pure love, pure mercy.  Every page of the Gospel is marked by this imperative of love that loves to the point of forgiveness.  ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Lk 23-34)’”

“Sometimes when we look that deep within, we hear ‘excuses’ for why Jesus cannot forgive, as: ‘I can’t forget.’ ‘I haven’t done enough.’ ‘I don’t deserve mercy.’”

“Those things may be true.  Maybe you can’t forget, but you do not have to.  You can never do enough, and you do not have to.  And no, you do not deserve God’s mercy…. ‘None of us has the right to make forgiveness conditional.’  In fact, when we make God’s love conditional, we deny who God really is and incarcerate ourselves in a self-imposed prison.  This does not mean that His mercy does not require a response; it simply means that His mercy is not predicated on our worthiness.  Here is the good news, though:

They only call it mercy when you do not deserve it.”

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From another Lenten meditation book I am using this year, 40 Days to Peace and Union with God, by Fr. John Bartunek, I found these reflections on this same gospel.  The first is from the point of view of the sinful Samaritan woman at the well:

“I didn’t understand everything He told me, but I understood that He knew me --- He knew me through and through, and He still cared about me…. It was as if a door had opened in my life, where before there had only been a thick, dark, high wall protecting my broken heart.  He freed me…. Before that day, I was just surviving; after that encounter with His words, His glance, His presence --- from then on, I began to live.”

“Jesus, … I want to live closer to You.  I want to lead others to Your heart…. I believe in You, Lord, and in Your eagerness to save souls…. And I believe that You can save them, … just as you have turned my life around.”

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The supplemental readings for the Lenten Companion book included these words from Romans 8:14-39:

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God… we only suffer with Him so that we may be glorified with Him… The sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared to the glory to be revealed to us.”

“Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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The single words describing each day’s reflection this week in the reflections contained in the Lenten Companion book were:
PURSUE  HIDE  SEARCH  THIRSTY  PERSON  HOPE  MERCY.

 

Reflecting on them and the Samaritan woman, and then on my life, this is what I wrote:

So many years I was thirsty, and I searched for hope, yet I did not realize that at the same time He was pursuing me.  I did not realize I was hiding from the true person I was, and it was His mercy that opened my heart, and then I knew Him and His love, and that I need search no more.