"Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty." Pope Benedict XVI in his message for Lent 2006 reminds us that during Lent we are to walk with Jesus on his way to the cross. As our Lord walks with us on the way, he urges us to come to know him and ourselves better.
We have a wonderful example of this "walking with Jesus" in the fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel that is read on the Third Sunday of Lent at Masses for the First Scrutiny of the "Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults." When Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus reveals himself to her, little by little.
Jesus begins by engaging the woman within the context of her real life situation. Jesus knows all about her. Because of her broken life, she is an outcast of sorts and lonely. She comes to the well at noon when it is hot and when she would not run into others who would treat her scornfully. Jesus knows that the Samaritan woman needs something that only he can give her, his grace, forgiveness and new life.
Jesus then asks the woman to do him a favor, not the other way around. If he were to have done something for her, she might have felt inferior or under obligation to him. With Jesus' request, the woman responds somewhat suspiciously and formally. She does not even address Jesus using a title. She only asks: "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jn 4:9)
The woman knew that Jesus was doing two things against the norm. First, he was speaking to a woman in public. In those times, a man was not to greet a woman in the street, not even his own wife or daughter. Second, he was speaking to a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans did not associate with each other. Jesus often went against the norm. As St. Augustine says: "[The Samaritan woman] was astonished that a Jew should ask her for a drink of water, a thing that Jews would not do. But the one who was asking for a drink of water was thirsting for her faith."
Jesus continues the conversation, speaking of "living water." At this point, the woman's curiosity is peaked and she addresses Jesus with more respect. She calls him "sir." She says: "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where can you get this living water?" (Jn 4:11) When Jesus tells her that he can give her water that leads to eternal life, the woman bursts out: "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." (Jn 4:15) Finally, the Samaritan woman goes beyond calling Jesus "sir": "I can see that you are a prophet." (Jn 4:19)
With this exchange, we see a progression in the woman's understanding of Jesus. This progression towards a deeper understanding of the person of Jesus is similar to that progression that, God willing, each of us makes in our pilgrimage of faith, and, in a more intense way, during Lent. We see how Jesus is able to draw the woman deeper into the mystery of who he is, because she responds to Jesus in prayer, confession and adoration. Her conversation with Jesus is a prayer. Her confession to Jesus that she is not married resembles the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance. Her exclamation that "he told me everything I have done" is an act of adoration.
In our life of faith, each of us grows in our understanding of who Jesus is. Hopefully, we acquire a personal relationship with Jesus. He is God, but also our brother and friend. Progressively, if we allow it, Jesus reveals himself to us through the Scriptures, the sacraments and the graced events and relationships of our lives.
However, Jesus also wants to reveal to us who we ourselves are and who we are becoming. This is our second task during Lent: to recognize more clearly that we are in need of God's grace and that with the help of his grace, we can become ever more the holy sons and daughters of God that he calls us to be and that we already radically are since our rebirth in the waters of baptism. To become more fully what we are is our Lenten program.
We see this happening in the Gospel. The Samaritan woman is skeptical at first. But then Jesus begins to tell her about herself. He tells her things that even she was not able to face honestly. That is what Lent is all about. It is a journey towards greater truth, greater authenticity, greater conformity to our baptismal life. And we do this by praying, conversing with God honestly like the Samaritan woman does with Jesus; by going to Confession; by accompanying Jesus in the stations of the Cross; by joining him in the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist; by spending time with him before the Blessed Sacrament. In this way, we grow in our knowledge of Jesus, but also we grow in knowledge of who we are, and who we are becoming.
We beseech God to pour out his love into our hearts and to purify our minds and spirits so that we may know both Jesus and ourselves better, and accompany Him closely in our Savior's passion, death and resurrection to new life.
