This Sunday, March 12th, the 3rd Sunday of Lent, we receive the gospel account of the woman at the well and her life-changing encounter with Jesus. Imagine just going for a bucket of water, but instead meeting Jesus, and everything changes! She even leaves her bucket behind. That is the power of the LORD.
This Sunday, March 12th, time changes! Daylight Savings Time begins, so we “spring forward” one hour. Also, this week students and teachers experience a change— Spring Break—for our Catholic Schools and perhaps many other schools as well. On Friday, March 17th everyone changes their ethnicity to become Irish…because it is the feast day for St. Patrick. March 19th is ordinarily the Solemnity of St. Joseph, but since it falls on Sunday, the church changes it to Monday, March 20th. The wonderful change of a Solemnity is that it is a Church FEAST day, not a fast day, so if you gave something up (that is good) you can feast upon it that day. This is also true for another upcoming solemnity, the Annunciation on Saturday, March 25th. The Annunciation is about change, because Mary conceives Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. God takes on flesh! What a change for us! God becomes one of us!
The Sacrament of change is really the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation/
We need the change that Jesus brings. Our responsorial psalm response from Psalm 95 should be our prayer this week: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” May the Lord and His Grace truly change our hearts.
Peace,
Fr. Greg