Today our 5 catechumens, now “elect”, take another step towards baptism. It’s called the First Scrutiny, with two more to come. They receive the Creed, the profession of faith, and they’re prayed for – that their sins be forgiven, their hearts increasingly purified, and inner wounds be healed. And so they will come, free in heart, to the living water promised by Jesus. It’s a powerful moment, with powerful prayers.
Here is the Church as mother. When we all recite the Creed in a moment, we will be handing over our faith and doing so on behalf of the whole Church. We are all of us praying for our catechumens’ spiritual growth. It’s not a spectator sport. It’s our opportunity to pass on spiritual life.
How seriously and with what hope, the Church takes this passage from unbelief to faith!
This year is a Jubilee Year, blessed by the phrase “pilgrims of hope” – characterising us all, this side of heaven:
catechumens,
those already baptised seeking full belonging to the Church,
those approaching confirmation,
those of us already initiated who have been at it longer, but still with travelling to do,
those moved to return after a time away from the practice of the faith,
those coming to the end of their lives,
those too still being purified after this life.
A great company, journeying together behind the Cross of Christ.
It can be clarifying, unifying, for our self-understanding to see things like this. Nothing is as precious as a human life with its arc from birth to death. And at its heart, nothing as precious as this personal pilgrimage, this search for the wellspring of life, for the water the Lord alone gives. Yes, we can get tangled in the bushes or break an ankle in the pothole; we can go backwards as when we commit a mortal sin, or sideways as when we commit a venial sin. But always there’s the call of God to find the road again and carry on. Pilgrims of hope.
In the 1st reading, the Israelites are on their journey to the mountain of God. They lose hope and rebel. But they’re brought back, refreshed by water from the rock. In the 2nd reading, the canvas is wider: the human race is off course but thanks to faith and grace, to Christ and the Spirit, we now have access, a way, to the Father. We have hope, a hope that doesn’t disappoint. And then comes the Samaritan woman. What a character! She of the colourful past, 5 husbands and now someone who isn’t, drawing water when no-one else is, living on the fringe. How far the Lord takes her in one conversation – Alpha, RCIA in one afternoon! At the beginning, she’s just thinking of ordinary water; by the end she’s asking for the Holy Spirit. At the beginning, she calls the strange man at the well “a Jew”; by the end, she thinks she’s met the Saviour of the world. At the beginning, she’s caught up in false worship; by the end she’s on the way to worship in spirit and in truth. At the beginning, she’s having to hide from other people; by the end she’s leading her community to Christ. Everything is coming right. The Lord brings her to the truth of herself (“he told me all that I ever did”), and to the truth of himself: the Messiah and the Husband of her soul. She’s a reason for hope for all of us, stirring us to seek the living water that flows from the pierced side of Christ the rock, the source of true life.
So, brothers and sisters, we go forward together on our Lenten journey.
St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen, 23 March 2025
