When a priest is called to administer the “last rites” to somebody before they die, they are being called on to do a few things.  In the ideal circumstances, the person who is dying would go to Confession, receive the Anointing of the Sick, receive Holy Communion as Viaticum, and receive the plenary indulgence known as the Apostolic Pardon.  More often than not, however, the person is no longer conscious and unable to confess their sins or receive Holy Communion, so we provide as much as we can for the person, namely Anointing and the Apostolic Pardon.  

After administering these rites, the priest will then pray from a selection of prayers from the Order of the Commendation of the Dying.  I usually choose to recite Psalm 23, one of the most recognized and most consoling passages in all of Sacred Scripture.  It offers an expression of hope that for those who have followed the Good Shepherd throughout life, He will “give them repose.”  Even when we find ourselves in the shadow of death in our final moments, we “fear no evil” for the Good Shepherd is “at our side.”  When we reach the end of our earthly journey, we shall “dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days unending.”  It is my hope that the one who is dying will hear those words and be encouraged, but I also hope that those who are standing by, praying with and for their loved one, hear them as well and are strengthened even as they mourn.

The Church gives this Psalm 23 for our Responsorial Psalm today, and as we hear it, our hearts should be comforted and we can rejoice in the salvation that Christ, our Good Shepherd, has won for us through His Passion, death, and Resurrection.  Through Baptism, we pass through the gate that grants us access to a share in His life, a share that promises us a place in His house in Heaven one day.  With this imagery in mind, I have chosen the following invocation of the Litany of the Sacred Heart for this week:

Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of Heaven, have mercy on us.

One of my favorite prayers is the Anima Christi, which is Latin for Soul of Christ.  It is a short but powerful prayer, and one that the faithful often pray after receiving Holy Communion.  When considering the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I often consider the following line of the Anima Christi:  within your wounds, hide me.  As we look at the image of the Sacred Heart, we see the wound that came from the thrust of the soldier’s lance.  That wound serves as an invitation from Jesus to us to come to Him, to pass through the gate that has been opened in His heart, to take refuge there, and to experience the protection of His love and mercy.  Whenever we find ourselves in the dark valleys of life, we have access to the Heart of our Good Shepherd.  He will ever be at our side and He will give us courage to persevere, trusting that by staying close to Him, He will deliver us safely to the “house of the Lord” where we will be rest in peace, and where we will be able to see Him face to face for eternity.

On the first Sunday of Lent, the diocese always celebrates the Rite of Election, a ceremony in which those preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil come to the Cathedral to be received by the Bishop and given a new designation as the Elect, those who have been chosen by the Church to receive these sacraments.  I am pleased to report that we have five members of the Elect who will be baptized here at the Easter Vigil.  Looking through our parish Book of the Elect which lists the names of those to be baptized each year, the last time we had this number was ten years ago!  This is a great sign of hope for our parish and for the diocese, which has experienced increased numbers over the past two years.  Please keep our Elect in your prayers: Tony, Mike, Reece, Grace, and Ava.

An important part of Lent for these Elect are the three Scrutinies that take place on the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th Sundays of Lent.  The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults describes these three Scrutinies in this way:

In order to awaken a desire for purification and redemption by Christ, three Scrutinies take place, both to teach the elect gradually about that mystery of sin from which the whole world and every person longs to be rescued in order to be saved from its present and future consequences, and to fill their spirit with the sense of Christ the Redeemer, who is living water (cf. the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman), light (cf. the Gospel of the Man Born Blind), resurrection and life (cf. the Gospel of the Raising of Lazarus).  From the first to the final Scrutiny, they must grow in the awareness of sin and in the desire for salvation. (OCIA, 143)

Given that the first Scrutiny that takes place this weekend points to Jesus as the Living Water, the invocation that I have chosen for this week is the following:

Heart of Jesus, fountain of life and holiness, have mercy on us.

Throughout the dialog with the Samaritan Woman, Jesus is leading her toward a deeper understanding of what He desires to offer to her, not just physical water that will temporarily satisfy her thirst, but a water that will well up to Eternal Life. (cf. Jn 4:13-14) There is an often-overlooked detail in the account that is worth mentioning.  After Jesus offers this living water to her, she departs and we read: “The woman left her water jar.” (Jn 4:28) St. Thomas Aquinas comments on this detail in the following way:

The water jar is a symbol of worldly desires, by which men draw out pleasures from the depths of darkness—symbolized by the well—i.e., from a worldly manner of life. Accordingly, those who abandon worldly desires for the sake of God leave their water jars (Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John: Chapters 1–21, trans. Fabian Larcher and James A. Weisheipl, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 229)

This is what our Elect are being invited to at the Easter Vigil.  As they receive Jesus in the fount of Baptism, they receive a new life in which they are cleansed of their sins, characterized by worldly desires, and they are equipped to live new lives of holiness as they pursue the life of the Gospel and the goods of Eternal Life.

May our Lenten journey also be a time in which we recall our Baptism and the invitation from Christ to continue to turn to His Heart, the fountain of life, to help us in our daily struggle to turn away from worldly desires and recommit to living lives of holiness.

Jesus reigns from his throne in heaven and governs his Church, not in some far-off and distant way, but in a very intimate and loving way. We can speak to him, and he can speak to us, and he does so powerfully and consistently through the scriptures and the writings of the saints. In these sources, we find the voice of God in a clear and trustworthy way. 

Additionally, however, Jesus speaks to us in the silence of prayer, and in the voice of our conscience moving us to actions of love. It is this latter presence of Christ’s voice in quiet prayer that many in our Church today fail to accept. I believe this comes from a profound lack of faith in the present, truly human, and actual life of the risen and ascended Jesus, who is still alive and has been for nearly two-thousand years after his death and resurrection. St. Francis had faith that he served a very much alive Lord, who he could follow and serve just as he could follow and serve an earthly Lord as a knight. 

Before recording the major call of Francis, which he received in the small and broken-down church of San Damiano, which I will reflect on next week, St. Bonaventure writes a short little poem about the source of Francis’ wisdom. In this small poem, we read this brief but meaningful sentence:

“Francis, the servant of the Most High, had no other teacher in these matters except Christ.” 

(Quoted from The Life of St. Francis, Translated by Ewert Cousin) 

What Bonaventure is referring to by “these matters” is St. Francis’ radical life of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, poverty, and desire to live like Christ in the Gospel. Francis listened deeply to the Word of God in the Gospels. It was there that he knew the voice of Christ still lived, and it is there that Francis constantly looked for guidance. He knew also, however, that Jesus could speak to him and teach him in his own heart. Thus, we see that he heard and trusted the voice of Christ in his dream calling him to be a knight, and the voice of Christ in his heart leading him to embrace and kiss the leper. 

Francis believed Jesus was still alive and able to speak to him. 

This sounds so simple, almost too simple even to write down. How many of us, though, at one time or other in our lives, have treated Jesus more as simply a character in a story from the past, more as a historical figure like George Washington or Buddha, than as a currently alive and reigning man (who is God) who wants to have a real relationship with us? He wants us to speak to him and to listen to him.

Admittedly, he speaks differently than the friend sitting next to us. We talk to Jesus in our hearts and he speaks to us there, most often in silence and most often without words (though to some saints, he has even spoken out loud in words their ears can hear). But is this form of silent communication therefore less real? No, not at all. It just requires a form of listening that we have to practice. 

Jesus is alive. He is a moment’s consideration away. He hears our every thought and when we give him our attention, he will give us his. He wants to teach us to do his will. He may not speak in a way we can understand right away, but in time our understanding will grow. Through the intercession of St. Francis, may our faith be strengthened to live with, speak to, learn from, and serve the living Lord Jesus, our high priest and king. Amen!