Shrine of St. Francis Xavier & Our Lady of Guadalupe at 250 Brown Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507 US - March, 2002:  "A Lenten Observance Checklist"

For example, the first weekend of March (the Third Sunday of Lent) brings us a remarkable Gospel story. Jesus breaks several taboos by speaking in public to a Samaritan woman and asking her for water. That simply "wasn’t done" by a respectable Jewish rabbi. Even more remarkable, the woman becomes an instant evangelizer. She rushes off to tell her fellow citizens about this man who has told her all she ever did. Most remarkable of all, a sizeable number of people from that Samaritan town come out to meet Jesus and come to believe in Him. We don’t often recall that Jesus had Samaritan followers during His public life.

One moral of this remarkable story is that the most basic way of evangelizing, of telling people the Good News of Jesus, is simply to bring them into contact with Jesus Himself. We are just messengers, conduits of the Gospel. Once we have brought people to Jesus, we do well to fade into the background and let Him work His wonders of grace. If He needs further help from us, He will let us know.

We are all called to this mission by our baptism. Lay ecclesial ministers, featured in today’s Connector insert, are designated to do it in particular ways. They may do it as directors of youth ministry or religious education, or as parish pastoral associates or coordinators of parish ministries, or in a variety of other ways. The number of such ministries continues to grow. This is one wonderful result of the Second Vatican Council.

I recently came across a list of the qualities that directors of ministry training are looking for in those who hope to become lay ecclesial ministers. The most important qualities are the following: a commitment to the person of Jesus Christ, a sense of mission, a sense of community, a commitment to prayer, a desire to serve others, an openness to on-going conversion, and an openness to life-long formation.

I certainly agree that candidates for lay ecclesial ministry should be growing steadily in those qualities. But I think that that list could make a good examination of conscience for everyone who is baptized (and even more for the confirmed). It certainly could be the framework for a Lenten "status-check".

Above all, of course, it is the commitment to the person of Jesus Christ which is fundamental to everything else. It is the personal commitment to Jesus that underlies our willingness, our eagerness, to make Him known. We want to share with as many others as possible the Good News that makes such a difference in our own lives. May Lent 2002 deepen that commitment still further, and prepare us to live it more fully during the Easter season and on into Ordinary Time.