For the past year and a half I have visited all of our 22 Catholic high schools and I am now nearly half way through a second series of these visits. As I have shared with many people, I have found these visits, especially with the students, to be encouraging and hopeful signs for a vibrant Catholic Church going forward.
Customarily, I ask the young people if they have any advice for me as the new bishop of Cleveland. Some may think this a dangerous question to ask in as much as one may hear something that one wishes was not said. And yet, I have never been disappointed in what I have heard from any of our young people.
For example, the very first time I asked this question from a group of students back in May 2006 one young man said to me, “Bishop, you need to treat everyone as if they were your best friends, no favorites.” Just last week at one such visit I asked another group of young people for advice and a young lady said, “Bishop, you need to do as Jesus did.” In this latest piece of advice I was struck by the clarity of this young person’s advice: be faithful to the life and ministry of Jesus. I find oftentimes we hear in the voices of the young the wisdom and the challenge of the Lord himself.
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading we hear the story of the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. As challenging as that historical encounter was for all of the parties involved, it presents a challenge for all of who are expected to do as Jesus did. Let me reflect upon this for a moment.
Jesus is sitting alone at the well at midday, tired from the journey. The Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water and Jesus engages her in conversation. We know that in the first century it was quite unacceptable for a Jewish man to interact with a Samaritan and with a woman. Nonetheless, Jesus chooses to speak. More than just speaking, Jesus showed the woman respect and engaged her in a conversation for he had something to offer her: living water which she does not have.
Jesus sensitively leads her into a discussion that helps her to realize the importance of spiritual realities, water that leads to everlasting life, and that he is genuinely concerned for her true well-being. This sensitive and faith-filled encounter not only is an incident for her good, but one intended for others as she in turn became a messenger of the encounter with life, mercy, and love.
Jesus’ gesture of faith and love toward the Samaritan woman is powerfully noticed by the disciples when they returned from their errands for they were amazed. Jesus assures his disciples that the encounter at the well was not inappropriate, but an important expression of his mission to call all people to the fullness of life and in turn to follow him.
As we make our Lenten journey, we are challenged not only to the disciplines of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and charity, but also to spiritual renewal of our hearts and minds. Our greatest goal is to put on the mind of Christ himself–as the high school student reminded me–to do what Jesus did. This Sunday’s Gospel and that student’s advice to a new bishop remind all of us that basic human kindness and respect are at the heart of our Lenten renewal and our Christian vocation.
Jesus commands us to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. This Lenten challenge is an invitation to transcend what divides us, to overcome the memory of past injury, to repair the breach that exists in our relationships with individuals and entire communities, by extending ourselves for the true good of each person by being good to others, one individual at a time. This is the path to a transformed life for it is what Jesus did. It is what Jesus continually strives to do for each one of us here and now extending himself for our sakes.
Every one of us needs to ask the question as to what we ought to be doing as the followers of Christ. The answer that I received is one that we must personally embrace and share with all the Christian faithful of Northeast Ohio: let us do what Jesus did, that is, love one another. May this Lenten time be rich in grace and blessings so that you and I will be faithful in doing what Jesus would do.