Allocution , March 12, 2023, Third Sunday of Lent

Good morning, dear radio listeners. Monsignor Ramón Suárez Polcari speaks to you again. Our pastor, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad, will not be able to be with you today, as he is meeting with his brothers, Bishops from all of Cuba, in the National Shrine and Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre. For this reason, he asked me to lead you in reflection on the Third Sunday of Lent. Following its good custom, before beginning the reflection, I want to thank everyone who makes this Sunday radio meeting of reflection and prayer possible.

On the Third Sunday of Lent, in all the Catholic Churches of the world, the gospel according to Saint John chapters 4, verses 5 to 42 is heard.

(Gospel)

Cycle A that we are using in this liturgical year, collects the ancient tradition that accompanied the catechumen on his journey towards baptism and his incorporation into Christ in the community celebration of Easter.

In today’s gospel known as that of the Samaritan woman, we find a rich doctrinal teaching, applied not only to catechumens but also to all disciples of Christ in the Church.
The Church, like Israel of Jesus, makes a long journey in search of the water that saves it, as we heard in the first reading. Jesus tells her, like the Samaritan woman, that only He has water capable of quenching all thirst. This water is his own Holy Spirit, as we read in the second reading, the Letter to the Romans.

For many centuries, on this Sunday, the Church begins the steps prior to the celebration of the baptism of the Easter Vigil. It is known as the first scrutiny, which is a series of questions about the catechumen’s intentions on his way to baptism, and he is given the apostles’ symbol or Creed.

I invite you to find everything that Christ teaches us today, and for that we will enter the gospel narrative.

Jesus walks with the apostles towards Galilee from Judea. The most direct route was to cross Samaria, a territory that the Jews avoided because they considered the Samaritans to be half-pagan people and separated from the true doctrine. He arrives at a town of Sychar or Shechem as it was formerly called, where Jacob’s well is still located, deep and with clean water, and he sits down to wait for his disciples to return with the food they went to buy. In that interval, a Samaritan woman arrives, the Lord has the initiative… Give me a drink! The woman is surprised that this Jew speaks to her and asks for water, and here the main dialogue begins… If you only knew the gift of God and who asks you for water! Then you would ask him for water and I would give it to him, living water. In the natural, the water from the well was living water, it is the style of Jesus, taking the person from the natural and material to the spiritual and transcendent. The water that the Lord offers quenches thirst, because the water that I want to give becomes, for those who drink it, a fountain from which they save eternal life.

The woman saw the sky open, because she would no longer have to look for water from the well. The Lord then touches the woman’s deepest chord, the unresolved problem of her entire life. “Go first and tell your husband.” She answers him: “I don’t have a husband.” Jesus tells her: “certainly, what you said is true… You have had 5 and the one you now have is not your husband.” She, impressed, tells him: “you are a prophet… I know that the Messiah will come who will teach us everything,” and then Jesus answers: “I am the one who is talking to you.”

I would like to make some reflections on this gospel, on the shadow of sin that dominates the life of that woman and of so many. The Messiah projects the light of hope and conversion, opening the way to worship the Father, in spirit and truth. For that woman, the moment of achieving something long awaited had come, a long history of fatigue and frustrated desires, and faith and disbelief. The fullness of life for human beings is in Christ, in the personal encounter with him. Jesus, the divine walker on the routes of humanity, thirsts for an eternal love, which is not satisfied with a multitude of human loves, many of them superficial and loaded with only pleasure.

The Samaritan woman represents this need of humanity, which can only quench its thirst in Christ, only He can pour into our hearts, the source of living water that springs to eternal life, the Holy Spirit, inexhaustible joy of God.

Today’s gospel has an application for those who are approaching baptism and for those of us who have already received it a long time ago, perhaps a long time ago. Through water and the Spirit we are born to a new life. But… are we convinced of this? We do not continue to spend the precious time of life building cracked cisterns that allow living water to be lost. It will not be that, being able to satisfy ourselves from the fountain of the Savior, we continue to carry heavy and exhausting jugs of our self-indulgence. We all get tired of walking, only Christ does not get tired and is concerned about each one of us, that we come to have radiant noons in which we can meet his loved ones at the foot of the cross.

From his death, life is born for everyone. From his fatigue in sowing to the four winds, he opens for the disciples the joy of the harvest; and of the testimony like that of the Samaritan woman, the call that the Lord makes us to the mission.

Let us finish this reflection with a prayer from the divine Lectivo.

Wait for us Lord, next to the well of encounter, in the providential hour that falls to each one. You start the dialogue, you the rich beggar of the only living water. Take us away, little by little, from so many desires, from so many ephemeral loves that still distract us. Dispel indifference, prejudices, doubts and fears. Release faith, deepen the emptiness in us so that you fill it with desires. Expand our hearts, light them with hope. Make us go deeper into ourselves, to the most secret center, where only you can reach. Through the hard stones of pride, through the mud of false commitments, through the sand of rejections, open a path for your holy spirit yourself.

Brothers, the Church believes that Christ, who died and was resurrected for all, gives the human being his light and his strength through the Holy Spirit, so that he can respond to his highest vocation and that he has not been given under heaven to humanity. another name in which he finds his salvation.

(Singing)

I have two announcements to give you. This year Holy Week begins on April 2 with Palm Sunday, in the passion of the Lord and concludes on April 9, Easter Sunday, in the Resurrection of the Lord. The other announcement is that on Thursday, March 30, we will celebrate the Chrism Mass, in the Holy and Metropolitan Cathedral of Havana, at 5 in the afternoon. In this important celebration, the archbishop, surrounded by his presbytery, blesses the oils of the catechumens and the sick, and consecrates the holy chrism. Oil will serve as priestly hands for the future baptized, children and adults. With this holy chrism the sacred bonds and the new altars are consecrated. It is a day in which priests renew their promises to be faithful to their sacred priestly condition.
And now, I invite you to pray together, spiritually united with Christ, who is the light that illuminates our steps, and in inner silence to thank God for the gift of life, and ask Him to be our joy throughout everything. this Sunday, and the week we begin. To each of these prayers we are going to say: Give us, Lord, a new spirit.
Teach us to walk in a new life today…

Give us Lord a new spirit.
As we unite spiritually in the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist, may your word fill us with joy and make us grow in faith, hope and love…
Give us Lord a new spirit.
May we find our food in the fulfillment of the Father’s will, and go all day in thanksgiving…
Give us Lord a new spirit.
For Pope Francis, for our bishop Juan de la Caridad, for Auxiliary Bishop Eloy Ricardo and for all the other bishops, priests, deacons, for all the consecrated men and women, so that we may be faithful to the ministry that we have received from the good shepherd…
Give us Lord a new spirit.
Let us pray for the healing of those who are sick in body and spirit. Most especially for patients with cancer and other chronic and painful diseases and for all those who care for and serve them…
Give us Lord a new spirit.
Let us also pray for those who are imprisoned and for their families so that they can feel the presence of Christ in their lives and achieve full freedom…
Give us Lord a new spirit.
So that each Catholic can be a living temple that announces the gospel and welcomes everyone without excluding anyone…
Give us Lord a new spirit.
As Christ taught us, the spirit prompts us to say:

(Our Father Prayer)

And imaginarily placing ourselves before the custody of the Blessed Sacrament, let us make a profound adoration,
Christ perfect image of the majestic glory of the father, beauty incandescent by the flame of the Holy Spirit. Light of light, face of love, deign to send us to the Father, banquet of the kingdom of God, when we have finished our pilgrimage through this world.

I know that they would like to receive Christ sacramentally in his Eucharistic body and blood, but circumstances do not allow them. That’s why now you can make a spiritual communion.
Oh, my good Jesus, I firmly believe that you are present in the Holy Sacrament. I love you above all things and I wish to receive you into my soul, but not being able to do so sacramentally now, come at least spiritually into my heart.

Lord Jesus, as if I had already received you, I embrace you and join you intimately, do not allow me to ever be separated from you.

We entrust ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that she may always be our protection and we say to her:

We take refuge under your protection, Holy Mother of God, do not discard the supplications that we address to you in our needs, but rather, deliver us from all danger, glorious and blessed Virgin.
The Lord be with you.

And the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, descend on you, on your entire family and especially on all the sick and always accompany you… Amen.

(Singing)