Litany of the Wounded Heart
Dear Fellow Parishioners of Our Lady of Divine Providence Family,
In our Gospel today, Jesus asks a sinful woman for a drink. That begins a conversation, which leads to conversion, the renewal and rebirth of the woman. This woman serves as an image of all of us. Jesus thirsts—as He said upon the Cross—and we are the ones who can quench that thirst, when we engage with Him and respond to His invitation. Jesus thirsts for us.
The first thing God said to humans after the Fall was a question. God renewed His relationship with Adam and Eve after the Fall by asking, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). So often, like the Israelites in the first reading at Mass this Sunday, we question God. But really, it is God who first questions us: seeking us out, inviting us, and thirsting for us.
Oftentimes we put up walls and find refuge in division in order to avoid repentance. The woman at the well does this, when she tries to change the subject, discussing the theological differences between the Samaritans and the Jews. But Jesus works through this defensiveness, and reveals and heals her woundedness that lies below.
God hungers and thirsts for our love. We find healing when we satisfy that hunger of God’s. When we feed God’s hunger, when we give Him our love, we discover a nourishment that is deeper than physical food. Jesus gives us the Bread of Life, from the Cross, at the Last Supper, at every Mass. If we eat this bread, we will never die. If we drink His blood, we will never thirst. If we slake His thirst, our thirst is quenched. We are restless until we rest in Him.
After her encounter with Jesus, the woman at the well was radically changed. She transformed from a public sinner and a social outcast, to a prophetic missionary disciple. She brought her entire village to Christ. That is the transformation that an encounter with someone radiating Christ can cause. That exuberant and contagious joy is the goal of our Lenten journey.
Our parishes are in a time of transition. As we move through this transition process, it is important for us to keep in mind the end picture, the goal. We are being called and equipped to be missionary disciples, just like the Samaritan woman. I know the transition can be difficult, and it’s easy to want to go back to the old way. The Israelites grumbled in the desert, even though they were on the way out of slavery going to the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey. As we leave behind old ways of doing things, nostalgia for the past may keep us from reaching our full potential. Let us hope to be willing to acknowledge and accept that the past is gone. That is a loss, a real loss, but we get to choose how to respond to that loss. We can choose to move forward. We can keep our eyes on missionary discipleship—on the life of the Promised Land—and focus our attention on meeting the missionary moment in the present, rather than grumbling nostalgically for the past.
I know that our hearts are hurting, for a variety of reasons, just as the Samaritan woman’s was. I suggest that we pray the Litany of the Wounded Heart (found below), finding peace and strength in the healing presence of Jesus. Let us set aside our grumbling, our nostalgia for the past, our defensiveness, our tendency to change the subject and argue, and instead embrace the opportunity for conversion and transformation that the Beacons of Light process offers to us.
Yours in Christ, with Mary,
Fr. Henry Hoffmann
