Archdiocese of Washington
Coming Home to the Light: Reflections on Lent, Faith and Disability
Fr. Frank Wright, SMA
Chaplain, Department of Special Needs Ministries
Week Two - Lenten Season 2014
Hi! This is Fr. Frank Wright from the Department of Special Needs Ministries of the Archdiocese of Washington, and I’m here to make sure you know “The Light is ON for You.” Check with TheLightisON.org, because during Lent, the light is on for you in all the churches of the archdiocese, to give you a chance to stop in—to spend time with Jesus in prayer and go to confession if you want.
This coming Sunday, we meet the woman at the well in John’s Gospel. We pick up right away that she’s a woman in a “situation.” The picture we’re given is remarkable really: here she is with Jesus, and they’re quite alone. No other people from the village; none of the people that followed Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. And then, going against tradition, Jesus speaks to her, and she doesn’t get it. In fact, she gives him a hard time. I don’t think it’s because she’s mean. It looks to me more like a defense mechanism. She’s used to being put down, but Jesus knows right away that she IS in a difficult situation. Jesus is there for her.
You know, for people with special needs, it all sounds so familiar. When somebody tells you that you’re not worth much, and that you’re a no-account person, you get to the point that you don’t think you have much to offer. We’ve seen people, when they look at persons with special needs, ask questions like, “Is she this way, because her parents took drugs?” or, “Can we find a cure for him?” Some folks would like to fix everything and fix everyone, and if persons with special needs can’t be fixed, then they’re nothing but dead weight. I’m sure you can provide your own examples of this kind of thing.
Well, the Samaritan woman may not have been someone with special needs, but she finds herself in the same situation. Hers is a throw-away life. Well, there are no throw-away people in God’s kingdom.
It’s really important here to see what Jesus does: he’s reaching out to her and saying something like, “Pay no heed to what people say about you. I am the resurrection, and I am the life, and just give me what you have. Whatever you have will be enough, and it can be made new by Love.”
Where is the Samaritan woman taking us this Lent? I want you to come out with me onto a busy street in downtown Washington, and look at all the people that pass by. Pay particular attention to anyone you see, and notice when your eye skips over them. Maybe they don’t measure up. And I want you to repaint your picture of the people on this street.
You know, we tend to paint people in various shades of good and bad, and sometimes we paint people as useless, and sometime we paint people as embarrassments. Let’s paint them as Jesus would, in his colors, and let’s remember that all of us have something to bring to the table.
This is Fr. Frank Wright making sure you know that “The Light is ON for You” during Lent in all the churches of the archdiocese. Check with your local parish for times. And check with TheLightisON.org. Come home to the light.
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