Third Sunday of Lent.
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
If you come to Mass at 11 AM this Sunday, you will hear the passage from the Gospel according to St. John where the Lord meets the Samaritan woman. That is so because during the 11 o’clock Mass we will have the First scrutiny of those who are preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation during the Easter Vigil. At all other Masses, the passage proclaimed will be taken from the Gospel according to Luke. In it the Lord refers to current affairs of his time, an atrocity perpetrated by Pilate and a tragic accident. He uses them to dispel once and for all the false notion that bad things happen to people as direct retribution for their evil deeds. Both events are bad news, a manifestation of evil in the world.
The book of Job in the Old Testament addresses the question of evil too. In the Gospel according to John the Lord also addresses the mystery of evil when he heals a man who had been born blind. It is clear that bad things are not a direct retribution from God for evil actions, just as material and worldly success are not necessarily a blessing from God.
