“The Church of tomorrow will not be created tomorrow or next week or next year. The Christian life is a life-long task. Ecclesia semper reformanda est: the Church must constantly reform itself. Each Christian must constantly reform himself and herself. Reform and renewal involve humility and holiness; not the empty humility and holiness of performance, but a humility and holiness which can be tested and verified by the lenses of integrity, personal and institutional.”  These are the words of Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin reflecting upon the reform of the Church in Ireland.  The Church in Ireland has been deeply affected by the sexual abuse scandal and is in dire need of reform and renewal.  The Church in Ireland is not alone in this as everywhere that the Church has taken root in the world, including in our own country here in America, the Church will always be in need of reform.  The Church is made up of both great saints and sinners.  It is too easy to get sidetracked along the way in our Christian journey and to find ourselves traveling a different road than Jesus Christ.  We need to constantly be taking our bearings, examining where we are in our spiritual journey and where we are going in the future, and making sure that the road that we are walking is the Way of Jesus Christ in faith.

     Within the Church, the work of reform is not just an institutional project but it must take place in the heart and soul of every Christian member.  Each one of us is constantly in need of reform and renewal in our faith.  The scandalous behavior that we see within the Church we can often find hidden deep within our own hearts.  Archbishop Martin reminds us, “Renewal is required, but that renewal first of all requires conversion on the part of all and not just outward changes in structures.”   It is easy to place ourselves and our desires, often disordered desires, at the center of our lives.  From time to time we all need to return to the well of our ancient faith, to the well that the Fathers of the Church have dug for us.  Here at the well we encounter Jesus who offers us “living water” that will satisfy our thirst.  In a personal conversation with him in prayer and reflection we need to rediscover our friendship with God, the well of graces that are available to us in our everyday lives and the Spirit and truth that help us rediscover our dignity as children of God.  We need to place Jesus and the spiritual life at the center of our lives and listen intently to his guidance, walk in his Way and seek the will of God for our future.  The author Flannery O’Connor observed, “To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks.  It is to measure oneself against the Truth and not the other way around.”  Jesus helps us to discover the love and mercy of God even in the midst of our most shameful sins.  The purifying purpose of our personal conversation with Jesus in prayer is to limit the self-deception we so easily slip into in life.  Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., reminds us, “Prayer keeps reminding us who we are.  We are need.  We are creatures who depend.  We can arrive at the meaning of our life only by appealing to the One who gave us that life and invested it with purpose.  The more diligently we pray the more we recognize the stupidity of self-reliance, of self-absorption.  We want to leave all that individualism behind so that, in our pure repentance, we can become our truest selves.”

     The woman at the well in the gospel gives us a beautiful example of that conversion of life that is possible when we drink from the well of grace that Jesus offers us.  Today our elect celebrate the first scrutiny in preparation for their Baptism at Easter.  “The scrutinies are meant to uncover, and then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the elect; to bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong, and good.  For the scrutinies are celebrated in order to deliver the elect from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.”

     All of us can use this period of Lent for scrutiny of our own personal relationship with Jesus and to seek healing from sin and strengthening in holiness.  The future of the Church will be built upon our ability to reform our lives in Christ, cooperate with the grace of God and live as witnesses to the truth of the gospel more fully.  Now is our time to begin the work of rebuilding.