The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sunday’s in Lent provide something called an alternate Gospel reading. Its message is virtually identical to the regular Gospel. The alternate is provided for adults who are preparing for baptism. The institutional Church requires they go through a process called The Scrutinies. While The Scrutinies are encouraged for all in attendance, they are specifically directed toward pre-baptized persons. The Scrutinies are prayers intended to help people scrutinize, in other words critically examine, who they are in reference to sin.
Facing up to our sins is a necessary part of life. The context in which we do so is vitally important. It is best done in a relational context that opens our hearts to the hurt we do others and ourselves. In part, The Scrutinies affirm this vitally important communal context. In part, The Scrutinies also diminish it. The diminishment happens through the errant relational context it sets. An example is the closing ritual called an exorcism. Unlike its horrific Hollywood images, the ritual is rather tame. People verbally agree to reject a relationship with Satan, meaning rejecting works of evil. The greater diminishment is the context of our doing so under the belief we are an originally sinful person dominated by our relationship with Satan. But a belief in that relationship model is in direct contradiction to both Gospel readings used this Sunday. The alternate Gospel reading used for The Scrutinies is the story of a man born blind. Some disciples assume the man’s blindness signifies inherent sinfulness and they scrutinize, or critically examine him in reference to sin. Thus, they say to Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” But Jesus directly dismisses sin as any frame of reference, let alone an original state: “Neither he nor his parents sinned.” The regular Gospel reading used is the parable of the Prodigal Son. Again, Jesus dismisses sinfulness as the relational context. A young man, who has “sinned against heaven and against” his father, returns to his father’s estate and is welcomed home – no questions asked. No scrutiny of any kind is applied. The son is simply and lovingly embraced. His vulnerability is tenderly and warmly received. A set of questions focusing him on his past sins will not be the breeding ground for his future growth. It is the love of those welcoming him home that is the seed bed of his new life to come. To come home, again and again, if need be, to ourselves and to our loved ones is the context of our lives. It’s only when we are known and loved in relationship with others that the vulnerability and admission of our whole selves happens.
It is for this reason, supported by data, scientists are beginning to make an intriguing assertion about humanity and our relationship context. Scientists are beginning to assert that their 100 year old experiment of hooking rats on drugs to explain humanity’s chemical addictions gets the context all wrong. The context isn’t our bodies ingesting overwhelming, and shall we say evil, chemical hooks. The context is the overlooked background – an isolated cage. Studies prove it is our relationships that are vitally important in this matter. Those studies have scientists re-titling the process – from addiction to bonding. We thus learn the opposite of addiction to any evil entity is not sobriety; it is community. If a society wants to ensure people within it and the society itself are forever trapped in the context of addiction to evil entities, it should maintain its present system of scrutinizing and isolating people. If we want to be and to live among happy and healthy people and create such a society, we need to nurture community.
Prayer: Loving Spirit, we are loving all those people we think we need to scrutinize.
Question: In what ways do I set my mind to critical examination rather than set my heart to love?
March 6, 2016 Gospel Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 + John 9:1-41 Fourth Sunday Of Lent Second Scrutiny of the Elect.