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Third Sunday of Lent, March 23, 2025

Over the next few weekends, we will be celebrating the Scrutinies at the 10am Sunday Mass for our catechumens – also now called the “elect,” after the Rite of Election – who are preparing for the reception of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist at this year’s Easter Vigil.

As the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults explains:

The Scrutinies, which are celebrated solemnly on Sundays, have a double purpose, namely to reveal what is weak, sick, and sinful in the hearts of the elect so that it can be healed; and what is honorable, strong, and holy, so that it can be strengthened. The purpose of the Scrutinies is mainly spiritual. For the Scrutinies are ordered toward liberation from sin and the Devil, and they give strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life of the elect. Moreover, the Scrutinies are set forth to purify minds and hearts, to fortify against temptations, to convert intentions, and to awaken the will, so that the elect may cling more closely to Christ and pursue more vigorously their desire to love God.

In order to awaken a desire for purification and redemption by Christ, three Scrutinies take place, both to teach the elect gradually about that mystery of sin from which the whole world and every person longs to be rescued in order to be saved from its present and future consequences, and to fill their spirit with the sense of Christ the Redeemer, who is living water (cf. the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman), light (cf. the Gospel of the Man Born Blind), resurrection and life (cf. the Gospel of the Raisin of Lazarus). From the first to the final Scrutiny, they must grow in the awareness of sin and in the desire for salvation.

Even those of us who aren’t preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil can use the next three weeks of Lent to scrutinize our own hearts, to see where we need to invite the Lord to bestow on us His purifying and saving grace.

Fr. Berhorst