A Lenten Reflection by Sister Eileen Reilly, SSND
Recently, when I heard Father Greg Boyle talk about his work with gang members in Los Angeles, he talked to them about the “God of no matter whatness.” He said, "This God dissolves the toxicity of shame and fills us with tender mercy.”
Isn’t this a great image as we hear the story of the ashamed Samaritan Woman on the Third Sunday of Lent?
We are told she came to the well about noon in order to avoid the early morning crowd, because of her shame.
She is shocked by Jesus’ request because of her shame.
Her shame leads her to deny the reality of her five husbands.
But the “God of no matter whatness” dissolves the toxicity of that shame and fills her with a tender mercy that makes her want to run into the town and share the news.
She is set free from her shame.
I am challenged to ask how has the “God of no matter whatness” freed me from shame in the past?
What shame still lurks in my heart that I have not brought to God?
How do I need to grow as a person of “no matter whatness” who frees others from shame?
