Lent 3-A

Lent 3-A: Ex 17:1-7; Rm 5:1-11; Ps 95; Jn 4:5-42
St Martin’s, Kalamazoo Fr. Joseph Neiman (2/24/08)

Homily: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Rm 5:1))

Two questions: First, what does the encounter between a Samaritan woman and Jesus by a well have to do with our encounter with the risen Lord today in this place? Second, why does the Church present this narrative to us during Lent when the majority of readings this year are from the Gospel of Matthew?

Let’s take the second question first, namely, why this narrative on the Third Sunday of Lent. Lent is a 40 day period, excluding Sundays, in which we prepare for Easter by embracing various spiritual disciplines. That’s Church talk or Church shorthand. What does it mean in English?

Lent means we take an extended period of time to examine our lives, and through the addition of various spiritual disciplines, we seek to develop eyes to see the action of the risen Lord in our lives and ears to hear what it is the good Lord would say to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Lent is a time to listen, to struggle with our personal “demons,” and to come to a deeper appreciation of what it means that Christ has risen and is present with us in the quiet of our hearts as well as when two or three come together in His name.

Of the three year cycle of readings from Scripture assigned, Year A, this year, is the oldest and most traditional arrangement of Gospel narratives, and it was the pattern used in the Church to prepare persons for Baptism at Easter. Aware of their sins and failings on Ash Wednesday, catechumens (those preparing for Baptism) would be taught on the First Sunday of Lent about Jesus' temptations in the desert with an eye to their own continuing temptations to the flesh, power, and possessions. Then on the Second Sunday – last Sunday -- the conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-17) stressed one must be "born again" or "born from above". The Third Sunday about the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-42) presents Jesus as "the living water." The Fourth Sunday the emphasis is the healing of the blind man near the Pool of Siloam (John 9:1-4). Then on the Fifth Sunday the emphasis turns to the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45). Palm Sunday has echoes of "the saints go marching in" and stresses the ruling presence of Christ as King. After the Maundy Thursday confession (being shriven of sins on Shrove Tuesday) and the lesson of humble service (foot washing), Good Friday stresses Christ total commitment even unto death. Then the all night service of lessons from Scripture, stressing God's plan from the beginning of creation to the life and death of Jesus, leads to the Baptism and celebration of Holy Eucharist on Easter. Even if there are no baptisms per se, we renew our baptismal promises.[1] This sequence is designed to give us a vision of God’s plan for us.

This traditional structure of the Lectionary, that is, the design to help prepare persons to be baptized, is also an aid to help us correct or relearn Christian behavior, namely, how to love one another as Christ as loved us. Jesus taught us, John tells us, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends….” (Jn 15:12-13).

Now the first question, what does the encounter between the Samaritan woman and Jesus at the well mean, especially for us today?

Allow me instead to begin our reflection on this Gospel narrative with reference to a contemporary hymn. The hymn was written by Richard Blanchard, a Methodist minister who was ordained in 1950 and served several churches in Florida. In 1958, while waiting for a marriage counseling session to begin at the church, he sat down at the piano to soothe his frustrations, and within thirty minutes had completed the words and music of this hymn, which is called “Fill My Cup, Lord.”

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, John tells us, “Everyone who drinks of this water [the water from the well, which she is drawing] will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (Jn 4:13-14).

The Samaritan woman was definitely thirsting, searching for a loving relationship which would heal her inner wounds and fill her life with meaning. She had had five “husbands” or what the social workers would call, “living-with-partners,” and she was presenting trying out another. That’s thirst, thirst for love that heals, for love that fulfills, for love that gives one purpose and meaning to life. That thirst comes from a deep parched soul that has many wounds. She is clearly searching for inner peace.

The woman at the well immediately turns to religion, since religion often tells us about the meaning of life and how to find inner peace. She challenges Jesus by bringing up the tension between Samaritans and Jews, Samaritans worship at an old shrine on Mount Gerizim, which they believe is where God wanted a temple built. [There are still Samaritans in that region of the West Bank in Israel of today.] Jews, of course, believed God dwelled in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Religion is often used to legitimate what in other circumstances might be called oppression. Fr. Henri Nouwen notes: “The Church often wounds us deeply. People with religious authority often wound us by their words, attitudes, and demands. Precisely because our religion brings us in touch

with the questions of life and death, our religious sensibilities can get hurt most easily. Ministers and priests seldom fully realize how a critical remark, a gesture of rejection, or an act of impatience can be remembered for life by those to whom it is directed.”[2] I can’t tell you how many times I have heard someone say, once they thought they could speak frankly to me, that Fr. So-and-So did something that hurt them and that is why they left the Church.

“There is such an enormous hunger for meaning in life, for comfort and consolation, for forgiveness and reconciliation, for restoration and healing, that anyone who has any authority in the Church should constantly be reminded that the best word to characterize religious authority is

Mature Christians know this. They know Christ is indeed the “living water” that can satisfy their thirst. St. Paul wrote to the Romans, and to us: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Rm 5:1). To be justified means in English rather than Church talk, “I am okay with God.” God loves me, forgives me, and guides me day be day, and I know who God is and what God wants in and through the words and deeds of Jesus. As St. Paul notes we have “the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).

The revelation of the glory of God can begin to transform our lives when we are baptized, or when we renew our baptismal promises and embrace them fully. In the Sacrament of Baptism, the Church through the priest and the congregation reach out to the one being baptized and say on behalf of God Almighty: "You are my beloved son or daughter. In you I am well pleased!"

If that sounds familiar, it should. That was what Jesus experienced at His Baptism in the River Jordan (c. Mt 3:17). And it is a marvelous message or affirmation. In it we hear at a profound level, the level of our thirsty soul, the affirmation that we are created in the image and likeness of God, unique, one of a kind, irreplaceable, special, a work of beauty, and a person endowed with the ability to create and to love, in other words, we are created in the image and likeness of God!

This is a message which needs to be heard loud and clear in our world today. There are so many hurting, lonely people, who end up on drugs or alcohol or making a name for themselves by violent behavior. And the culture around us tells us again and again that we are not "okay" unless we own or buy or have what is being sold to us through the media.

But this vision of God, which was shown to us in complete form in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, is not something we can embrace in a moment. A person nearly dying of thirst is told to sip water slowly until he or she can gain strength. We do not learn that we are beloved of God simply from the Baptism service or renewal of vows. It is an awareness that has to grow within us and be experienced by us from the interaction with others who also seek to live out the Gospel.

That's where Baptism is the beginning of a journey. Along the way, the love from family and friends, and from other Christian people, will continue the affirmation process. Eventually, the awareness can sink deep into our consciousness and we can pray with David: "I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well" (Psalm 139:13). That living together with others who are seeking to be faithful disciples, to love one another as Jesus loves us, can also mean laying down their lives for us as friends. This is especially true with the Christian community where we truly have Jesus in common with all who are here whether we would have them as relatives or friends or neighbors, but here they are brothers and sisters in Christ. By our worship, service, and fellowship, we are laying down our lives for one another.

“Human relationships easily become possessive. Our hearts so much desire to be loved that we are inclined to cling to the person who offers us love, affection, friendship, care, or support. Once we have seen or felt a hint of love, we want more of it. That explains why lovers so often bicker with

each other. Lovers' quarrels are quarrels between people who want more of each other than they are able or willing to give.

“It is very hard for love not to become possessive because our hearts look for perfect love and no human being is capable of that. Only God can offer perfect love. Therefore, the art of loving includes the art of giving one another space. When we invade one another's space and do not allow

the other to be his or her own free person, we cause great suffering in our relationships. But when we give another space to move and share our gifts, true intimacy becomes possible.”[4]

Your homework: Reflect this week on the reality how your participation in the life of the Christian community, this congregation, opens you to receive the “living water” which will quench your thirst by the love others express to you, by your hearing the vision of your worth and of the meaning of life in the Scriptures, by sharing the Eucharistic meal together, and by caring for and serving one another as friends for Jesus’ sake. That waters our parched souls. That fills our cup, and makes us whole.

So let's dare to enter engage in the disciplines of Lent to change the way we see ourselves and others, and to change the deafness we have which keeps us from hearing God’s word to us in the core of our being: “You are my beloved Son, You are my beloved Daughter. In you I am well pleased!

God bless you and keep you this day and always, and remember that the good Lord does indeed love you more than you can ask for or even imagine. Do you believe it?

[1] Days of the Lord, Vol 2 Lent, Madeline Beaukmont and Thomas Hallsten OSB, translators, The Liturgical Press, 1993, pp.

[2] Daily Meditation for October 26, 2007, from the Henri Nouwen Society, www.henrinouwen.org.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Daily Meditation for February 21, 2008, Ibid.