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3rd
March 23, 2014
Sunday of Lent – Are We Thirsting for God?
Deacon Dave Snyder
GOSPEL READING - JN 4:5-42 –(note that actual reading may differ somewhat)
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people,
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“Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
HOMILY
Paddy was driving down the street. He was really bothered because he had an important meeting
and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up towards heaven he said, “Lord, please take pity on me. If
you can find me a parking place, I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me
Irish Whiskey!”
Suddenly, right before him, a parking place miraculously appeared.
Paddy looked up again and said, “Uh … Never mind, Lord, I found me one.”
…..
“The woman left her water jar ...” Did you catch that particular phrase, about two-thirds through
the passage? She left her water jar and went into the town. Now, I would be the first to admit that I’d
often go to the refrigerator or food cupboard with something in mind, and completely forget why I had
gone there and what I was after. I would probably remember after a minute or so, you know, just holding
the fridge door open and searching for something that would bring my memory back. Now maybe you
can relate to that … But, the Samaritan woman – she left her water jar – it was the whole reason she was
at the well to begin with. And then, after her meeting with Jesus, and her conversation with Him, she
leaves her water jar and heads into town. Do you think she forgot WHY she was at the well? We are left
wondering what she was really thirsting for.
Are YOU thirsting for God? That’s a real question for each of us. Today’s liturgy is for the
third Sunday in Lent, and is the first of three Sundays in a row that we are treated to fairly lengthy
passages from John’s Gospel, passages selected by the Church to help us get to know Jesus Christ much
better, to truly help establish and improve on a personal relationship with Him, to help satisfy an internal
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thirst to know our God. In these “Scrutiny Sundays,” as they are called, we are asked to walk with those
who are to be baptized or who are to come into full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil. In
today’s particular Gospel passage, we have Jesus, very tired and very thirsty, at around noontime, talking
with a Samaritan woman at a well and asking her for a drink from her water jar. Well, the early
Christians listening to this Gospel passage didn’t know what to expect from this encounter between the
two. For one thing, the name of the town is given as Sychar, which, by the way, didn’t mean “Beautiful
Sunrise” or “City near Jacob’s Well” or anything like that, but rather … “Drunkenness.” … And then,
Jesus crosses three lines in the sand, if you will, three “don’t do that” actions for a Jewish rabbi: first and
maybe foremost – she was a Samaritan, a people with very mixed Jewish and Gentile origin of centuries
earlier, a group who were not just “outsiders” to the Jews, but very much considered “unclean,” and
everything about them was considered “unclean.” Think – unclean Samaritan, so unclean water jar.
Second – she was a female Samaritan – male and female genders just did not mix publicly – and third, she
was a woman with quite a reputation in the town. Three presumably scandalous strikes against her,
according to the Jewish people at the time, but she wasn’t considered “out,” she wasn’t considered “lost”
… at least, in the eyes of Jesus, she wasn’t. He reaches out to her – He wants her to get to know Him
personally – He sees in her some interior qualities, some good, some value … He sees in her a “child of
His heavenly Father” … and He sees in her a burning quest – looking at her past life, He sees that she is
evidently searching for something important and missing in her life. She had a thirst that couldn’t be
satisfied. And he knows that what He has to offer, “living water,” will calm that burning quest, calm that
search that hasn’t been satisfied elsewhere.
Are YOU thirsting for God? We are all searching for something, aren’t we? Paddy was
searching for a parking spot in our opening lines. Humor aside, each and every one of us is searching for
something, somewhere … maybe our past, where we came from, where we are going to, what’s it all
about … Barb and I know a couple of people who have had their DNA sequenced – scientists are now
able to determine with some probability a person’s evolutionary origin, susceptibility to genetic diseases,
and all sorts of background information – speaking of searching. And how many of us have been
overwhelmed by television and radio commercials that want us to search our family history. Well, family
history research offered by Ancestry.com and other web sites is now considered to be the second-largest
and among the fastest-growing hobbies in America. We do want to know who we are … and where we
are from … and where we are going to. And that applies in a spiritual sense, also. How many of us have
felt unsettled in our faith at some point in our lives, and maybe taken a detour elsewhere. Well, Jesus
wants us to know who He is, personally. He sends out a personal invitation to each and every one of us to
get to know Him … personally. Like His conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, He thirsts
… but, He thirsts for us. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI phrased a teaching from St. Augustine as “God
thirsts for our faith and our love. As a good and merciful father, he wants our total, possible good, and
this good is God himself.” Just as He did with the woman at the well, Jesus sees in each of us some
interior qualities, inner beauty and value … He sees in each of us a “child of His heavenly Father” … and
He sees in each of us a burning quest – each of us is searching for something important and missing in our
lives. And he knows that the “living water” that He has to offer, will calm that burning quest, will calm
that search that won’t be satisfied elsewhere.
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Are YOU thirsting for God? The Samaritan woman left her water jar and went into the town.
The “living water,” that Jesus spoke of, overwhelmed her so much that she had to go and proclaim it to
her townspeople, leaving the water jar behind. Like the Jews, the Samaritans were also waiting for a
Messiah of sorts, but one who was a great prophet, much greater than Moses … Moses, the only prophet
that the Samaritan people recognized. They were not anticipating a political Messiah like the Jews were.
So, the message that the Samaritan woman proclaimed to the people was widely received by them – here
was the great prophet, here was the Messiah that they had been waiting for. The Samaritan woman, a
person so much on the outside according to the Jews actually became the first evangelizer for Jesus in the
Gospel of John. And, after the death and Resurrection of Christ, we learn from the book of Acts that the
people of Samaria were the first non-Jewish people to be converted. Not bad for someone considered on
the “outside.”
And so, my brothers and sisters in Christ, three things to prayerfully consider:
First – we are all spiritually thirsty, all on a spiritual quest, and Christ offers “living water”
to get to know Him – in the forms of faith, the Holy Spirit and revelation of Himself to us. Do we
truly believe that, do we truly accept that, and what are we doing about that? How are we opening
up our lives to let that “living water” in?
Second – We can all be evangelists. God can use each and every one of us in proclaiming
His Good News, just as He used the Samaritan woman. Who else do we know in our circles of
family, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances, that is also spiritually thirsty, that seems to be
searching. What message of our God, of our faith, can we help bring to them?
Third – we are about a third of the way through Lent. If you are still looking for
something to improve your spiritual life this Lent, St. Louis has many opportunities over the next
few weeks to help calm your own thirst for God. Check the bulletin each week. In particular,
tomorrow evening there will be a Penitential Service, which can be quite beneficial as a prayer
service by itself or to help prepare for the diocesan-wide Day of Confession on Tuesday.
Are YOU thirsting for God? Jesus is personally asking this from each of us. Our relationship
with God, and other members of the Body of Christ is strengthened by active, and personal participation
in our weekly liturgy here, especially including our Eucharistic celebration, which we will now begin.
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