THIRD (3RD) SUNDAY OF LENT A (Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-15,19-26,39-42). Have you ever gotten seriously thirsty before? Yes we are all born thirsty and we often seek different wells to fetch our drinking but unsatisfying water. Where did you seek satisfaction? St. Augustine, many centuries back, captured this human longing for deeper satisfaction in his famous ‘you have made us, O Lord, for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’ But in the tough journey of life there is the great tendency and possibility to get doubtful, tired and even hardened as a survival strategy: people from economically disadvantaged societies and countries understand perfectly what I mean. The Israelites were no exception, having to move from Egyptian slavery through the uncertainties and hardships of a long desert journey: their hearts became hardened; they grumbled against God and complained against Moses. Were they justified? On a human level it seems so, but considering their sacred history as the chosen of YHWH, who have seen his mighty deeds in the past, it was expected of them to trust God; putting the Lord to the test at Massah and Meribah reminds us of how Jesus referenced this passage in his temptation by reminding Satan that we are not to put the Lord to the test. Though both the First Reading and the Responsorial Psalm tell us that Israel failed in this regard, as we often do, the good news is that any hardship with hope for the future can never be in vain; if we remember the wonders the Lord has done in the past we are encouraged. In our hunger and thirst in the desert of life, like the Israelites, we are not left alone for there is in Christ the one who not only hungers and thirsts for the salvation of our souls (Jn. 19:28) but also is able to quench our own hunger and thirst. As God used Moses to satisfy the thirst of the Israelites whose hearts had become hardened and rebellious, even more so does Christ satisfy our thirst for eternal life through the grace of the Spirit that has been poured into our hearts. He is the source of the living spring, the revelation of spirit and truth from the Father offered to the Jews in the previous Johannine chapter during John’s baptism and in Nicodemus, and now extended to Gentiles. That may be one explanation why Jesus will veer into a Samaritan territory against all hostilities and animosity even when there was an alternative route. In his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (representing us searching through the desert of life at the possible wells of hope) he comes to satisfy her thirst not just temporarily but with the living waters that well up to eternal life. The well, a popular meeting point for many villagers, reminds us of this special meeting occasioned by love reminiscent of Moses meeting his would be beloved wife, Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, at the well (Ex. 2:15-22). Though the well of Jacob, father of the Israelites and the Samaritans, had been their hope – just as we seek solution in the world – but in Jesus there is someone greater than Jacob (cf. Lk. 11:31-32). The Samaritans (still linked to the patriarchs) were hated by the Jews of Davidic descent as they were seen as ‘fake’ Israelites who escaped exile after the Assyrian conquest and colonisation of the Northern Kingdom eight centuries before Christ (2 Kgs. 17:6, 24-41). They were discriminated against for marrying non-Israelites i.e. hybrid intermarriage against Jewish marriage norms (a trace of it being Jesus’ question about her marital status. It is interesting that the reference to her five plus one husband is rendered as ‘baal’ which can also be translated as lord, master or god showing the infidelity of the Samaritans for Jesus had said that salvation or true worship comes from the Jews. Remember their displacement by the people from five cities: Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim (cf. 2 Kgs. 17:24-25) and also the fact that as at Jesus’ time they had fallen under the rule of five kingdoms: Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and Greece - and the one she is staying with now is not even her husband (Roman Empire). They were also scorned for worshipping at Mount Gerazim near Shechem (Sychar) instead of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, after they were refused contributing towards the building of the Jerusalem Temple, but Jesus breaks the barrier and animosity. The disciples must have learnt that day of the unbounded mercy of God, for not only was a single Samaritan saved but the entire community came to believe. So behind today’s gospel and beyond the personality of the woman there is a tribal, political and theological underpinning – her name isn’t mentioned but her nationality. Even the fact that despite Samaria being under Roman political conquest at the time, under the Emperor (addressed as Lord) they still went ahead to acknowledge Jesus as ‘truly the Saviour of the world (Jn. 4:42) is symbolic. Not only was a Jew talking to a Samaritan, but a Jewish man talking to a woman (unknown and alone) at noon time (seen as awkward time and suggestive of her social status among other women who will normally come in the morning) and even asking to drink from her vessel (an action considered defiling according to Jewish ritual laws) such that even his holy disciples were puzzled especially when their supposed hungry Master did not care for food: My food is to do the will of the one who sent me. Surprisingly Jesus initiated the dialogue against conventional social-religious and gender etiquette, engaging the woman to the point of telling her life’s secrets but this was not just a mere conversation or to expose her hidden past but a journey of conversion and encounter. While the woman must have been wondering the unusual action of Jesus based on conventional reality Jesus was inviting her into the new reality for God’s justified children - God recognises and is interested in us even when no one else does. Being drawn to him, the dialogue moved from a personal story to Israel’s special place in salvation history, and then to God’s universal salvific plan, for no longer will the mountain or even Jerusalem be essential for true worship but the possession of the Spirit that realises our configuration into Christ. From uninterestedly addressing Jesus as ‘you a Jew’ she respectfully calls him ‘Sir,’ then she moves to acknowledging him as a ‘prophet,’ ‘the Christ/Messiah’ and finally ‘the Saviour of the world’ showing a progressive conversion and deepening insight that truly catapulted her into the ‘now’ of the hour of salvation (cf. Jn. 4:9, 11, 18, 25, 29, 42). The awaited time or hour of true worship is fulfilled in Christ and true worshippers will worship God in Spirit and truth (Jn. 4:24). This fulfilled time of quenching our spiritual thirst is the “appointed time” that Paul speaks of in the Second Reading when the thirst of the grumbling Israelites, that of the Samaritan woman and ours (the entire world) will be satisfied – once justified by faith. As Moses struck the rock and water flowed out so the wellspring of salvation, the living and satisfying water flowed from the Rock of our salvation when he was struck on the Cross by the soldier’s lance (Jn. 19:34-37). These water symbolises the Holy Spirit (Jn. 7:38-40), the special gift of God (Heb. 6:4) that destroys and washes away the enmity between Samaritans and Jews or the distinction between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:12-14, 18; Gal. 3:26, 28), quenches our spiritual thirst and makes it possible that all baptised into Christ indeed drank and continues to drink from it (1 Cor. 12:13). The living water that never gets dry wells up in the Eucharist, where we met/encounter the Lord, in our midst, one on one, as the Rock of our salvation, the Rock of Horeb at Jacob’s well like the Samaritan, and even more than her. This enables us to worship God in spirit and truth without restriction by ritual, creed, orthodoxy, faith traditions, place, nationality, social status or gender – all these are useful only if they yield to the Spirit. It is our responsibility now that we know who is asking to give us the living water to welcome him in order to drink from his ever flowing spring as he gives us himself and pours out the love of God into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid to ask or fear that fully encountering Jesus will radically change your life against your present self-reputation for he too lovingly and respectfully longs to share in your life. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, spoke of St. Augustine’s restlessness of the soul and remarks on Christs request to the woman, “give me something to drink”: “Yes, God thirsts for our faith and our love. As a good and merciful father, he wants our total, possible good, and this good is he himself. The Samaritan woman, on the other hand, represents the existential dissatisfaction of one who does not find what he seeks. She had five husbands and now she lives with another man; her going to and from the well to draw water expresses a repetitive and resigned life. However, everything changes for her that day, thanks to the conversation with the Lord Jesus… (Benedict XVI, Angelus 24 February 2008). Note that the woman while talking with Jesus forces her attention on him and not the well, she even left her jar at the well and ran into the town to testify because she has become the vessel (new jar) filled with the living water (Jesus), the highest good. Our little selfless gift is rewarded with the gift of God himself, the living spring of all life, for life without God is selfish, boring, bereft of true happiness, limited by natural creatureliness and unsatisfying. This encounter transforms, such that like the woman and fellow villages we come to believe not based on hearsay but because we have encountered the Messiah which leads to witness, mission, discipleship and evangelisation as the ‘harvest is ripe’ waiting for us otherwise we are like the woman before the encounter – living with our unresolved past, worshipping without understanding with unconverted hearts. This experience is greater than any academic degrees, doctrinal apologetics, media exposé, theatrical homiletical gimmicks or material acquisitions we may engage in – it simply radiates the joy and confidence of sharing the gospel. While the Lord is willing to meet us where we are, for he died for us even while we were still sinners (Second Reading), he does not want to leave us in that state. This woman challenges us all to wake up and drink from Christ, and especially our women and mothers (this month is dedicated to women) to claim their God given natural role of nurturing, mothering, teaching, reaching out, caring, selfless giving and witnessing based on experience as apostles: It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves...(4:42). As Christ selflessly gave himself he challenges us all to do the same: having received from Christ let us become channels of living water to the thirsty in the world. Let us renounce our sins and experience grace, our selfishness as to find God and our self as to see our brothers and sisters for “If you only knew what God is offering” (eternal life of blessedness and unending happiness) you will give up anything for it. If we see Christ as the new Moses, then we must be ready to become the staff in his hand to strike the Rock, the source of water for thirsty souls, by leading people to him the true Rock (1Cor. 10:4). Though Jesus appeared thirsty he actually meant to satisfy the woman’s thirsting soul, so approach the Eucharist today like a thirsty or hungry soul for “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” Jesus is the balm of Gilead that calms our fears; his chilling and loving presence expels our loneliness, search or hunger for true love, shame, pains, disappointments and frustrations and leads us to fulfilment and peace of soul. Let us pray for and accompany our catechumens in the process of Christian initiation, who today will have their First Scrutiny that they may come to hear of and personally know and encounter Christ, like the Samaritan citizens, through our faithful witness; then drink from the wellspring of salvation and never get tired, thirsty or lacking in the necessary graces they need in their spiritual journey to maturation, from material quest to spiritual fulfilment and salvation. Happy Sunday.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 00:59:23 +0000
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