THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
12 MARCH 2023
Old
Testament prophets used the analogy of marriage to describe God’s Covenant with
his chosen people. God is the faithful
bridegroom. Israel is his bride. Time and time again, the people called to be
his bride were unfaithful to their bridegroom.
God would punish the people for their infidelity. But, God would always forgive them and take
them back again.
In John’s
Gospel, Jesus has revealed himself as the faithful bridegroom at Cana in
Galilee. By changing water into wine, he
demonstrated his power to transform the ordinary lives of his followers into
the fine wine of his divinity. In
today’s Gospel, the bridegroom looks for a bride who will receive the love he
wants to pour out. He chooses a very
unlikely person. He walks into a village
of Samaria in the bright light of noon and approaches a Samarian woman, the
enemy of his people, at Jacob’s well. A
prominent member of his Jewish religious elders had come to him in the darkness
of night. Nicodemus did not want anyone to know of his interest in this rabbi
from Nazareth. Grooms would meet their
potential brides at a well. Moses had
met his bride, Zipporah at a well. At
this well, Jacob had met his bride Rachel, and his son, Isaac had met his
bride, Rebekah. At this well, Jesus
expresses his thirst for the faith of this unnamed woman who is on the lowest
level of society’s totem pole.
In their
conversation, the woman recognizes Jesus as a very kind Jewish man who should
not be talking to a Samaritan woman in public.
Then he begins to scrutinize her.
Over the years, the Samaritans had been influenced by their foreign
conquerors. They had worshipped at least
five false gods, and their current god is incapable of satisfying. He names the infidelity of the Samaritans and
invites the woman to repent in their name.
She recognizes him as a prophet, as one who speaks the truth. He is the seventh bridegroom, the perfect
fit.
Then the woman questions him about
the central argument between Samaritans and Jews. He defends Jerusalem as the
proper place to worship. But he also
tells the woman that authentic worship will occur in Spirit and truth, just as
he had told Nicodemus to be born again of water and the spirit. She recognizes him as the Messiah, the loving
bridegroom, and leaves her water jar at the well. She becomes the first evangelist and goes
into town to tell everyone about the faithful bridegroom who has come to pour
into them the living water of eternal life as his bride.
We have in
our assembly a group of people who have known the Lord’s thirst for their
faith. The Elect have been opening
themselves to receive his thirst for their faith for over a year. They now thirst for the waters of baptism
which will pour out on them the promise of eternal life. They will emerge from the waters of the font
at the Easter Vigil with all their sins forgiven. They will be incorporated as one with Jesus
Christ, the faithful bridegroom. Confirmed
by the Holy Spirit and fed with the Body and Blood of Christ, they will worship
in Spirit and truth with us. Today, we
will pray the first Scrutiny over them.
This Scrutiny invites them to look at what false gods they may have
embraced. Having named them, they can
set them aside to continue their conversion – their turning to the Lord.
As our
Elect go through this first Scrutiny, we become more aware of the ways in which
we are like those disciples who return from the town with food for Jesus. We too have failed to share with the Lord our
hunger for doing the Father’s will. The
Bridegroom invites us to set aside those idols of our own making. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Lord
invites us to name those idols that get in the way of authentic worship of God. We can join the Elect in renewing our
baptismal promises after they are baptized.
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