THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
24 MARCH 2019
Saint
John tells us that Jesus enters a Samaritan village and sits down near the
well, because he is thirsty from the journey.
From a human perspective, that makes sense. But there is a deeper meaning about Jesus,
the Incarnate Word who dwells among us.
Jesus is thirsty for much more than physical water. He is thirsting for the faith of this
Samaritan woman, who remains unnamed.
She is both a Samaritan (a radical enemy of the Jewish people) and a
woman (at the bottom of the social standings).
Coming alone at noon to draw water to avoid the sharp tongues of her
neighbors, she represents anyone seeking to satisfy their ultimate thirsts.
There is a
group of people in our midst who have responded to the Lord’s thirst for their
faith. Our Elect (those preparing for
Baptism at the Easter Vigil) have spent many hours during this past year
reflecting on the mystery of Jesus Christ.
Like the woman at the well, they have gradually seen Jesus not only as a
great and compassionate human being.
They have come to understand that he is a prophet, and ultimately the
Messiah, the Son of God. At the 10:00
Mass, we will pray the first Scrutiny over them. This Scrutiny is meant to uncover, and then
heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in their hearts. It delivers them from the power of sin and
Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them the strength of
Jesus Christ.
The Lord is also thirsting for our
faith. We may have become one with him
when we were baptized. But, like the
Samaritan woman, we have been trying to satisfy our thirsts with many options
which ultimately fail. Her five husbands
represent the five foreign gods that the Samaritans had been worshipping, along
with the sixth with whom she is living.
Our “gods” are many: fame,
wealth, sexual pleasures, food or drink, fancy cars, or big homes. None of these things are bad in
themselves. But they bring limited
happiness and cannot satisfy the ultimate thirst that only Jesus Christ can
satisfy.
Once the
Samaritan woman realizes that Jesus is a prophet who speaks the truth, she
wants him to solve the biggest argument between Samaritans and Jews. “On which mountain should we worship,” she
asks, “Mount Gerizim here in Samaria, or Mount Zion in Jerusalem?” He tells her that true worshipers will
worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.
That is what we are doing here.
In our worship, the Lord speaks to us as directly and with as much love
as he speaks to the Samaritan woman. He
invites us to identify how we have failed to seek only him as the ultimate
source of life giving water. He feeds us
with his Body and Blood, so that we can do the will of the Father. Just as the Samaritan woman rushes back to the
town to tell everyone about the encounter she has had with the Messiah, the
Lord invites us to rush out of this church (after the final blessing and
dismissal of course) to do the same. The
woman leaves her water jar, her most prized possession. We leave whatever cannot ultimately satisfy
to become true evangelists, true bearers of the Good News of Jesus Christ to
our world.
In their
journey through the Sinai Desert on their way to the Promised Land, the
Israelites ask a critical question: “Is
the Lord in our midst or not?” Moses
answers by striking the rock and giving his people water to drink. Jesus Christ answered that question when we
passed through the waters of Baptism.
Yes, he is definitely in our midst.
He is calling us to prayer and fasting to identify what cannot satisfy
our deepest thirsts and to give alms as a way of moving beyond our own selfish
interests and pursuits. At the end of
our journey through the desert of Lent, we will hear from this same Gospel of
John the final words of Jesus dying on the cross: “I thirst.”
He thirsts for our conversion, our turning more completely toward
him. He thirsts for the renewal of our
Baptismal promises at Easter.
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