(Homily for the 3rd Sunday of
Lent Yr. A)
On our Lenten journey towards Easter, the Church through the readings
guides us gradually to the understanding and the unveiling of Jesus’ identity,
as the Messiah, a God with and in the
midst of his people both in good and in hard times; a God who journeys along
with his people even when he seems to be hidden; a Jesus often on movement
in search of a sinner to encounter and change his or her life. On the other hand, drawing our reflection
further, we can see that water seem to be one of the central themes of the
readings of today, or the pivot around which the message of today revolves,
especially in the first reading and in the Gospel. From the evangelical
episode, we see that Christ is the Rock from which the water of eternal life
gushes forth. In the words of Christ whoever drinks of the water He will give,
will never be thirsty again, “the water will become in him source of eternal
life”. In the first reading he became the solution water to the physiological
and spiritual thirst of the Israelites. The second reading instead indicates
the crucial moment in which Christ becomes the Rock from which gushes forth
water for eternal life. “God shows his love to us because while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us”.
The first reading (Ex.17:3-7) presents
a people on a journey in the desert. The people of Israel left Egypt and were
led by Moses towards the Promised Land, across the Sinai desert. At first, everything
seemed glorious; they witnessed marvels (crossing of the red sea) which ought
to have convinced them that God was with them. But not sooner than later, there
arose difficulties: heat, tiredness, hunger, thirst and in the desert there is
no water. On realizing that there was no water they thought they were going to
die, as they began to doubt God. Is God
with us or not? They felt abandoned by God. They murmured against Moses: “Why
did you make us go out of Egypt only to die of thirst.” And Moses in turn cried
to God: “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
Moses made an appeal and petition before God and God intervened, he told Moses
to go with the miraculous rod which he used to struck the Nile, “I shall stand
before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water
shall come out of it, that the people may drink.” God never forsakes his
people, because “He remembers his covenant forever” (Ps. 105:8; 1Chro. 16:15). The
question of whether God was with them or not is an existential question most of
us ask in difficult moments. And God using Moses made water to flow from
the rock, and this demonstrates once again to them that God is still with them.
As a matter of fact, in the face of life
challenges when we have a similar experience like that of Israelites; sometimes
we are tempted to ask like them if God is with us. But the answer is in the imperative:
YES HE IS. The Good News of the first reading is that the Lord is in the
midst of his people. He is with us!
The Israelites murmured, hardened their
hearts and doubted the presence of God in their midst. The responsorial psalm picks up the theme of Israel’s
hardening of their hearts during the wandering through the wilderness: “Harden
not your hearts as in Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness”, this
recalls Exodus (17:7), Moses “gave
the place the names Massah and Meribah because of the Israelites’
contentiousness and because they put Yahweh to the test by saying, “Is Yahweh
with us or no?”. From a physiological
challenge of thirst the problem of the Israelites metamorphosed into a
spiritual problem of doubting God’s presence. Water is indeed life, as the
Igbos say. Our
need for drinking is obvious; without water we would quickly die. But many a times
we fail to recognize easily the soul's thirst. We can be fully preoccupied with the surface of things, and quite
neglect the obscure thirsting of the spirit for eternal life. Like the
Israelites, we worry about our physical needs, but many a times are unmindful
of God who supplies them. Today, Jesus offers us the refreshing water of
eternal life, a power of faith and union-with-God which is our deepest need,
and can satisfy the thirst of our souls and the thirst for enternity.
In today’s Gospel (Jn. 4:5-42)
at first we see a Jesus that was wearied and tired after the long walk under
the sun, a Jesus that was thirsty, who like every other pilgrim ask for water
to quench his thirst, certainly for the purpose of speaking his transforming
words to the heart of the Samaritan. However, in this episode we see a Jesus
who did not subject himself to the schemes of the common behaviour and customs
of his people. He swam against the
current of his time, he was not bound by discriminating customs. The pivot
around which revolves the message of this passage is Jesus’ encounter with the
Samaritan woman. And in that encounter Jesus stooped low to talk to her, a
Samaritan. In fact in the Old Testament, the conversation of a Rabbi with a
woman is considered uncalled for. And because of the division amongst the Jews
and the Samaritans, the woman at the
beginning was responding to Jesus almost in an unfriendly way, trying to
maintain the cultural gap. “How can you, who is a Jew, ask of drinking
water from me a Samaritan woman?” The disciples too were surprised that Jesus
was not just speaking with a woman, but a Samaritan woman. But Jesus did not allow himself to be
conditioned by the current opinion of his time.
More still, who could imagine a Jew chat with a Samaritan at that time?
It is noteworthy that at the period in question there was enmity existing
between the Jews and the Samaritans. The
Jews considered the Samaritans to be schismatic, and as such, they have
their separate place of worship, which is in contraposition to the one in
Jerusalem. But Jesus ignores these divisions. On and on, the peak of this encounter is that Jesus stooped to talk not just with
a woman, not just with a Samaritan, but with a woman of easy virtue, a
woman of questionable character (she had five husbands, and the current one
living with her is not her husband). Jesus concretized his mission statement
that “It is not those that are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have
come to call not the upright but sinners to repentance” (Lk. 5:31-32).
Interestingly,
to Jesus the past life of this woman was unimportant. Jesus opened a new
horizon, a new way for her. And in this encounter Jesus revealed himself to
this Samaritan woman, as a Prophet. The woman declared “I can see you are a
prophet”, after Jesus must have unveiled
her past (5 husbands) and her
present (the man she was presently living with). Openly to her Jesus
declared to be the Messiah (that is Christ). For the woman said: “I know that
the Messiah will come” (Jn. 4:25), you see sometimes like this woman our
knowledge of the coming of the Messiah does not change our life. And Jesus
answered her: “That is who I am, I who speak to you” (Jn. 4:26). Jesus disclosed his identity to this woman of
questionable character, something that is uncommon in the scriptures. Jesus went ahead and disclosed to her the
gift he came to bring on earth, not just ordinary water, but the Living water.
Jesus says: “who drinks the water i will give will not thirst again, he will
become fountain/source of living water.” Jesus is the living water. We too like
the Samaritan woman are called to recognize and accept the Gift of God. God’s
ultimate gift as we can see is Christ (Gospel), God’s gift is the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us (second reading).
In that encounter Jesus made pronouncements about the imminence of the
Kingdom of God. In the words of Bultmann, “the revelation brought by Jesus
gives life, and thus stills the desire which no earthly water can satisfy.” Already
in his prophecy of Isaiah declared: “Joyfully you will draw water from the
springs of salvation” (Is. 12:3). Jesus
says: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me” (Jn. 7:37) and St. John added: “From his heart shall flow streams
of living water” (Jn. 7:38). And
indeed, Jesus left these streams for us
as an inheritance. Furthermore, Jesus announced to the woman that the
favourable time has come to break every barrier, whether ethnic or religious,
the time not to limit religious cult or worship to a determined place or to
exterior rites, rather to adore God “in spirit and in truth”. Jesus wants his
followers to be pure in heart and in mind. Henceforth, true adoration of God is
that founded on the newness of life realized by the Holy Spirit. It is a call to the internalization of
gospel values.
Indeed, at the end, Jesus fulfils
in her the most marvellous work: He transformed her; from a sinner to a convert,
from a convert to an evangelizer / a preacher. St. Augustine sees in this
woman the symbol of the church that receives the revelation from Christ and
announces it. The woman left her water jar and ran to call others. “Come and
see”. A similar phrase Andrew used when he discovered Jesus and went to call
his brother Peter: “we have found the Messiah… and he took Simon to Jesus” (Jn. 1:41-42), it is indeed a phrase
that denotes the stupor and marvel that the divine presence provokes in the
human heart. It denotes the power of
invitation before the divine presence. The Samaritan woman gradually
discovered Jesus, from interacting with Him as a mere man, to a teacher, to a
prophet and finally she realized that He is the Messiah, her discovery of Jesus
was gradual, from a mere Jew (v.9);
he then becomes Sir (v.11); later a
Prophet (v.19); then Messiah (vv.25-26); and finally the other
Samaritans recognized him as the Saviour of the world (v.42). Upon this breath-taking discovery, she left her water jar,
the source of what she thought she needed, and ran back to the town, and
eventually calling, inviting and leading others to Christ. When she discovered the living and eternal water, she left her jar of
earthly water that cannot quench her thirst for God. She does not need it
any longer. She left her jar to enable her run faster, to avoid any kind of
distraction. This indeed, is symbolic of leaving behind anything that can
distract us or slow down our spiritual movement. May be each and everyone us
has encountered Christ in different ways, what have you left behind?
Today, Jesus like to the Samaritan, is inviting us to take cognizance of
him in our life “I am the one speaking to you”, the Promised Messiah, the Saviour.
He wants us to recognize Him as our
companion in the journey of life, as the eternal Word of God, who continues to
speak to us. Even till today, He is still speaking to us. Therefore, let us
in obedience to the words of the psalmist: “kneel to adore the Lord, He is our
God, we are his people the sheep of His flock” (Ps. 94). Jesus invariably told that woman and he is telling us
today not to search for our salvation in any other. Again Jesus repeats to us,
I alone can give you the living water, do not search for the living water
elsewhere. He repeats to us: I alone can
give you the water that can quench your thirst for truth, for goodness, for
happiness and for eternity. Like the Samaritan let us open our hearts to
the Word, for the psalmist says “today if you here his words harden not your
hearts” (Ps. 94). The Samaritan listened
to Jesus, and faith indeed, comes by hearing (Rm. 10:17), by hearing what? God’s word! Faith is to be shared,
and it is not a “hear say” but a personal experience with the God that loves
each and every one of us not in a generic way but personally. And the conviction of faith comes from this
personal experience of God; those called by the Samaritan woman were able to
say: “it is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard
for ourselves...” (Jn. 4:42).
In the second reading (Rm. 5:1-2.5-8) St. Paul expounded the redeeming act of God in
Christ in terms of man’s justification. And he concludes thus: we have peace
with God, we have access to grace and we have a joyful hope of sharing the
glory of God. And the basis of all this is that the Holy Spirit has been poured
into our hearts. Indeed, justification
and the gift of the Spirit are the outcome of God’s love. Therefore, this
expatiates the idea that love is not an abstract idea, but it was concretized
on the cross. Thus, St. Paul reminded us that in the midst of life difficulties
we may think that God has abandoned us or we may think that our hope has no
solid foundation. We too, are on a
journey towards our own promised land that is eternal life. And on this
journey sometimes we pass through the desert, sometimes also we are overwhelmed
by doubt and we may begin to question “Is God with us or not?” Here the Apostle assures us that the fact
that God is with us is undoubtable because Jesus is the reality-proof. For
Jesus gave his life for us, “God demonstrates his love for us, because while we
are sinners Christ died for us”, this is
the underlining message of the second reading. St. Paul further expressed
that “the Love of God has been poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit…”
For St. Paul, our hope is not founded on our good works, rather on the love of
God. “While we were still sinners Christ died for us”. Therefore God’s love for
us is not based on our merit or our good work. St. Paul assured us of God’s
presence in our midst through his Son, and the
fact that Jesus died for us sinners is a proof of both His presence and love.
He reminded us why we should always trust God: because ‘our hope does not
disappoint us’ (Rm. 5:5).
In all, to encounter God in the person of His Son we need to embark on a
journey, the Israelites were on a journey, the Samaritan woman was also on a journey,
we are also called to embark on the journey of discovering God/Christ. A
journey of discovering that irrespective of the many challenges, trials and
difficulties God is always with us. Also to
discover Jesus as the Messiah in our midst, our Companion in our earthly sojourn
and journey. The encounter with
Jesus is an encounter that leads to a mature faith, a mature faith emanating
from the first hand and personal experience with Him, which eventually ends
in a religious conviction and the profession of faith: “It is no longer because
of your word that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this is indeed the Saviour of the world” (Jn.4:.42).
We have
become altogether new creatures and it is no longer a case of accepting Christ
because that is what our parents brought us up to do or any other second-hand
religion but as the Samaritans affirmed we believe in Him because we too have
heard Him and we know that He is the Saviour. Behold, we pray that the
certainty of this knowledge of Him will make the ravages of doubt, fear and sin
yield to the new life of grace in Christ. Jesus help us to rediscover you as
the Living Water, for temptations abound to go for earthly springs that do not
last. There are many watering holes. Some of them are life-giving and others are toxic. Little wonder Yahweh decried: “For my people have committed two crimes: they have abandoned me, the
fountain of living water, and dug water-tanks for themselves, cracked
water-tanks that hold no water” (Jer.
2:13). May
we never wallow in search of unsatisfying earthly waters or go to places that
cannot guarantee us the Living Water. Happy Sunday Friends!!!
(Fr.
Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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