(Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent Year 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 eternity.
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 Chigozie, SC)
