At
the beginning of our Gospel we find Jesus sitting at Jacob’s well,
thirsty. A woman comes – who sees Him
but doesn't see Him. There is a big wall
of silence between them labeled
"different genders", “different nationalities”, and
"different religions". They are from different groups. US and THEM.
The rule is avoidance, silence, isolation. We all know the rule.
Except, Jesus breaks the rules, because
Jesus is a rule breaker; especially rules that isolate people. He breaks down the wall of silence. He says: simply but profoundly "Give me a drink."
The Woman reacts: ¿What?
??? She is
threatened. "How can you ask me,
a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?"
Well, Jesus doesn’t pay much attention to walls. Especially when He has a need.
Jesus tells her, "Give me a
drink." Jesus is thirsty. Not only for water, but much more for the
woman’s faith, for her commitment and love.
Jesus is thirsting for a response from her in Faith. For unlike the woman who doesn’t really see
Jesus, Jesus sees the woman, - not just “a Samaritan and a woman”,
not as some type, but rather as a living, unique individual, just as Jesus sees
you. Jesus really sees her, and sees her
pain, the desolation and emptiness in her life.
Jesus has this same thirst for all of
us, for us to respond in faith and in love.
He longs for that relationship with us. He sees us as we really are.
The woman too is thirsty. Jesus offers her living water: If only you
recognized God’s gift, and who it is that is asking you for a drink, and you
would have asked him instead, and he would have given you living
water." Jesus offers her the fulfillment of her
deepest desires, her greatest longings and thirsts.
For this woman is terribly
thirsty. She thirsts for life, and for
love. Jesus tells her, go, call your
husband. But she has no husband. She is now living with her sixth
partner. She's had plenty of sex, but no
love, no real husband, and she is thirsting for committed love.
She recognizes that Jesus is a
prophet. She begins to understand who
Jesus is. She doesn’t have a full
understanding of Jesus yet, but it is growing.
Later she will call him Messiah and finally “the Christ”.
Then the conversation changes. Perhaps to divert the discussion away from
the painful topic of her failed relationships, the woman raises a theological
question: where to worship God? In
Jerusalem, as the Jews claim, or in Samaria, on Mt. Gerizim, as the Samaritans
claim?
Just as Jesus was not hampered by the
walls of silence, of custom and social division between the woman and himself,
so Jesus is not restricted to a particular place in His worship of the
Father.
He says: “an hour is coming, and is already here,
when authentic worshipers
will worship the Father is Spirit and
in truth.
Indeed, it is just such worshipers the
Father seeks.
God is Spirit, and those who worship
him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
Jesus’ vision
of God is so free, so expansive. Spirit
and truth are not formalities, not outward rituals nor regulations, but
interior realities of conviction and commitment. God does not seek children who worship out of
fear and obligation, but out of conviction, out of a living faith, out of
gratitude and love. To worship God in
Spirit and truth changes our whole life - for then we must live what we
pray.
Jesus enables us to do this. He leads us out of the sterility of sin into
the life of harmony with God. Through
Him we are able to worship in Spirit and truth.
This is why the Catechumens today undergo a scrutiny: not to focus on
their sins and failures, but to come out of that into the life of harmony with
God in Jesus Christ. It is why all of us
are invited to the Sacrament of Reconciliation during Lent.
Jesus offers to this woman living
water, the living water that will quench her thirst for life and love. To worship God in Spirit and truth puts her
in an authentic relationship with God, restores her lost integrity and dignity,
and satisfies her deepest longings, her deepest thirsts.
Jesus offers us this living
water as well, that brings us to life as authentic worshipers of our God who is
Spirit and truth.
There is another passage in the Gospel
of John where Jesus it is thirsty. We
will hear it on Good Friday with the proclamation of the Passion. It is while Jesus is hanging on the
cross: John 19:28 states, “After
this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might
be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.”
Jesus, the source of living water,
thirsts for your faith, for your love.
The Cross is the great sign of that.
As St. Paul tells us in today’s second
reading: “God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
AMEN.
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