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Third Sunday of Lent
In years past we used the rite of sprinkling with holy water to begin these Lenten Sunday Masses. More recently, we’ve been saving that rite for the Easter season which is all about baptism and baptismal renewal. In any case, on this third Lenten Sunday, the sprinkling rite would be redundant because the readings are themselves a kind of sprinkling rite. The reading from Exodus brought us to the wondrous waters gushing forth from the rock at Meriba: waters that revived the faith of some very thirsty and disillusioned Israelites. The gospel brought us to the waters of Jacob’s well at Sichar in Samaria when Jesus revealed himself as Living Water, more abundant and more life-giving by far than water from any well. Both readings tell of water’s power to bring life and to make new: water, that wonderful metaphor for the life of grace, the life God shares with us in such abundance. Like water, grace is free-flowing, unpredictable, uncontainable, clear and cleansing. No wonder Jesus in his conversation with the Samaritan woman was able so quickly to turn talk of well water into talk of what he called “living water.” The water of Jacob’s well, he said, refreshing though it was, would still leave the drinker thirsty, but living water would become for the one who drank, “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Scripture scholars assure us that, as with most stories in John’s Gospel, there is more here than first meets the eye. It is one of the richest passages in John’s gospel, with many layers, open to many interpretations. It is a story about how Jesus puts people first: ahead of laws or social conventions; a story about Jesus’ revolutionary attitude toward women – Jesus who flaunted social convention and engaged in prolonged and public conversation with a woman, and a Samaritan woman – a sinful Samaritan woman at that! It is also a conversion story, and it’s a story about what true worship really is -- and isn’t -- and it’s a story about how God loves all people without exception. But because of the large group of people in our parish who are preparing for baptism at Easter, and because the rest of us should be trying to wake up to our baptism during these Lenten days, I want simply to let water tell the story: the water of Jacob’s Well, and the Living Water that is Jesus. Think of the water of Jacob’s well as whatever it is you crave or yearn for, whatever it is you set your heart on and believe will bring you happiness. There are lots of possibilities, aren’t there? – not all terribly worthy -- such as pleasure or popularity, power or prestige; or maybe comfort or a secure future. These, and others like them, seem like such promising waters. Who could fault us for thirsting for them? But there is a problem: the more we do, the thirstier we get. They are deceptive waters: cunning whirlpools that suck us in, swirling rapids that can sweep us along and carry us downstream. Jesus offered the Samaritan woman a better kind of water and he offers the same to us. In her thirst, she had been seeking love and acceptance wherever she could find it, but time and again, husband after husband, she ended up lonely and isolated, and still very thirsty. And we, in our own search for love and acceptance -- restless and often selfish -- we, too, end up lonely, isolated, unsatisfied, and still very thirsty. Cardinal Newman captured this beautifully in one of his sermons when he said, “God who made the heart is alone sufficient for it.” He was echoing the great St. Augustine who, when he finally awakened to the real thirst of his own life, found himself crying out, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you!” Augustine knew what he was talking about. He had spent years trying to satisfy his thirst: seeking fulfillment in pursuits of the mind and pleasures of the flesh. And whenever he would begin to awaken to what he was truly seeking, even then he was afraid to find it. “Make me chaste, Lord,” he would pray, “but not yet...!” Can you relate to that? I think we all can in one way or another. I certainly can. We want to center our lives on Christ – we wouldn’t be coming here Sunday after Sunday if we didn’t -- and our friends who are preparing for baptism: they wouldn’t be taking this step if they didn’t want to center their lives on Christ. All of us want to say “yes” to Jesus, but our yes to him is not always our only yes. We hedge our bets and keep drinking from more than one well. All too easily, we forget that Jesus said that it is the pure of heart who will see God. And who are the pure of heart? Jesus was not talking about physical or moral purity; he was talking about the single-minded. That’s who the pure of heart are. The great Danish philosopher and theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, had it exactly right when he entitled his book, “Purity Of Heart Is To Will One Thing.” Or, we might say today, “purity of heart is to drink from one well.” It simply won’t do for us always to keep our options open, dithering between the promising but puny wells that dot the landscape of our lives and the vast reservoir that is God’s love. My friends, our invitation today is to do what the Samaritan woman did -- to let Jesus get very close to us –to drop our defenses, face the truth, and quietly take Jesus at his word. And there will be life in that: abundant life, and change, and hope beyond our imagining, for “Whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty; the water I give shall become a fountain within, springing up to eternal life.” Father Michael G. Ryan |
