Third Sunday of Lent
“Have you accepted Jesus as you personal Lord and Savior?” It is not uncommon that either at work, or a stranger at the door, or at a grocery store has asked you that question. Catholics often scoff at evangelical Christians who ask that most celebrated question, “Is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and savior?” “Well, Yeah!” any Catholic will proudly answer. And yet, ask any Catholic to explain their personal relationship with God – they are at a loss. An evangelical Christian, on the other hand, you could not stop them talking about their personal Lord and Savior. It is not that Catholics do not have their strengths. What defines Catholics is the sense of community – the sacraments, particularly Sunday mass. The difference between evangelicals and Catholics is that Catholics do not think of themselves as lone individuals on a personal journey toward salvation. Catholics think of themselves as part of a mass of humanity moving together toward God. But I wonder if Catholics should also focus deeply on their personal relationship even as they live that faith in a community.
That last imagery of a mass of humanity moving together toward God is how I think of the Israelites in the first reading from Exodus. They had heard the voice of God through Moses. They knew God’s will for them as they set out into the desert. They had seen the works of God in their liberation from slavery. Yet, on a day that they got desperately thirsty, they were willing to abandon their faith, defy their God and surrender their freedom? Here is my question for us today? Was the first generation of liberated Israelites that fickle? How could an entire people who had just experienced an awesome display of divine power abandon the deeper meaning and purpose of their existence for mere material benefits? Would it be fair to say that the people grumbled against God because they hadn’t yet developed a personal relationship with God in the same way that Moses had done?
And then there is the Samaritan woman in today’s gospel reading. There is no other passage in the scripture that describes Christ’s encounter with one single individual in such detail as does the story of the Samaritan woman. From the passage we gather that she was not ignorant in the matters of faith and religion. Yet, what transforms her life is her personal encounter with Christ. I reflected much about these words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Jn 4:13-14). In other words, on a personal, one on one, individual level, Jesus was offering to her a deep experience of God. It would be like a well filled-up with water from gushing natural springs.
St. Paul captures this experience in the words,”… the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5)
Let me offer three practical implications for today.
a) Most people read the story of the Samaritan woman as an episode from the life of Jesus. However, the more discerning Christian knows that this story is not merely the story of the Samaritan woman. This is the story of every person in search for a deeper purpose in life. This is story of every person who feels lost in their search for meaning. is the story of that part of our lives that craves for God. This is the story of every person crying out for redemption. This is your story and mine – not merely as a community, but as individual human persons. I wish this week you would go back home and read this story again. What part of this story is like yours? If you were talking with God, what would the conversation sound like?
b) The fact that the people of Israel set out in faith from Egypt and yet struggled with fidelity to God is a crucial point. Perhaps they hadn’t the time to build a personal relationship with God; perhaps they hadn’t the time to reflect upon their experience as a people. If someone had to indeed ask you, “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior,” and asked you to give a testimony what will you say? Many of us can perhaps give our own personal testimonies and many of us may not have given the time or the thought to it. But seriously reflecting on our personal relationship with God, writing it down, putting it into a story might be an experience that would help our spiritual growth. Most of all, this would help us a great deal is becoming aware of our journey with God.
c) One of the best parts of the story of the Samaritan woman is her personal transformation. From the well she went to her town and told people “Come see a man who told me everything I have done.” (Jn 4:39). By the end of the story she is not merely a woman at the well, but rather, she is a disciple. People from an entire whole village came to Jesus because of her. It was her personal experience of Christ that led her to bring others to Christ. It is important that we deepen our personal relationship with Christ for the sake of evangelization. We cannot give to people what we ourselves do not have or what we have not reflected upon.
Let me say this in conclusion. Right now in this church we are both like the people of Israel and the woman at the well. We are a community but we come with our own personal experiences of God and our life.
- Fr. Satish Joseph