Third Sunday of Lent - (Year A Readings)
We have just heard the incredible story of the Samaritan woman. I am hoping to reflect on the story from three perspectives: the personal, the social and the ecclesial (church). This story is more than the Samaritan woman’s personal salvation story. Woven within it are powerful social and ecclesial themes that are very relevant to us.
1) The Personal Perspective. At the very basic level, the story of the Samaritan woman is a personal story. I am glad the story does not tell us the name of this woman. This way, this is the story of every person. We are all like this woman. We all have a jar. In this jar we keep that which is most precious to us – family, friends, job, home, possessions, hobbies. Our jar is a good thing. Even if it is empty, it is a good thing. The jar describes us – it is the sum of all that we are. That day, the Samaritan woman came to fill her jar with water. The irony is that Jesus does not fill her jar. Rather, Jesus leads her to the well. Instead of having her jar filled she leaves it at the feel of Jesus. Even though the jar is all she had, she left her jar because she had discovered within her “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” What does this mean? We might think that the jar is the well. Our success and our failure, our pride and our shame, our virtue and our vice, our life and our death and our life – it may describe our lives. Without Christ, our jar is but a jar. After all, on the day we die we must leave it all behind. I hope, like the Samaritan woman, we can bring our jar to Jesus and let our life becomes part of the story of Jesus. The story of the Samaritan woman invites us to take our lives and lay it at the feet of Jesus; to see our lives as another story within the story of Jesus; to use our lives as a continuation of the story of Jesus. Tonight lay your jar at the well.
2) The Social Implications. This passage is also a commentary on the social reality of Jesus’ time. These days, I am very sensitive to the public discourse going on in society. There are two details in the story of the Samaritan woman, which, if they were not included, would not have made a difference to the storyline. First, John says, “For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.” Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. In fact, Jews called the Samaritans “half-breeds.” Second, John tells us that when the disciples came back, they “were amazed that he [Jesus] was talking with a woman.” Today, Europe is simmering under Neo-Nazi, radical Islamic and anti-immigration movements. In my country, Christians are very nervous about the resurgent militant Hindu ideologists under the BJP rule. Numerous Christian institutions have been attacked in the last few months. Our own country is rife with animosity. The public discourse about race and politics, immigration and health care, terrorism and war, life and justice, is filled with prejudice, hatred and animosity. The things people are saying about each other is not only alarming but plain unchristian. We the civilized, educated, technological and modern people have a lot to learn from a man and a woman who stood beside a water well, pushed aside personal prejudices and social barriers and began a social discourse. I am not denying that there is much heroism in our divided world. On Thursday, in Pakistan, Muslim students formed a human chain around Hindus to shield them as they celebrated a Hindu festival. I am proposing that if we recognize we have personal prejudices and that we shed them. Let us avoid social discourse that belittles, insults, fuels hatred, causes divisions, and victimizes entire populations.
3) The Ecclesial Dimennsion: Missionary Discipleship. There has much been written about the Samaritan woman who, after her encounter with Christ, brought an entire village to him. She is often quoted as a model for evangelization. Recently, Pope Francis has popularized a construct which I think suits the Samaritan woman better – “missionary discipleship. Like Pope Francis’ words, at the center of the woman’s reaching out to others is her encounter with Christ. She did not go out with an ideology, some doctrines or because she wanted to earn brownie points with God. She went out because she wanted her village to know Christ. She is also a true missionary because she did threaten, warn, or compel people. Rather she became vulnerable. She left her precious jar at the well and simply told them this: “Come and meet the man who told me everything I have done.” These days, too many people go out to evangelize like they are going to war or go out in order to enhance their own communities. But that is not the purpose of missionary discipleship. Missionary discipleship invites us to introduce Christ to people and people to Christ and then get out of the picture.
As we celebrate this Eucharist, let us lay ourselves at the feel of Jesus.
- Fr. Satish Joseph