Journey's Weekly Homilies

JOURNEY CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR A
MARCH 3, 2002
Homily by Sam

EXODUS 17:3-7
ROMANS 5:1-2, 5-8
JOHN 4:5-42

"Gonna lay down my burden down by the riverside, down by the riverside".  We have all sung this song and been renewed by it.  Today a woman lays down her burden and never picks it up again.  She lays down gallons of shame and miles of serving things that do not sustain.  She drinks deeply of living water and is changed by it.

Today we are called to drink of this water as well.  And it will change us if we dare taste it.  It will lift our shame and free us from servitude.  We are even invited to question and test whether it will sustain us before we drink deeply.

My nephew Peter is ten years old, active and cheerful, prone to stubborn independence and outbursts of tears when things go wrong.  A few months ago he and his father and I were about to go for a drive.

Peter was excited by this adventure and as we approached the garage he clamored to have the door opener so he could press the button and watch the magic.  My brother tried to explain that the opener didn’t work correctly, but as he did Peter grabbed it from his hand.  Of course the opener fell from his grasp and shattered on the ground, followed by tears and excuses from the ten year-old boy.  This scene is repeated in one form or other on a daily basis in their household.  It is his way of testing and learning.

We are all like Peter.  We think we know more than we do.  And we grab for freedom that we are not quite prepared to exercise.

And this was the condition of Israel after liberation from slavery in Egypt.  They were on their way to freedom in the land of promise.  But first they wandered in the wilderness for forty years of testing before they could taste this freedom.

Without trial and testing they would likely discard their freedom for a more attractive form of slavery.  And so, today’s first reading begins, "The children of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages."

Today they question whether God and Moses really have all that is necessary to sustain them.  The story in the first reading suggests they doubted and rebelled.  But this sounds to me like spin control by editors who would rather discourage questions.  They might say my nephew is rebelling.  But that is a burden he need not bear.  For I think he is testing, learning, and growing.  Along with the rest of us.

Today the people ask Moses for real water and not just words and promises.  And this is an act of faith, not doubt.

We have sung together, "Don’t speak of piety and prayers divorced from human need; don’t talk of spirit without flesh like harvest without seed."  When we embrace God in Spirit and Truth the practicalities are also dealt with.  We may question and be questioned to know that God is real.  Questions promise more intimacy than commandments or creeds.
 

When Jesus meets with the Samaritan woman they engage in critical conversation.  They both run the risk of knowing and being known, and the exchange changes them both.

The word catechumen means question.  Questioning was an important part of entry into the Church by the early Christians.  Our catechumenate lasts one year at most.  Their questions lasted five to seven years.  At least.

The most important question for any catechumen was, "Have you changed?".  You would be baptized once it was clear that you really were changed by what you learned.

Lent could be called, "Catechumenate for Dummies".  It is a brief instruction into faith and then immersion into living water on Easter Sunday.  Living water, unlike stagnant rainwater came from underground springs.  It was water from God because it flowed and moved.  When we drink of this water we move and change, renewed each day.  And today we would be asked, "How have you changed because of your encounter with God through Jesus?"

The Samaritan woman was changed in three ways.  I actually  have four fingers, but I can only think of three ways she is changed.  She is changed in three ways:  In her beliefs, in her relationships, and in the way she lives her life.

The Samaritan woman ‘moves by stages’ in her beliefs.  She begins by knowing and being known only in terms of the obvious barriers between her and Jesus, barriers no one would have approached.  He is, to her, a Jew and a man.  Both true, but not true enough.  She then addresses him as sir—‘lord’ (with a small ‘l’) in Greek.  She then acknowledges him as a prophet, and then as the Messiah of the Jews.  Finally through her witness he will be acclaimed as "the savior of the world".  "Savior of the world".  A title rarely used in the Gospels.  It shows intimate knowledge of Jesus, a knowledge that eludes his closest followers until after the resurrection.

And so through Lent our beliefs are challenged so that we move, stage by stage to a more encompassing knowledge of who God is.  By Easter we will be ready to embrace a God of Spirit and truth who can be plainly seen in every place and every face along our journey.

The Samaritan woman changes in her relationships, with Jesus and with others.  Initially she regards Jesus suspiciously, as a stranger and an alien.  Gradually, by stages, she converses with him as brother, an intimate.

This changes her relationships with the townspeople.  Initially she was an outcast, fetching her burden only at noon, apart from other women who had obviously shunned her.  But she becomes a gadfly in her community, regaling them with stories they can’t ignore.  She is sometimes called "the first evangelist" because she brings an entire nation to recognize in Jesus a God who sustains all people.

And the Samaritan woman changes her behavior.  Initially she carried her burden in private.  Through her questioning she moves from fear and submission to open dialogue.   As a free woman she proclaims the Good News that God is available to all people and can be recognized anywhere.

We continue our catechumenate today, our journey of testing and questioning.  We ask if God is real and we are asked if we are really changed people.
 

When we move to deeper knowledge, that God is Spirit and Truth yet real and immediate as water in the desert, we will not be the same.  Like the woman at the well we will question more freely, understand more deeply, and proclaim more boldly.  And we will serve only things which really sustain and renew us.

Living water awaits each of us, water which may fill and transform us.  May we lay down our burdens, drink deeply and be changed.