The Dignity of Living Water: The Third Sunday in Lent 2020

    The Dignity of Living Water:

The Third Sunday in Lent 2020

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March 15, 2020

Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42

Jacob’s well sits on the edge of a Samaritan village, and is surely a place where traveling Jews and the resident Samaritans would have to carefully negotiate times for drawing water so they do not interact. Women would have felt unsafe around an unknown man, especially a foreigner, and she never would have allowed any man to speak with her or get close, even a Jew with whom they disagreed religiously and culturally. This encounter between the Samaritan woman and Jesus is remarkable.

At the root of the exchange is the condition we all have: We thirst for living water, for eternal life. We search for God’s presence just as this woman did. Her life was not marked by success in relationships and she had been beaten down by daily challenges of making ends meet, the frequent comments and judgments of her villagers, and a loss of self-esteem. Throughout her life’s difficulties, she remained opened and allowed the conversation to deepen. She did not flee, she did not speak words to end the interaction, she found ways to keep the conversation moving forward. Her ability to ask questions and to stay engaged helped her to come to know that Jesus was the Messiah.

When we are beset by the troubles of the world, we naturally tend to look inward at our suffering and we get mired in the mess in which we find ourselves. We wish someone from the outside could rescue us but we do not know how to do that. We want someone to come into our lives and make everything right once again.

When Jesus gives the woman this living water that leads her to eternity, he also gives her something that endures in this lifetime, her dignity. We are a “now and a not yet” people. She is able to see that Jesus is more than a traveling Jew, that he is not only the savior for the Jews, but for her and her own people. This woman who has been marginalized because of her failed marriages and her present state in life has been given her dignity. She is the type of person the villagers will not listen to or believe, but the dignity she received gives her that credibility. Typically, if one has a poor self-image, one’s image of God is misaligned. Her self-image was healed as Jesus engaged with her respectfully, treated her with truthful tenderness, rendered a positive judgment about her, and invited her into God’s family. Her past did not preclude her from being accepted into the highest realms of heaven. On earth, she became an apostle to the Samaritans because she believed in the generous offer of Jesus.

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Our self-image gets knocked down many times in life too, and our internal Critic, our Censor, the Evil One, makes sure we place obstacles in developing our friendship with Christ, but as Christ shows us, his warm gaze, his engagement in conversation, his willingness to invite us into God’s family, can restore our image. Christ wants to call forth from you the dignity that in inherently yours. Let him offer you that drink. I thirst for it. I believe you do too.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (2 Kings 5) Naaman, the king of Aram, contracted leprosy. A captured girl wanted him to present himself to the prophet in Samaria. Naaman was instructed to wash seven times in the Jordan River and his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child.

Tuesday: (Daniel 3) Azariah asked for the Lord’s deliverance. He asked that the Lord deal with them in kindness and with great mercy.

Wednesday: (Deuteronomy 4) Moses spoke to the people asking them to hear and heed the statutes and decrees he received from the Lord. Do not forget the things the Lord has done.

Thursday: (Jeremiah 7) They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me. 

Friday: (Hosea 14) Return to God, who forgives all iniquity. The Lord will heal their defection and love them freely for his wrath is turned away from them. 

Saturday: (Hosea 6) Come, let us return to the Lord. It is love that I desire, not sacrificed, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 4) Jesus reminded people that a prophet is without honor in his own land and he called the mind the story of Naaman, the foreigner from Syria, who was cured.

Tuesday: (Matthew 18) Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness. He said to forgiven seventy-seven time because unless each person forgives from the heart, he will not be forgiven.

Wednesday: (Matthew 5) Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Each commandment is to be observed; the one who does it will be the greatest in the Kingdom.

Thursday: (Luke 11) Jesus drove out a demon that was mute and was then accused of being in league with Beelzebul. Jesus explained to them how that does not make much sense.

Friday: (Mark 12) A scribe asked Jesus to declare which is the first commandment. Love the God with you whole soul and your neighbor like yourself. The scribe was well pleased. 

Saturday: (Luke 18) Jesus told a parable about prayer to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. The one who is humble is favored by God. 

Saints of the Week

March 17: Patrick, bishop (389-461), is the revered Apostle of Ireland and patron saint of many U.S. dioceses. He is credited for bringing the faith to all of Ireland. He was abducted and enslaved at age 16 by pirates and taken to Ireland where he worked as a cattle herded and shepherd in the mountains. He escaped after six years and eventually returned to his native Britain where he became a priest. Pope Celestine sent Patrick as a missionary to Ireland to evangelize them. Though he was under constant risk from hostile pagans, he converted many of them and developed a native clergy by the time of his death.

March 19: Joseph, husband of Mary is honored today for his support of Mary in their marriage. He is portrayed as a righteous man who obeys the will of God. Therefore, his ancestry is upheld as a virtuous stock through which God’s promises come true. We seldom contemplate his marital relationship to Mary and his responsibility to love and raise Jesus as his son. He was a descendent of King David and a carpenter or builder by trade. In Matthew's dream sequence, Joseph was embarrassed by Mary's pregnancy before their marriage, but went through with the wedding because he was a righteous man. He considered dissolving their marriage because of Mosaic Law, but is told in a dream to take Mary as his wife and to raise Jesus as his own. He is honored as the earthly father of Jesus.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Mar 15, 1632. The death of Diego Ruiz, a great theologian, who studied on his knees.

·      Mar 16, 1649. The martyrdom in Canada of St John de Brebeuf, apostle to the Huron Indians. Captured by the Iroquois along with some Christian Hurons, he endured horrible tortures.

·      Mar 17, 1964. The death of Joseph O’Callaghan. He was awarded the US Medal of Honor for heroism as chaplain on the USS Franklin, off Japan on March 19, 1945.

·      Mar 18, 1541. Two letters arrived from Lisbon from Francis Xavier. One was addressed to Ignatius, the other to Frs. LeJay and Laynez. They were written just before his departure to India.

·      Mar 19, 1836. By imperial decree, the Society was allowed to re-enter the Austrian dominions.

·      Mar 20, 1602. The first "Disputatio de Auxiliis" was held before Clement VIII. The disputants were Fr. Gregory de Valentia SJ and Fr. Diego Alvarez OP.

Mar 21, 1768. In Spain, at a special meeting of the Council of State in the presence of King Charles III, the Suppression of the Society was urged on the pretense that it was independent of the bishops, that it plotted against the State, and that it was lax in its teaching.