Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for February 24, 2008
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
3rd Sunday in Lent
By Fr. John Carney
 Topic: Finding true fulfillment
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Gospel: 
John 4:5-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.
 
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" --For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.-- Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him  and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him,  "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?" Jesus answered and said to her,  "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." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."
 
Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come back." The woman answered and said to him, "I do not have a husband." Jesus answered her, "You are right in saying, 'I do not have a husband.' For you have had five husbands,  and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true." The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;  but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand;  we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here,  when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one speaking with you."
At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, "What are you looking for?" or "Why are you talking with her?" The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, "Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?" They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." So the disciples said to one another,  "Could someone have brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, 'In four months the harvest will be here'? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving payment  and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;  others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work."
 
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me everything I have done." When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word,  and they said to the woman, "We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world."
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This is a Bible story that we are all very, very familiar with.  I’ve heard or read a hundred or more homilies or sermons on the scripture about the woman at the well.  Indeed, there are probably thousands of sermons that could be preached on this scripture.  I’ll only preach one today.  It is loaded with symbols.  It is loaded with messages and teachings.  Last Monday or Tuesday, I read a reflection on, “The woman at the well,” written by a priest from New York.  His name is Father Richard Vera, it opened my eyes to an aspect of this story I had never seen before, and I think, perhaps, it might be one of the central messages.  I’d like to share that with you today.  I’m plagiarizing Father Vera.  It’s OK to plagiarize if you say you’re doing it. I guess then its not plagiarism.  We’re really tough on our politicians about repeating things that others have said.  You are a lot easier on preachers.  Truthfully, I have never had an original thought in my life. 
 
First, there is some background information that is important for you to really get into this story.  The Samaritans and the Jews used to be one people, the people of Israel.  However, after the reign of David and his son Solomon, not long after that, the Kingdom of Israel broke into two parts.  Of course, we know there are 12 Tribes of Israel.  In addition, because of political factions and because of bad leadership, terrible kings, the Kingdom was divided into two kingdoms.  One kingdom was known as Israel, this consisted of ten tribes, and it was in the northern part.  The other kingdom consisted primarily of the tribe of Judah.  There was also the tribe of Benjamin, a minor tribe and it was centered near the area of Hebron and Jerusalem.  In 722, the Assyrians defeated that northern kingdom of Israel and they took many of its leaders into captivity.  Then they resettled that area with peoples from other nations and cultures and so introduced the worship of other gods.  Therefore, the religion then of the northern kingdom, which became known as Samaria, gave into syncretism It took a little of this belief, a little of that belief, a little of that, etc.  The Jews, the people of Judah, the kingdom of Judah, considered these people as heretics.  We’ve got the Sunni-Shiite fight as we see in Islam, or, perhaps, in fairness, a Catholic-Protestant misunderstanding.  They just didn’t like each other.  They didn’t get along.  No Jew would even speak to a Samaritan.  It’s funny how we think of the Good Samaritan and, of course, that was Jesus’ whole point in using the Samaritan in that parable.  Jews wouldn’t speak to Samaritans and in this case, we see Jesus [and Jews would never, a Jewish man would never speak to a woman that was not his wife and he probably didn’t speak to her either because she was his wife, but anyway (laughter).  I guess Jewish men didn’t talk much (more laughter).  We see in this account where Jesus actually asks her for a drinking utensil.  That would be shocking, very counter-cultural.  In fact, later in this Gospel, he actually spends a few days in this Samaritan town, which again would be unheard of.
 
All right, with that background, Father Vera looks at one particular aspect of this Gospel.  You notice there is a dialogue going.  At first, you can feel the tension; you can hear the tension and the animosity, both between Jesus and the woman and the woman and Jesus.  It transforms though as the story goes on.  She becomes different.  She’s changed by this encounter with Jesus.  Right in the middle of the dialogue, Jesus, seemingly out of nowhere, says, “Go and get your husband and come back here.”  She says, “I have no husband.”  And he says, “You are right in saying you have no husband for you have had five and the man you are living with you and not married to.”  Now that might be a good thing in Hollywood today but that was not considered good form.  Frankly, what he was saying is, “The lady is a tramp.”  She had been promiscuous. 
 
Father Vera takes this part and talks about the fact that Jesus asked the question.  When He asked her that question and responded with His knowledge of her, she must have been embarrassed and hurt and Jesus must have known that.  If Jesus really loved her, why did He say that to her?  The answer is because He really loved her.  If she had left Jacob’s Well that day after this encounter not knowing that Jesus knew her deepest shame, she probably would have gone home and said, “You know he seemed to love me, but if he really knew about me, He would not even have talked to me that day.”  Jesus showed her that He really did know her.  He knew the real love that her heart was thirsting for and He wanted to save her from that counterfeit love that left her alienated, dry and angry.
 
Counterfeit love.  She, like many people then and now, were seeking fulfillment, seeking love in all the wrong places.  There is something built into us.  It is a quest for fulfillment, a quest for happiness and peace.  We all have that.  It’s in our hardwiring.  It is given to us by God.  We want to be happy.  We want to be fulfilled.  The scriptures tell us there is only one-way of doing that and that is to be right with God, to know Jesus Christ and to know him as Savior.  That is the only true fulfillment.  Until our hearts rest with him, as St. Augustine says, “We will be restless.”  Lots of counterfeit love, lots of addictions.  People seek fulfillment in drugs, in booze, and increasingly, sexual addictions as well.  They only leave us alienated, angry, and dry. 
 
Some people look for fulfillment in work.  You know, I’ve said this before, and you know it’s true, this is a real problem in this community.  You know so many people want their work, which is a good thing, but they get to the point where you don’t know where they end and the work begins.  Work, ultimately, will not fulfill you.  Some even try to be fulfilled in play. 
 
I knew this one seminarian in about 1998.  His first name was Mike.  This guy was a fanatic into theology.  He just lived, ate, he slept theology.  He was always talking about the latest book, or the Book of Homilies, or this book, or Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas.  He was dreadfully boring. I’ll never forget one time we went out for pizza and beer and I looked at him and said, “Mike, would you shut up with the religion for a couple of hours here!”  People get addicted to religion.  I’ve seen it.  I’ve seen people come in and they left one of their former addictions and now they’re addicted to religion.  They’re not happy.  They’re alienated and dry because they seek the “it” and not the “Him”of religion.  They’re not joined to Jesus, they’re joined to stuff, which is itself beautiful but itself will never fulfill us.  By the way, this seminarian quit the seminary about a year after.  You know why?  He discovered golf.  I’m serious.  He became addicted to golf.  He probably never even had a hole-in-one.  Did I ever tell you that I got a hole-in-one?  I did?  How many times?  Let me tell you again.  No, no, let’s get back to the subject at hand.
 
Finally, and this we all know is very, very true, people seek fulfillment in relationships. The more I think about it, I don’t think you’re ready to be in a relationship with another person, especially a relationship with love and marriage, until you can live by yourself.  Until you own yourself enough.  You can’t give yourself to another if you don’t own yourself.  People will never be fulfilled in a relationship as this Samaritan woman learned the hard way, again and again and again and again and again and now on her sixth man.  That’s why she came to the well that day.  She wasn’t fulfilled.  You can hear she was angry.  She probably didn’t like men.  She was looking for the perfect man.  He’s right there on the Cross.
 
William Barkley, the Biblical scholar said, “She was suddenly compelled to face herself when Jesus accosted her with His knowledge of her life.  She was suddenly compelled to face herself and the looseness and immorality and total inadequacy of her life.”  There are two revelations in Christianity:  the revelation of God and the revelation of ourselves.  No man ever really sees himself until he sees himself in the light of Christ and then he is appalled at the sight.  There is another way of putting it.  Christianity begins with the sense of sin.  It begins with the sudden realization that life as we are living it, will not do.  We awake to ourselves and we awake to our need for God. 
 
What is the point of the Sacrament of Confession?  Here he goes again.  In this Sacrament, we have the moment of our deepest shame.  It is the moment when our deepest shame is laid bare, even to the point of embarrassment and hurt.  It is the moment I realize that Jesus still wants me, still loves me, and still yearns for me.  We heard in the second reading today that even while we were still sinners, He died for us.  Jesus thirsts for your soul.  Lent is a time to tire from the counterfeit sense of love that comes from self-affirmation and denial of my sins.  Those are words from Father Vera but they’re so true.  We have a plague today of self-affirmation, even if we’re not doing well, even if our lives are such a complete mess and we are steeped in sin, somehow people keep their head held high, are proud of what they’re doing.  The Spanish have an expression for it “sin vergüenza.”  The person knows no shame, incapable of feeling shame for their sins.  Self-affirmation’s a good thing when we’re doing well.  It is a good thing if we affirm ourselves because we are children of God.  It’s never a good thing when we are in sin.  Lent is the time to seek the only water that will truly quench our thirst, a time to take that which is really life giving, Jesus Christ.
 
By the way, did you notice during this encounter between the woman and Jesus, how she changed.  She’s bitter and cynical.  She’s aggressive with Him, and three paragraphs later, she becomes an evangelist.  She leaves her bucket at the well and runs home.  She says, “I’ve met someone!”  She’s happy.  She is no longer bitter.  She finally has found a man she really likes.  Jesus Christ.  He changed her that day.  He’ll change you and me every day of our lives, especially in the Sacraments, the Sacrament of Confession and the Holy Eucharist.  I guarantee that.  Just as Christ guarantees it.