March 12, 2023 (An introduction only)
“Put your truth on the table.” Pope Francis’ piece of advice this last Wednesday at his weekly audience. When we become frustrated that our will and plans are not fulfilled, as quickly as we would like, or not all, we crumble and complain or shake our fists. “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?” – the ancient ongoing complaint as Israel left Egypt.
There are many people today who imagine God as someone who is evil and vindictive.
Frustrated, Moses screamed at God: “What shall I do with this people?” “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”, the people screamed back.
What do we want? We snap our fingers and expect God to jump. We want everything delivered to our fingertips. More politely, we want to know that God is here to take care of us.
St. Paul reaffirms that “The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” God has shared his personal love, personal healing and personal strength with us.
We need to focus on what God has given to us and to ask that we can experience the effect of what has been poured into our heart.
The Israelites quarreled and tested God and so do we. Is the question, “is the Lord in our midst or not?” or rather a rejection, to an openness to find the real answer?
When it comes to God, the real issue is “trust.” Do we trust God to be loving and just and looking out for our well-being – presently and in the future. Is it my will or my way only or no way at all?
St. Paul writes that the follower of Jesus lives a new kind of openness and hope because of God’s love in their hearts. Has new love for truth and integrity taken root in our hearts this Lent?
Have I become more trusting, more open, more creative, more loving, more responsive to those around me?
Lent is not about practices that deprive us from sugar or fat, alcohol and meat. Lent is about our friendship with Jesus, walking his personally spiritual path and being more engaged in life and true, good relationships.
In the Gospel, a woman comes to get her water for the day and leaves Jesus personally and spiritually refreshed and unburdened. She puts her truth on the table, and her truth sets her free to be a better and happier person.
Instead of getting mixed up and distracted by the details of today’s story, Jesus reminds us that our cravings to fill our appetites, in which we become distracted or even our attention to life’s details weakened, we need to focus on what is the real food for our lives. What gives us meaning? What motivates us to be our best? What is the motivation behind our goals and decisions?
Jesus wishes to steer us away from our worst selves.
The last line of today’s Gospel makes all the difference. The people who encountered Jesus that day told the woman who told them about Jesus: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves.”
So, what do we hear this morning? Do we realize the gift that is ours – “The Living Water”?
Jesus invites us to worship His Father in spirit and truth. That requires more than rituals and devotions. It is a matter of our heart and Jesus’ heart together, walking together with others through life.
“We need to put our truth on the table.”
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Editor’s Note: This introduction to the story of the Woman at the Well and Pope Francis’ encouragement to put our truth on the table as she does with Jesus is the only effective way that I have personally found to move forward in life. Self-truth with Jesus and important people in my life have allowed me to become a better person, and fulfill a sense of integrity that builds deep inner peace as I age (I still have a way to go!!).
I personally interpret this to not just bring the truth about our sins to the table, but the truth about how we are doing well in connecting with the people we love, the world around us and thanking Christ for that loving connection with others, that is, in effect, His loving and grace-filled connection with us.
If you have spent any time in the company of Father Richard, he radiates this sense of inner peace that he has done his best throughout his life in many difficult situations, each effort and decision a brick in his strong and peaceful foundation. As he tells us so often, it’s not about being perfect, or following the rules to the exact letter, but listening and meeting each other “where we are at”, then looking for the way forward with Jesus in our hearts and minds.
– S.N.
Readings for today: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031223.cfm
Reading I: Exodus 17: 3 – 7
In those days, in their thirst for water,
the people grumbled against Moses,
saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst
with our children and our livestock?”
So Moses cried out to the LORD,
“What shall I do with this people?
a little more and they will stone me!”
The LORD answered Moses,
“Go over there in front of the people,
along with some of the elders of Israel,
holding in your hand, as you go,
the staff with which you struck the river.
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it
for the people to drink.”
This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel.
The place was called Massah and Meribah,
because the Israelites quarreled there
and tested the LORD, saying,
“Is the LORD in our midst or not?”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.
And hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
Verse Before the Gospel
Lord, you are truly the Savior of the world;
give me living water, that I may never thirst again.
Gospel
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.”
OR:
Jn 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
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.
“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 who is speaking with you.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him.
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.”
Harvest and Hope 