Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/032711.shtml
Today, we find ourselves on the Third Sunday of Lent. For the next three Sundays, the Gospel Reading will always come from the Gospel of John, will come from the portion of John’s Gospel called "The Book of Signs" and will be focused on the Church’s Catechumens (those who wish to enter into the faith) and thus revealing something about Jesus during each of these Sundays.
Today, we meet Jesus at the Well an immediate symbol of Baptism. But there’s more to the Reading than just that. There’s the woman he meets at the Well.
The woman he meets at the Well has three strikes against her. First, she’s a woman and in the Mid East culture of the time that already meant that she was second class. Second, she was a Samaritan woman. That is, she was of an ethnicity that the Jews tended to look down upon. Her ethnicity was related to that of the Jews. Samaria had been the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel when the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah had split. But this Northern Kingdom of Israel had been defeated, the people largely dragged off by the Assyrians into slavery. Those who remained became mixed with the new settlers that the Assyrians had moved in, the result being that the Jews of the time did not consider the Samaritans to be full-blooded Israelites and heterodox (different) in some aspects of the faith. (Notably, in the Reading, the Samaritan Woman asks Jesus where exactly is it proper to worship God, on the mountain that the Samaritans worship God or in Jerusalem as the Jews). Finally, the woman was a somewhat fallen Samaritan woman, that is, she had been married five times and was living now with a sixth man. (It’s funny that if a young man had five girl friends, he’d be something of a hero, but even today, if a woman had gone through as many men as that, she wouldn’t necessarily be considered much of a "hero ...").
So this is the woman that Jesus meets at the well.
Then there was the time of day that Jesus meets her. And here we have to appreciate a bit of the climate and get ourselves out of Chicago in early spring for a moment (sunny though it was, it was only about 34 degrees F or 1 degree C today). Israel has a hot desert climate and it was high noon. Most of the activity in the village where this took place would have happened early in the morning. By now, everyone was inside and out of the sun. So the Samaritan woman was coming to the well at _this strange time_ at High Noon, at a time when few, if anyone was outside, or certainly exerting themselves and the question could be asked, why? Well, it was probably because she a "fallen woman," and simply made the choice of coming out and getting her water at a time of day when she would be left alone. If she had gone out at a better time, then she probably would have had to endure other people’s looks and gossip. Here, as hot as it was, at least she was alone. Or so she thought ...
She meets Jesus there, at the well, and Jesus begins a conversation with her. He does not castigate her, even though it’s clear that he knows who she is. And she soon sees that, and begins to inquire then about his apparent specialness. And as a result of this conversation, this Samaritan woman, who had previously been afraid of the other villagers, introduces the rest of the village to Jesus. They come to know Jesus as a result.
We ourselves may know people who behave like the Samaritan woman at the beginning of the Reading. Having failed in one way or another in life, or become a source of gossip, they’ve withdrawn. Perhaps we ourselves may feel that way at times. And perhaps there are aspects of our lives that we really do not share. Well, in the midst of that fear or that shame, Jesus shows us in this Reading that he can be present, and that he is capable of turning the situation causing that fear and shame into something positive. That Samaritan woman turned the entire village to Jesus because she took the risk of talking to Jesus, who was already waiting for her, at that well.
Can we believe that even the worst possible aspects of our lives can be turned into something positive by God and can actually even be made into a source of Evangelization, by bringing others who were previously forgotten, scared or otherwise "in the shadows" to God?
It’s amazing really, that in the course of a conversation with Jesus _at the Well_ this previously scared, fallen woman became, in fact, and Evangelist for the entire town. Could this be possible with us as well?
And consider further then the alternative – hiding. That woman could have filled up her jug with Jesus there, not said a word, and simply walked with her water home. This all could have been a _missed opportunity_.
And a HUGE "missed opportunity" makes the background of the First Reading today: When the Israelites first left Egypt in the Exodus, they sent spies to investigate the Promised Land. They came back with a report that frightened the people – Yes, the Land was beautiful, but the people living there were well armed and powerful. Only two of the spies that Israel had sent to check-out the land – Joshua (who most of us know) and Caleb (who most of us forget) – recommended that the people of Israel leave the Desert immediately to take possession of the Promised Land. The rest were scared.
As a result, the people of Israel had to wander through the Desert for an entire generation, for 40 years, before the new generation was allowed by God to enter the Promised Land. Yes, God provided for them, as we hear today. He provided them with Water. He also provided them with Food. But they were condemned to wander the Desert for the rest of their lives wondering ‘what could have been.’
Lent is an annual reminder to fix the things that need fixing in our lives, those parts of our lives that perhaps we don’t want to show to anybody else. And you _don’t_ have to show these aspects of your lives to a lot of people, but do show them to God. God already knows these problems of ours anyway. Go to Confession, get this worked out, and perhaps this deep dark problem could become a source of new strength for not just yourselves but for even for others. Like the Samaritan woman, we ourselves could become new Evangelists for God.
The alternative we hear as well ... we can continue to ‘wander in the Desert’ for a very, very long time. Let us choose therefore to deal with the problems that we need to deal with and thus seek then during this time of Lent, to prepare ourselves to enter the Promised Land. Let’s get ourselves ready for Easter!
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