Sunday March 23, 2014 - Don't Just Come to the Well; Drink the Water!

Gospel jn 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.”

“What I learned from that loss, and also another loss that I'm going to talk about later, was that when you're there, it's not good enough to be there, when you're there, you better walk away with that ring.” (Don Shula, NFL Coach, Miami Dolphins: only champions to ever have an undefeated season in 1972)

In today’s Gospel our Lord is inviting the Samaritan woman to drink of the living waters! It is a very personal encounter with our Lord, an encounter that calls each of us to participate in and respond to, the Grace of Baptism.  Brothers and sisters, when I was a layman I used to sit in the pews during Mass thinking about everything except what was happening at the Most Holy Altar.  I would think; what time do the Cowboys play, where should we go eat after Mass, or what do I need to do to get ready for the workweek, laundry, cleaning, etc.  I was in Church because I had to be there not because I wanted to be there.  It was as if I was just going through the motions and not truly focused on what was taking place.  Now as a priest I am able to look out into the congregation and see the faces of the faithful, sometimes I see you in deep reflection and meditation, sometimes I see you with a smile on your face (I assume you know that you are participating in the Lord’s supper, and this brings you joy), sometimes I see you singing along and responding to every invocation, fully participating – heart, mind and soul: and other times I see you nodding off (yes I can tell when you are asleep), sometimes I see you talking and chatting to those around you not paying attention to the Divine Liturgy, and sometimes I see you sitting there with only a blank stare.  Please realize, I am not trying to embarrass anyone, after all back in the day I was the guy that was usually falling asleep.  What I am hoping to do is help you realize that if you only open yourself to enter into this personal encounter with our Lord and fully participate in the Sacred Liturgy you will receive the living waters in which you will never thirst!  The Samaritan woman had the choice to either accept or reject our Lord’s invitation.  No matter how unworthy you think you might be, we are given this invitation, are we going to accept His grace or are we going to reject it?  You see it is not enough to come to the well; we must drink the living waters!  It is not enough to come and sit in Church; we must fully participate in the Sacred Liturgy!  Sisters and brothers, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  Blessings. Fr. Steven