HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A.
THEME: SOUL SATISFACTION.
BY: Fr. Karabari Paul.
“Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”
Sometimes, we end up looking for love and satisfaction in wrong people and places. There are times we feel so empty that nothing gives us satisfaction; we want to run away from our spouse, we want to avoid our children, and nothing at our place of work makes any meaning. This is because there is a hole in our lives so deep, a longing so great that can only be filled and quenched by one thing. That is God himself. This hole is often and easily masked in the longing for earthly things.
This emptiness is designed inside of us to keep us running back to the one who can fill us. It is a daily reminder to keep seeking God.
In the Gospel of today (John 4:5-42), there are many things to learn from the story of the Samaritan woman. She had tried religion, but it didn’t satisfy her. She told Jesus, ‘Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem’ (John 4:20). So she knew her stuff about religion, but it didn’t satisfy the longings of her heart. We can learn about theology, read the Bible, attend Mass, hear wisdom from other Christians, but if we are not letting that knowledge move us and draw us closer to God, then it won’t satisfy us. The relationship we need most is with Jesus. She tried Jesus, and he satisfied her soul. When Jesus told her, ‘whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst’ she replied, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty’ (vv. 14-15). Religion without a personal relationship with God will leave us unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Like us, she engaged in worship, but something was missing in her life. Religion without a relationship with Christ is not what God wants for us. Psalm 42, it says: ‘My soul thirsts for God, for the living God’ (v.2). When our souls thirst for God, he promises to provide. Let us keep in mind the words Jesus spoke to the woman at the well: ‘Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again’ No real satisfaction outside what God offers.
The woman had five failed marriages; her trust in men was zero, and her self-esteem was minus zero! But after her encounter with Christ, she left the well radically changed. This woman had scheduled her day to avoid her deepest pain. Yet Jesus still met her! The sixth hour would have been our modern-day noon. It would have been the heat of the day, and most people during that time would have been resting. Most women would come early in the morning or late in the evening to collect water. However, Jesus had sent His disciples away, and we see the woman approach the well for water. As the story progresses, we learn that this woman regularly came to the well at that hour. She planned her day to escape the pain of her shame. To avoid running into the other people of the village. Drawing water alone in the heat of the day could only indicate one thing. She was a social outcast.
The story demonstrates that Jesus comes to the undeserving. He cares for the outcasts of society. Jesus defiled the long hate between the Jews and the Samaritans to bring salvation to this woman and who later believed in him. The Samaritan woman was considered inferior because of her sex, ethnicity, and relationship history even by the followers of Jesus, but none of that mattered to Jesus because he saw her need for salvation. It is a reminder to us that God can save us no matter our circumstances and that we do not need to overcome our sins in our own power before coming to him.
Jesus hates sin, but he is not ashamed of us. The woman perceived Jesus as a prophet because He gently called out her sin and “told me everything I ever did” (John 4:29). Jesus is sovereign and sees the sin within our hearts. It is an action in futility to hide from God. He knows our desires, and yet he still pursues us and loves us. He is not surprised by our evil desires, but rather, he seeks to reconcile us to the Father in spite of them. Colossians 1:19-20 says: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Only God can fill the emptiness in our soul. This Samaritan woman tried to fill the emptiness in her life with multiple relationships. But it didn’t work. When you try to find in anyone else what can only be found in Christ, you place so much stress on your soul. Why did Jesus say, ‘You have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband’ Because one of the first things hurting people need to do is break the pattern of using other people as a narcotic to dull the pain of their inner void. The more you medicate the symptoms, the less chance you have of allowing God to treat the cause.
When you become increasingly dependent on others rather than on God to create a feeling of wholeness in your life, you miss the whole essence of your being. Clinging to people is very different from loving them. She possessed a soul that was thirsty.
RELATED: HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A
Jesus quenched the Samaritan woman’s thirst with his Word, saying, ‘Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ This is what we are slow to realise that God alone can satisfy our thirsty soul. The woman went back home totally changed, for that is what Jesus does. And what Jesus did for her, he will do for you today. Jesus saw her differently. Jesus sees the best in everybody. ‘The Pharisees…complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners”’ (Luke 15:2). And when it came to this woman, they were right. Yet she was the first person to whom Jesus introduced himself as the Messiah. Because Jesus doesn’t measure you by your past or your pedigree, but by your potential. Jesus changes you, and then he uses you to change others. Indeed, you are not blessed unless you have been a blessing to others. This woman was the first person to share the gospel in Samaria, and ‘many…Samaritans…believed in him because of the word of the woman’ (John 4:39). Out of your brokenness, God can use you to make others whole. Jesus doesn’t need you to explain him, just to introduce him. He speaks for himself. The Bible says: ‘Many more believed because of his own word…They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him and we know that this is indeed the Christ”’ (vv. 41-42 ).
She wanted others to feel what she felt, and we should be just as enthusiastic to share God’s grace, too. Are we generous in sharing God’s grace with others, or are we sparing with it, only sharing it with those we think are ‘worthy’? What if God only offered his grace to those who he thought were ‘worthy’? We can often live our lives as if we are scared of God and fearful that he is going to punish us. We forget about his grace, love, and acceptance. That doesn’t mean we will escape his discipline, but his correction comes from a place of love and of wanting us to be the best we can be. Even though Jesus knew everything about her, he still made her feel loved and accepted. She wanted others to feel what she felt, and we should be just as enthusiastic to share God’s grace, too. GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE. May God bless you and your household always through Christ, our Lord Amen. Happy Celebration.
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