| On the coming Sunday we remember the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. (John 4:5-42) Each encounter with Christ in the New Testament is unique. Each encounter is open and free. Nothing with God in His dealings with humanity is formulaic or pre-planned. Never is anything forced. Some come away from meeting the Lord happy and some go away sad. Some receive blessings beyond anything they had hoped for, others receive blessings they do not recognize as such. The rich young ruler who could not give away his wealth to follow Jesus also received a blessing from God in the form of a lesson, a bit of wisdom he could not yet fully understand, but which I am sure stayed with him all his life. Who knows what later became of that young man? The money-changers in the temple were surely not happy that day Jesus overturned their tables, but even God’s chastisement is a blessing, for God only chastens those He loves. But there are some encounters recorded by the Gospel writers that astound us, that move beyond personal encounter to universal revelation. The meeting at Jacob’s well with the Samaritan Woman is one such moment: deeply personal on the one hand, but also way beyond personal. As the Lord did with the Syro-Phoenician Woman – you remember, the one who said, “Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs from their master’s table” – He does with this Samaritan: he reveals through the dialogue he has with her a deep and surprising faith; a faith that can move mountains, a faith that opens the door to mysteries few others could even begin to comprehend! Our holy father St. Augustine of Hippo came to the point of this encounter straight away: “A woman came. She is a symbol of the Church not yet made righteous. Righteousness follows from the conversation. She came in ignorance, she found Christ, and he enters into conversation with her…..We must then recognise ourselves in her words and in her person, and with her give our own thanks to God. She was a symbol, not the reality; she foreshadowed the reality, and the reality came to be. She found faith in Christ, who was using her as a symbol to teach us what was to come. She came then to draw water. She had simply come to draw water; in the normal way of man or woman. She would receive something entirely different.” From the Jewish point of view, the woman is sinful because she is a Samaritan – part of the “unwashed.” Christ reveals to this sinful, Samaritan woman that God is not respecter of ethnic, social or gender sensibilities for He is the lover of all. He removed the negative “tapes” that were playing in her head over and over since childhood! The Lord gave her a new way of thinking and seeing herself “In God,” writes the Great Paul, “there is neither Jew nor Greek nor male nor female.” Already her encounter with the Lord was changing her. Christ reveals to this woman that He alone is able to judge a human being and his judgment is compassionate and merciful. The meaning of “justice” in Holy Scripture is quite different from our “earthly” understanding of “justice”. It has nothing to do with courts, judges, laws, statutes, lawyers and retribution. As the theological writer Dr. Alexander Kalomiris points out in his book The River of Fire, the Greek word (diakosuni) means “the Divine energy which accomplishes salvation” and is a translation of the Hebrew word tsedaka. It is also nearly synonymous with two other Hebrew words, hesed (mercy, compassion, love) and emeth (fidelity, truth). This is an entirely different understanding than the one that has found such a prominent place in Western society and theology. It was this encounter in which the Samaritan woman learned the tender heart of God. Dante Alighieri, writer, poet, and dramatist of the Middle Ages knew this part of the encounter, the tenderness with the Lord, very well: “The love of God, unutterable and perfect, flows into a pure soul the way light rushes into a transparent object. The more love that it finds, the more it gives itself: so that, as we grow clear and open, the more complete the joy of heaven is. And the more souls who resonate together, the greater the intensity of their love, and, mirror-like, each soul reflects the other.” The Samaritan woman told the truth when the Lord asked her to bring to him her husband. Her honesty was an invitation for God to work miracles. She puts down her guard willingly. She demonstrates that she is not afraid. She proves to him that she is willing to be open, so the Lord opens himself up to her! A perfect encounter! Sometimes, perhaps even all the time, a little honesty is all it takes. But look again! Something even more surprising happens here. He opens himself to her even before she answers the question! He had already looked into her heart. He had already seen her faith. The door was already opened! Her guard was already down! On the matter of God revealing Himself with new insight, St. Silouan of Mt. Athos writes: “If the Lord has left us ignorant of the ordering of many things in this world, then it means it is not necessary for us to know: we cannot compass all creation with our minds. But the Creator Himself of heaven and earth and every created thing gives us to know Himself in the Holy Spirit and in the wonders of His heart.” The encounter not only reveals something about herself, but about who God is and how he acts with mercy and compassion. The encounter reaches yet another depth. The Lord Jesus also starts teaching her “theology”! A woman! A Samaritan, a heretic! A great sinner! An adulteress! In modern terminology, an addict of sensual lust! In her day only men were allowed to read and explore the Torah. Yet to this sinful, Samaritan woman Christ teaches theology! “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” she asks. The Lord replies, “The water that I will give you is living water. If you drink of it you will never thirst. If you drink of it, it will become in you a well of water springing up to eternal life!” Christ had spoken like this to only one or two people before this. Think of Nicodemus who came to him late at night. But even then did the Lord ever speak so explicitly about such things? Were the other encounters so intimate? What we see in this encounter at Jacob’s Well, before our very eyes, is what happens when the fear that separates a human being from God is cast aside. The mystery of deification is beginning to take root and grow in the woman, grow in soil that looked barren to everyone but to God. The soil of her fear-ridden soul was most fertile. St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, “When perfect love has driven out fear, or fear has been transformed into love, then everything….will become a unity growing together through the one and only Fullness, and everyone will be, in one another, a unity in the…Holy Spirit as the bond of peace.” This was an encounter that, at last, stilled her soul. Dear brothers and sisters, we must look deeply into ourselves not only as individuals and a parish community, but also as a nation. Do we seek physical health at this time, forgetting the health of our souls? Have we accepted the Orwellian slogans “war is peace” and “ignorance is strength”? Are the doors to our hearts fast closed to truth? Are we cowering in the Upper Room with the disciples because we are overcome with fears of many kinds, or are we preparing to take the dangerous trip to the Empty Tomb with the Ointment-Bearing Women? Have we heard his voice like the rich, young ruler and turned away sad because everything else in life is more important to us than the Lord? Or are we like the Samaritan Woman who knows that there is nothing to fear in this Rabbi, the Christ of God, and who hungers so much for the living water that the Lord cannot possibly deny it to her? What, or WHO are we looking for in life? What is it that stops our searching? Do we yearn for this kind of face to face encounter with the Lord? Something to think about……. Christ, is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! Faithfully in the Risen Lord, (Please find below the Bulletin for this Sunday for your prayerful preparation.) |
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| MAY ,17, 2020 SAMARITAN WOMAN.pdf |
