20230312 BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS BY JOURNEYING AND ACCOMPANIMENT
12 March 2023, Sunday, 3rd Week of Lent
First reading | Exodus 17:3-7 © |
Strike the rock, and water will flow from it
Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses. ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt?’ they said. ‘Was it so that I should die of thirst, my children too, and my cattle?’
Moses appealed to the Lord. ‘How am I to deal with this people?” he said. ‘A little more and they will stone me!’ the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take with you some of the elders of Israel and move on to the forefront of the people; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the river, and go. I shall be standing before you there on the rock, at Horeb. You must strike the rock, and water will flow from it for the people to drink.’ This is what Moses did, in the sight of the elders of Israel. The place was named Massah and Meribah because of the grumbling of the sons of Israel and because they put the Lord to the test by saying, ‘Is the Lord with us, or not?’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 94(95):1-2,6-9 © |
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Second reading |
Romans 5:1-2,5-8 © |
The love of God has been poured into our hearts
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. And this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men. It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn4:42,15 |
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Lord, you are really the saviour of the world:
give me the living water, so that I may never get thirsty.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Gospel | John 4:5-42 © |
A spring of water welling up to eternal life
Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman 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, ‘What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied:
‘If you only knew what God is offering
and who it is that is saying to you:
Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask,
and he would have given you living water.’
‘You have no bucket, sir,’ she answered ‘and the well is deep: how could you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?’ Jesus replied:
‘Whoever drinks this water
will get thirsty again;
but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give
will never be thirsty again:
the water that I shall give
will turn into a spring inside him,
welling up to eternal life.’
‘Sir,’ said the woman ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water.’ ‘Go and call your husband’ said Jesus to her ‘and come back here.’ The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ He said to her, ‘You are right to say, “I have no husband”; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.’ ‘I see you are a prophet, sir’ said the woman. ‘Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said:
‘Believe me, woman,
the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You worship what you do not know;
we worship what we do know:
for salvation comes from the Jews.
But the hour will come
– in fact it is here already –
when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth:
that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.
God is spirit,
and those who worship
must worship in spirit and truth.’
The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah – that is, Christ – is coming; and when he comes he will tell us everything.’ ‘I who am speaking to you,’ said Jesus ‘I am he.’
At this point his disciples returned, and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, ‘What do you want from her?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’ The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people. ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the town and they started walking towards him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, do have something to eat; but he said, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone been bringing him food?’ But Jesus said:
‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me,
and to complete his work.
Have you not got a saying:
Four months and then the harvest?
Well, I tell you:
Look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest!
Already the reaper is being paid his wages,
already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life,
and thus sower and reaper rejoice together.
For here the proverb holds good:
one sows, another reaps;
I sent you to reap a harvest you had not worked for.
Others worked for it;
and you have come into the rewards of their trouble.’
Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of the woman’s testimony when she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to believe; and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.’
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS BY JOURNEYING AND ACCOMPANIMENT
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EX 17:3-7; PS 95; ROM 5:1-2, 5-8; JN 4:5-42 (or >< 4:5-15.19-26.39-42)]
We are all seeking for fulness of life. We desire happiness, comfort, security and love in life. Most of all, we seek freedom. Like the Israelites, we desire more and more. Nothing seems to satisfy us. The Israelites had asked to be freed from slavery to the Egyptians, and even though they were eventually freed physically, interiorly they remained slaves to their passion, selfishness, and the pleasures of the world. Hence, soon after they were freed from Egypt and wandered in the desert, they began to feel the discomfort and sacrifices they had to make. “Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses. Why did you bring us out of Egypt? They said, ‘Was it so that I should die of thirst, my children too, and my cattle?'” They began to doubt His love for them. They complained not just against Moses but also grumbled at God.
We too are pursuing happiness in vain. We seek freedom, but we have become slaves to this world. Indeed, like the woman of Samaria, we pursue happiness in the wrong places, and we cause ourselves to be more frustrated, like her. She suffered a few failed relationships. She was looking for authentic friendship and love but found none. She felt rejected, ostracized and marginalized. That explains why she came at noon when no one would come to the well to draw water. We too feel isolated, misunderstood and rejected by society because of our lack of social status, our race or our past. We are judged and condemned. This is true especially for those who are divorced, of same sex orientation, ex-offenders, those undergoing depression.
Like the Israelites and the Samaritan woman, we are seeking for living water. The Samaritan woman said to our Lord, “give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water.” We are sick of going through the same routine of life without joy or meaning. The gospel tells us that Jesus is that rock on which living water flows. In asking the woman for water, Jesus was thirsting for her to come to Him to find the living water. Jesus assures us, “Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again: but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty.” Only our Lord can help fulfil our thirst and emptiness. This was God’s response to Moses who appealed to Him saying, “How am I to deal with this people?”
For this to happen, we must encounter God deeply and feel loved and accepted by Him. We need to know ourselves before God so that we can accept our brokenness and turn to Him for help. This was what happened to the woman who met our Lord. At the end of her conversation with our Lord, “The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people, ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the town and they started walking towards him.” Until we discover Him, we still do not know ourselves, our identity and how to find life.
Today, we celebrate Pope Francis’ 10th Anniversary of his pontificate. The gospel text today expresses the mind and heart of our Holy Father. The legacy of Pope Francis is his thrust in reaching out to the marginalized, those in the peripheries, the poor, the vulnerable and the suffering. He believes that evangelization in the power of the Spirit means having the Church made present among the poor and standing up for justice for those who are oppressed and discriminated by society. We must make the love of God felt in their lives.
Pope Francis sought to break all barriers by going out of his comfort zone to seek out those whom society is uncomfortable with. Like our Lord, he feels the need to empower women. He has brought women into the curia and organizations, placing them in leadership roles. He even extended his hands to those men and women who are divorced and remarried; and those in same sex orientation. He understands what it is like to feel ostracized and judged, or discriminated, as was the case of the Samaritan woman. We should not marginalize them but accompany them in their difficult and complicated journey of life. We need to accept them instead of passing judgement on them, or worse still, exclude them from the life of the Church.
Hence, Pope Francis is following the path of our Lord as seen in the way He interacted with the woman of Samaria in today’s gospel.Jesus broke all barriers by taking the initiative to meet the woman of Samaria. He waited for her to turn up at the well. When she came, Jesus asked from her a drink, something not accepted by society at that time. Firstly, as a Jew, He was not to take anything from the Samaritans as they were a contaminated race. Secondly, it was not proper for Him to speak to a woman. Hence, the woman was surprised and remarked, “What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?”
Journeying, or accompaniment, is the key to heal hearts and broken lives. Hence, the Holy Father asks that the Church journeys with those who are divorced and remarried. This is the way of Pope Francis in reaching out to the those who live in complex situation. This is after all, the way of our Lord in approaching those who live in irregular relationships. Jesus struck a conversation with the woman. He was sensitive to her situation, her suspicion, her lack of trust and her pain. Jesus was gentle and respectful of her. He was understanding and never judgmental. He did not reproach her for her irregular relationships and the failed marriages she went through. Instead, He journeyed with the woman, arousing in her a deep desire to attain fullness of life. Jesus stirred up the thirst in her for truth, and liberation, not just from her past, her broken relationships, her low self-esteem, but also from her fear of being rejected by society. Step by step, our Lord brought her to understand herself more and more. Step by step, our Lord, helped her to grow in faith slowly but gradually, moving from confessing in Christ as a prophet, to confessing Him as the Messiah and the saviour of the world.
This is true not just in healing people. It is also true in bringing people to faith. The Holy Father, Pope Francis never fights shy of seeking dialogue with people of other faith. He would take the courage and initiative to reach out to the Muslims, the Buddhists and those of other faiths. Like Jesus, he went to the heart of religion. When the Samaritan woman was disputing with Jesus on the right place of worship, whether it was on Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem, instead of being legalistic and argumentative, our Lord told the woman, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour will come – in fact it is here already – when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.” So, too, in conversation with peoples of other faiths, the Holy Father is clear that we must worship in spirit and in truth. All true religions must acknowledge God and, most of all, seen living a life of charity, promoting justice, compassion, unity among all peoples.
Indeed, growing in faith is not something that happens overnight but gradually. We must apply the law of gradualness in accompanying people in their faith and in coming to know God, and in perfecting their spiritual life. This is different from the gradualness of the law. Whilst we know where the truth lies, it does not mean that we know the truth clearly and fully. It takes time for us to discover the truth of God and in our own lives. This is why we must accompany each other in faith until we arrive at God in spirit and in truth. Perfection in truth and charity is not a gradual process, and it is not something dynamic not static.
For this reason, the Holy Father, in a most radical way in helping the entire Church to be renewed, has begun the synodal process of journeying, accompanying and dialoguing with each other, from the hierarchy to the laity, involving every member of the Church. He has changed radically the meaning of the synod, which was a gathering of Church leaders in the work of discernment and decision-making to inviting the entire Church to join in the process of consultation and discernment of what the Spirit is speaking to the Church in our times. Indeed, like the psalmist, the Holy Father is inviting us all to come. “Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the rock who saves us. Come in; let us bow and bend low; let us kneel before the God who made us: for he is our God and we the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the desert when your fathers put me to the test; when they tried me, though they saw my work.'”
Indeed, following the path of Pope Francis is the way to reach out to all. No one is beyond the grace of God. As St Paul wrote to the Romans, “It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” We are all sinners and God continues to love us and wants us to be saved and be reconciled with Him. It is our task and responsibility to mediate this unconditional love and mercy of God to all in a concrete way by breaking down all barriers that separate people, whether of different faith, social class, language or culture. We must be with those who are suffering, who are rejected and marginalized, including those who are not able to live up to the gospel way of life perfectly. With St Paul, we must proclaim that it is not through our good works that we are saved but “through our Lord Jesus Christ by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. This hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.”
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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