Why was this woman going
to the well on her own at noon? Let’s start with the easier part of that
question. Why was she going to the well? Presumably, she was going to the well
because she wanted water. Or, probably, because she needed water. It
seems that this well was some ways out from the village. She must have needed
water badly enough that she was prepared to walk through the noon day heat to
go to the well. She was thirsty. Why did she go on her own, and why did she go
at noon? Noon in a hot climate is not the best time to do your well run. And
leaving the village alone is not a normal safe thing to do. Maybe, and we’re
left with guesses about this woman, maybe she chose noon precisely because it
was not a popular time to go to the well. Maybe she was not just lacking in
water, but in community, not just having no one to go with, but really
preferring not to be around others.
She was
thirsty, for water, and maybe for people too. I think in this time of social
distancing, while water is one of the few things so far unaffected, so many
other kinds of thirst might be growing in people at this time. For many, we’re
looking at thirst for human connection; for some, it might be more thirst for
periods of solitude or quiet, if a family is kind of living on top of each
other. And I think that probably many are thirsty for hope, for good news.
Well, Jesus
has good news for us. Jesus has water that will quench any thirst, and will in
fact become in each of us who believe a spring of living water, that can be
part of how God quenches others’ thirst. This is what Paul describes as the
love of God having been poured into our hearts, that God’s love responds to a
thirst deep within us, and starts to fill that hole, ultimately in a way that’s
overflowing. And sometimes it’s times like this when we need to stop, and feel
that well within us, that well that can feel very dry, and then wake ourselves
up to the reality of God’s love, picture, feel, hear, it being poured out, filling
us up, knowing God’s closeness to us. And then remembering the ways that that
links us to others.
There’s
something slightly off about what the Samaritans say to the nameless woman at
the end of the gospel. Now, there’s a lot that’s good about it too. They have
come to faith in Jesus, they know that he’s the one who is saving the world, the
world God so loved, and they’ve come to claim that faith as their own through a
deep hearing of Jesus’ word. But the way they put this to her… “We no longer
believe because of your word, for we have heard for ourselves.”
A more appropriate thing to say there might have been “thank you.” This woman
who may have been isolated at the beginning is still pushed to the side at the
end. And the good news is that she still has that thirst-quenching relationship
with Jesus. But the Samaritans seem to be happy to ignore her now she’s shown
them Jesus.
That’s not
the fullness of what we’re called to as Christians. Christ forged community on
the cross, entrusting his mother and the beloved disciple to one another, not
just to remember that the Spirit would be in their hearts. The love that’s been
poured into our hearts should overflow. Our Catholic appreciation for tradition
is at its heart a recognition that our encounter with Christ is mediated
through the hands of so many people who hand on the good news to us, and we
reverence those “tradents,” the people who tradition the tradition. Our faith
in Christ should be personal, definitely, but never individual, never private. And
I think that’s a lot to do with why social isolation is hard. Because Christ is
always present to us, and it’s not that Christ isn’t enough, but that the love
of God that has been poured into our hearts is living water, water that wants
to overflow and connect and encounter Christ through loving relationship.
Sometimes,
a time of isolation can lead to us growing in our single-hearted intimacy with
Christ, it can do good, just like fasting can. But, ironically, growing in
single-hearted intimacy with Christ also means growing in our longing to share
that with others.
One way
that good news has taken on flesh in this parish community this week is in S.,
who has joined herself to our Catholic community in a new way, committing to a
time of catechumenate, that we hope will lead eventually to receiving the Easter
sacraments, including being baptized in those life giving waters. The reception
of catechumens is good news, that our connection to Christ is over-flowing,
that God is calling more people into this web of relationship, and that people
are hearing that call.
It’s a foretaste
of, and the first stages of, the way God will gather us all at the end of time.
Let us build up our longing for that day we can stay without fear, shoulder to
shoulder with the saints in the halls of heaven, full of God’s love, which has
overflown so much, we’ll be swimming in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment