Third Sunday of Lent -A

The Samaritan Woman. 

By the way, last Thursday, I went to the Anglican church for Lenten talk and I said that once an Anglican man called the Catholic priest and said, "Father, would you please come and pray for my wife who is sick?' The priest said, "No...problem and what happened to your minister?' The Anglican man said, "We love our minister so much and my wife has a mysterious illness and we don't want him to get sick". Then I continued saying, "If I get sick coming to this church, I will blame it on you Anglicans".  

Two men are ice-fishing on Sunday and feeling a bit guilty about not being in Church. One man said , "I wouldn't have gone to Church anyway? The other asked 'Why?'  Because my wife is sick in bed with flu". 

Once after the birth of his baby brother, a little boy was completely annoyed at all his crying and screaming. He asked his mom, "where did he come anyway?' The mother said, "He came from heaven". The boy said, "Now I know why they threw him out". 

They say that the longest journey in life is from head to heart. The first step on the path to wisdom is the ability to say, "I do not know...." We like to believe that we know a great many things but we understand far few of those things. Once we know that we don't  know  many things and then we will have that willingness to change. We thus come out of our comfort zone and see that there are so many spiritual realities are hidden from us. 

One of the apocryphal gospels, Jesus says,  "Whoever knows the all and fails to know himself , lacks everything". 

Today's gospel passage deals with a Samaritan woman who failed to know herself and also failed to Know God. Then Christ the light opened her mind to spiritual reality and she received the light of Christ. 

Rossini was a famous Italian who composed some beautiful music. The King of France gave him a wrist watch as a token of appreciation. Rossini was very proud of that expensive watch and carried with him so many years and one day as he showed it to his friend who touched a secret spring and a little inner case flew open revealing a beautiful little painting of Rossini himself. The composer never knew that the painting was there. 

Christ our Lord reveals to her that she was also a child of God and from that time onwards everything became so different. 

Today's gospel passage shows the longest interaction of Christ our Lord. 

Christ is crossing so many barriers to reach that lonely, rejected women. He breaks the Jew and Samaritan barrier. He breaks the enmity between the two groups and then He breaks the barrier of men and women. 

Even today in the name of honor killing and even today in the name of family secrets and in the name of religion, community...women are being treated cruelly, they are being stoned to death and abused, physically and sexually tortured. 

They say that no one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; and no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy. 

Christ our Lord broke the barrier long ago and gave living water to all who thirst for justice and peace; to all who long for love and forgiveness.  

As the woman of Samaria was longing for life-giving water, Christ said, " The water that I will give a person will become in him a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.  

After receiving the life-giving water, the woman went to her community a changed person. Those who rejected her and those who were looked down upon her began to hear her wods and thus she brought them all to Christ our Lord. 

This life-giving water that Christ is talking about is about our baptism. As we were baptized in Christ, we became so precious and important. We became a changed new spiritual beings.  

There is a story about St. Louis of France who used to sign his documents not, "Louis IX, King' but 'Louis of Poissy". Someone asked him why and the king said, "Poissy' is the place where I was baptized. I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rhims Cathedral where I was crowed". It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a kingdom'. I will lose this kingdom at death but the baptism will be my passport to an everlasting glory". 

The Greek orthodox tradition venerates and calls the Samaritan woman as  St. Photina or photiona. Photo means light. Since she was enlightened by Christ the light of the world, she got the name. She then became a great missionary of Christ and thus she offered her life for Christ.  

Conclusion: Since we are all received the light of Christ at baptism, we are also called to offer ourselves to Christ the light of the world. So let us abstain from anything that stops us from loving Christ and continue our Lenten journey. Amen.