Third Sunday of Lent

February 24, 2008

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church , 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

John 4:5-42

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen

            When, more than three years ago, I realized God was calling me into the Catholic Church, I went to see Bishop Joseph Martino in his office.  When I told him of my intentions, he easily could have looked down his nose at me and asked me questions like, “Why did you remain so long on a sinking ship?  What took you so long to do what you should have done ten, fifteen, twenty years ago?”  I know this because other Catholics have asked me these very questions.

            Bishop Martino is different than these others because he loved me, even when I was wrong, more than he loved being right.  Even though he was wiser than I, he treated me with respect.  Moreover, he did not seek to humiliate me in my vulnerability, but sought ways to aid me that I might grow stronger.  I would venture to say that Bishop Martino used Jesus Himself as his model during these initial conversations with me.  His behavior during these crucial first encounters we can see lived out in the person of Jesus in today’s Gospel.

            We heard how Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman and asked her for a drink.  Samaritans were considered apostate Jews because they continued to observe elements of the Jewish law while adopting some pagan beliefs and customs.  The fact that she belonged to a religion that was false did not prevent Jesus from treating her with respect.  Even as He was careful to remind her that salvation came from the Jews, He never talked down to her, nor did He engage in polemics.  His tone remained respectful throughout their conversation.

            It is quite tempting when we encounter those who are wrong to treat them condescendingly.  When others cannot see as true what is so obvious to us, we tend to treat them with less dignity than we treat those who agree with us, those who never have deviated from the truth.  Jesus shows us that this sort of contempt for others is not only wrong but also is harmful.  The respect Jesus shows the Samaritan woman is what gets her to listen to Him in the first place.  And you can be sure that if Bishop Martino had treated me contemptuously three and a half years ago, I likely would not be standing before you today.

            Jesus, though, does more than show the Samaritan woman respect.  He actually responds to her request—an encounter at the well leads to a two-day stay.  Jesus demonstrates his love and affection for the woman and her people by His willingness to make a real sacrifice on their behalf.  Though He was sent first to the people of Israel, He makes a detour to spend time with Samaritans who are also living in darkness, making the Good News known to them, as well.

            Perhaps even more importantly, the sinfulness of the Samaritan woman does not prevent Jesus from extending the hand of friendship.  Though we did not hear it today, St. John records that Jesus knew she was living with a man to whom she was not married, and that she had already been married five times.  Here was a woman who was far from perfect, who was living in a state of mortal sin, and Jesus shows her how much He loves her.  He does not love her because she’s perfect.  He loves her despite her imperfection.

            Here again, we are tempted to follow our own path rather than walk the path of Jesus.  We often attach conditions to the charity we extend.  So often we desire that the gifts we give will be used in the right way.  So often we are unwilling to lend a person even a dollar until we have assurances that he has turned his life around.  Our love is so often conditional, proffered only to those we can be sure will appreciate our charity.  Had Jesus attached such conditions to His love, the Samaritan woman would certainly not have come to know the love of Christ.

            Jesus does not, of course, desire for us here to be careless.  Rather, we must acknowledge that love, true love, requires that we make ourselves vulnerable, that we show the willingness to sacrifice, if those living in sin will ever learn how to be freed from slavery.  Jesus, we know, did this Himself.  As St. Paul reminds us in today’s Epistle,  “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Jesus does not want for us to be good before He shows us the way to goodness.  Instead, just as He did with the Samaritan woman, He comes to us in our sinfulness and allows His love to transform our lives.  He knows all the evil we have done, yet He still loves us.

            The love Jesus has for us is made manifest in how strong He makes us.  The Samaritan woman was an outcast, even among her own people.  St. John notes in his Gospel that she came to the well at the sixth hour, which is noon.  In the heat of the day, the hottest part of the day, when no one else was drawing water, the Samaritan woman came alone, for even among her own people she was alone.  Jesus does not take advantage of her vulnerability as so many men before Him had done, including the one she was living with right then.  Rather than use her in her weakness and thereby humiliate her even further, Jesus sets about giving her His own strength.  He speaks to her of the living water that will well up within her to eternal life and tells her the right way to worship God.  And so that she knows His word can be trusted, where so many other men have been untrustworthy to her, He reveals Himself to be the Christ, the Messiah who will show her all things.  John tells us that because of this woman’s testimony, many Samaritans believed.  Through Jesus, this woman was transformed from someone who was shunned to one people listened to.

            How tempting it is to kick someone when he’s down, to use the person that every one else uses.  We can so easily fall into the trap of using people for what they can give to us, without any concern for their well-being or spiritual health.  In His interaction with the Samaritan woman, Jesus demonstrates how we are to treat other people, especially those who come before us with no one to defend them, who don’t even know how to defend themselves.  Jesus shows us that we are not to exploit them, but to point them towards Him, in order that our Lord may give them the strength they lack, in order that they may know the true love they so need.

            If we are to treat people who are wrong with respect; if we are to make sacrifices for those whose sin is great; if we are to help strengthen those who are vulnerable, we must care more about their souls than about our status.  For the same reason Bishop Martino was so kind to me, we must love our neighbor more than we love being right.  Jesus did not care what people thought of Him.  When like Him, we are able to sublimate our desire to be respected, we will be able to give to others the love and respect they need in order truly to live.