Third Sunday €“Lent- 27^th March 2011

Exodus 17 :3-7 Psalm: 95  Romans 5:1-2,5-8  John 4: 5-42

This is more a reflection on our attitude to people after the Long Gospel. I have another homily on the readings.

1.  Here is a woman who comes to the well to quench her physical thirst. By the end of the episode, her spiritual thirst is also satisfied – to such an extent w do not know whether she even bothered with her pail of water.

2.  She arrives in the heat of high noon. It is not an hour when women come to the well to draw water. But she cannot come with the other women. She has been ostracised. She has been involved with other men. Perhaps they saw her as a threat to their own lives.

3. How would she be accepted in our church today, knowing that she has had five husbands? Now she is living in a common law relationship! Our first reaction would be

a) she is a woman, therefore she is hardly credible.

b) she is not in good standing according to the rules of Canon Law. Hence she would not be considered as a Lector of the Word or a Eucharistic Minister. She could not be proposed as a president of the Catholic Women’s League or the St. Vincent de Paul Society. She could not be in the parish council or the finance committee or liturgy committee.

There is something good about rules and regulations. Without them we would have chaos and confusion.

4. And so we turn to Jesus and see the example he sets for us. He is not bound by the legalism of religious authorities.  First he speaks to a WOMAN, in the absence of a husband, father, or her brother. Secondly he breaks the taboo of Jews and Samaritans mixing. Even the woman is surprised at that.

5. Jesus is bound by the law of love and compassion. He must accept a person made in God’s image and likeness.

Jesus is not bound by the categories of sins and defects and imperfections.

Jesus IS bound by the deepest of our human desires

• desire to be love
• desire to be accepted
• desire to be respected
• desire to be treated with dignity
• desire not to be judged and condemned

6. Today the Samaritan woman is in our midst everywhere.

- she is a woman

- she is divorced or separated

-she is single parent.

- she lives common law.

Can we be as gracious as Jesus or do we throw the book of Canon Law at her?