The Living Water.

Homily for March 19, 2017.

The key to understanding the Gospel of St. John is to take note of how John employs contradiction. To explain one thing, John often begins by talking about its opposite. By juxtaposing two very similar but opposite concepts, John invites the reader to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and what he has come to do for mankind.

For instance, in John chapter one, john talks about light and darkness, in chapter two, he compares the wine made by Jesus at the wedding feast with that which the guests were drinking, in chapter three, John compares ordinary birth with the idea of being born again in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.

In chapter four which happens to be today’s Gospel passage, John in an attempt to introduce us to the idea of Jesus as the source of living water begins by talking about ordinary water. It was a very hot afternoon, at a time when people would ordinarily by thirsty for water and Jesus is sitting by the well; the very place where people come to draw water.

Looking at this scene, one should be able to see that there are now two wells or two sources of water there but it only becomes clear as we read further. The first well which was dug by Jacob contains ordinary water but the second well is Jesus himself and from him flows living water.

Then comes a woman, she has no idea of who Jesus is or his importance. She goes straight to Jacob’s well to draw water. Jesus is the first to speak, his real intention is to make her take his own water but he begins by asking her for ordinary water from Jacob’s well.

The woman is surprised that Jesus could talk to her. First, she had come to draw water at a time of the day where nobody else would be around because she did not have a good reputation in the town and was trying to avoid people. Secondly, Jews had no business with Samaritans. She tells Jesus that he is not supposed to talk to her at all but Jesus does not give up.

Jesus knowing her ignorance says: “if only you knew who it is that is asking for a drink, you would have asked for living water.” By so doing, Jesus announces to her that he is also a well but her eyes are still too closed to perceive. She then asks: “how do you hope to get that living water since you have nothing to draw it with and the well is deep?”

Then Jesus goes on to distinguish between Jacob’s water and his own water: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14.

In this way, Jesus summarized the whole essence of all our human desires and longings and the futility of our attempts to find satisfaction from material things. All that this world has to offer; money, luxury, food, health, wealth, prestige, good reputation and so on are just like the water in Jacob’s well; the more we drink it, the more we become thirsty again and the more we have to come back again and again. We are never satisfied.

The water Jesus brings is a water that truly satisfies because it becomes a spring within us – this is the water St. Augustine talks about when he says “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.” You know that song: You take the whole world and give me Jesus, you take the whole world and give me Jesus, you take the whole world and give me Jesus, I’m satisfied, I’m satisfied.

At this point, the woman’s eyes are beginning to open and she asks Jesus to give her this living water. There comes a point in our lives when we would have to stop asking God only for material things, we have to reach that point when we stop praying for money, for physical health, for shoes, for clothes, for degrees because no matter how much of these things we get, we are always going to need more.

By praying only for material things, we are like the people who get to the scene and start asking Jesus to help us fetch water from Jacob’s well instead of asking Jesus to give us his own living water.

At times we behave like the Israelites in today’s first reading. We go about complaining that God has not given us enough of the things of this world, we murmur and murmur all because we want ordinary water which would not even satisfy our thirst forever.

A rock does not produce water; in fact, they are two opposite realities. By asking Moses to strike the rock, God wanted the people to know that know that with him, nothing is impossible. God did not do that just to satisfy their thirst, he wanted them to divert their attention to Him and seek him instead.

Do you notice that in the course of the conversation, the woman abandoned her water jar and ran into the city to preach Christ to the people? This is what happens when we thirst the living water. We are no longer materialistic, we learn to abandon our desire for things of this world and God himself becomes our priority.

As Fr. Amadasun in his homily for this Sunday explains: “Detachment from our material possessions is a natural consequence of experiencing Christ from within. Attachment to material things is a sign of lack of inner joy that comes from knowing Christ. When we allow God's mercy to lift us up, we also allow ourselves to be lifted up above any undue attachment to material things.”

Not only did this woman abandon her water jar, she who used to avoid people because of her shame over her past life became the same person going to tell people about herself and what Christ has done for her. Her past now became her pulpit.

As Fr. Amadasun again explains: “Before encountering Christ, her past actions may have invoked memory of shame that she might not even want to discuss with anyone. Anyone who pointed such to her might have been viewed as judging her. But after encountering Christ, she refers to these past experiences in a way that shows that she has risen above them.”

Mercy lifts us up. Until, we are able to talk about our sinful past shamelessly, we can never really say we have repented and this can only happen when we encounter Christ personally; when we get to drink of the living water.

In the end, the whole town came to believe in Jesus through the preaching of this woman. The rich harvest of souls she brought for Jesus became the food he found more satisfying than that which the disciples went out to buy. Hence he said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.”

Dear friends, as Lent progresses, we are called upon today to abandon our water jars, to abandon our incessant quest for material prosperity, to cease our constant complaints for things that don’t satisfy. We are called to seek Jesus himself; to take from the living water he brings and as we drink this water, we are to become evangelists – opening the eyes of others to the futility of seeking only material things instead of God himself.

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, give me living water that I may not thirst again. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Third Sunday of Lent. Year A. Bible Study: Exodus 17:3-7, Romans 5:1-2,5-8 and John 4:5-42).

Fr. Abu.