A Homily – The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year A)

A Homily – The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year A)

 

First Reading – Ezekiel 37:12-14 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 129(130) ©

Second Reading – Romans 8:8-11 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 11:25, 26

The Gospel According to John 11:1 - 45 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The bounds of death are no impediment to God’s salvific will. There is no threshold the divine will not cross, no barrier the divine will not remove, no darkness the divine will not penetrate in order to save God’s children.

 Know this:

 God, the creator of the universe, God is patient, God is loving and God is kind. God is merciful and God is just; in the divine, justice and mercy are inextricably intertwined, always present with the other. The wrath of God is never manifest without God’s love.

 Learn from the divine; become like God: be loving, be merciful, be patient, show kindness to all.

 Be mindful!

 Do not fall into the errors of the apostle.

 Saint Paul misses an important point in the reading for today; he makes a grievous error.

 Know this: the spirit of God lives in all people. There is no question about it. God, the creator of the universe, the God of Jesus Christ dwells in all people. Do not doubt it. We are all God’s children, and God loves every single one of us; there is no exception.

 Jesus is our brother; our relationship to him is an ontological reality that cannot be abridged or denied. We do not have the power to undo it...even in our sins. Our relationship to God and Jesus is a determinative factor in the nature of our being, as all of our relationships are, no matter how remote or distant from us, in time and space, they might be.

 Relationality is a dimension of selfhood that is just as real as anything.

 Do not forget this.

 Consider the Gospel for today and be mindful. God is not served by a false narrative such as the narrative presented in today’s reading. Therefore, we must use reason to find a different meaning than the meaning which the narrative plainly delineates.

 The story of Lazarus is pure myth, Jesus did not call a corpse from the tomb. The story is either a complete fabrication, or it is intended as a metaphor. We must find the metaphor in the text, because to read it plainly is to subscribe to a lie, which is contrary to the way.

 In John the Lazarus narrative became convoluted by politics, conditioned by the ongoing disputes John’s community had with the Jewish people they lived in proximity to, a community they were doing everything in their power to distinguish themselves from, for the purpose of politics.

 In John the narrative goes to the issue of who people believe Jesus was, Christ the Son of God, rather than who he actually was and what he actually taught.

 For John’s community it was more important to believe the Church’s dogma, than to live according to Jesus’s teachings, in this way they were no different from the hypocrites Jesus struggled with during his own ministry a hundred and fifty years earlier.

 Know this: in the end, only our conduct matters. What we believe about Jesus, or his power to raise the dead only matters insofar as it influences our actions. What matters for the follower of the way, is that we fill ourselves with a spirit that desires to see everyone filled with life and wellbeing.

 The metaphor in today’s reading is this:

 We are all Lazarus, dead to the spirit of love, but if we listen we will be able to rise from the place where our selfishness has brought us, if we listen to the call and obey it when it comes, we will emerge from that place of loneliness and alienation wherein we work contrary to the will of God. Then we may embrace the light as an active participant in God’s loving work.

  

First Reading – Ezekiel 37:12-14 ©

I Shall Put My Spirit in You, and You Will Live

The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 129(130) ©

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,

  Lord, hear my voice!

O let your ears be attentive

  to the voice of my pleading.

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,

  Lord, who would survive?

But with you is found forgiveness:

  for this we revere you.

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

My soul is waiting for the Lord.

  I count on his word.

My soul is longing for the Lord

  more than watchman for daybreak.

(Let the watchman count on daybreak

  and Israel on the Lord.)

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Because with the Lord there is mercy

  and fullness of redemption,

Israel indeed he will redeem

  from all its iniquity.

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

 

Second Reading – Romans 8:8-11 ©

The Spirit of Him who Raised Jesus from the Dead is Living in ou

People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 11:25, 26

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;

whoever believes in me will never die.

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

 

The Gospel According to John 11:1 - 45 ©

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’ The disciples said, ‘Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?’ Jesus replied:

‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?

A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling because he has the light of this world to see by; but if he walks at night he stumbles, because there is no light to guide him.’

He said that and then added, ‘Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better.’ The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by ‘rest’ he meant ‘sleep’, so Jesus put it plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.’ Then Thomas – known as the Twin – said to the other disciples, ‘Let us go too, and die with him.’

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, ‘The Master is here and wants to see you.’ Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:

‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer. I knew indeed that you always hear me, but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

 

A Homily – The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year A)

A Homily - The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year A)

A Homily - The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year A)

 

First Reading – 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 22(23) ©

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:8-14 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 8:12

The Gospel According to John 9:1 – 41 ©

 

(NJB)

 

The readings for today begin with a proper myth; though it should be noted that a religion purporting to have been founded by the Spirit of Truth cannot be rooted in myth, the meaning of which will by necessity change time, and which when concretized into a form of fundamentalism encourages the reader to recast what had been intended as allegory into literalism.

When this happens it becomes too easy for the reader to overlook the wisdom predicated in following statement from the reading: “God does not look at the man but at the heart,” and focus on the inconsequential: “The spirit of God seized David and remained with him thereafter.”

Be mindful!

God, the creator of the universe, God is not a respecter of persons. There was nothing at all special about David, God is not a kingmaker and God does not intervene in the course of human events.

 Everything has its existence within God, every living being, each and every one of us, without God not one of us would be. God brings all of us into life, seizing us from the virtual-nothingness of mere potentiality, carried us into the light of actuality, and from the first moment of our being God is with us, as God is with everyone.

 David was not special, no more than you or I.

 Listen to the psalmist; God is the shepherd of us all. If we walk in the way of God, we will be shepherd to our sisters and brothers, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters.

 Know this, our time in this world is brief, and when it ends it is not the end of all things. If we are hungry, we are hungry only for a short time. If we thirst, it is but for a moment. In times of scarcity we must show our generosity, giving to those in need, trusting in God’s providence and finding our peace. It is not only because God loves you that God guides you; God blesses and guides us so that we may in turn may be a guide and blessing to others.

 Remember.

 The power of death and sin are temporary, only the divine endures forever. The divine spirit dwells within us, within each of us. Through the atonement, we also endure forever.

 If God has set a table before you, share it with the world; turn your adversaries into friends.

 Consider these words from the apostle; reflect on their meaning:

 What is exposed in the light will become light!

 The Gospel promises a time when their will be no darkness, when light will cover everything, and everything will be transformed by the light – into  light.

 We have a choice to make: we can wait for grace to break into our lives, or we can give up our shameful ways, our greed and jealousy, our miserliness and hatreds. We came give them up and walk into the light on our own.

 Be mindful!

 We are all walking in the way; the way does not exclude anyone. We are all moving inexorably toward God, the divine source of all being.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today!

 The intrigue presented here casts a pall over the best parts of the reading itself. Such is foibles of all human endeavors…handle it with care.

 When the good news is interwoven with internecine conflicts, legalisms and partisanship, its brightness is diminished; the way becomes lost in the fog.

 We do best when keep the preaching of Jesus focused on core principles and simple precepts.

 The way is light, the life of Jesus exemplifies this, he was anointed because of the quality of the life he lived. Christ is a light in the world.

 Follow it!

 Along the lighted way the blind will see, even those who have lived in perpetual darkness will see…we will all see…clearly.

 Believe it!

 The Gospel is hope; any reading that detracts from this hope, does not originate in the actual teaching of Jesus, but are in fact the interpolations of lesser men.

Discern them and reject them.

  

First Reading – 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13 ©

David is Anointed by Samuel

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen myself a king among his sons.’ When Samuel arrived, he caught sight of Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed stands there before him,’ but the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him: God does not see as man sees: man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.’ Jesse presented his seven sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ He then asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ He answered, ‘There is still one left, the youngest; he is out looking after the sheep.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send for him; we will not sit down to eat until he comes.’ Jesse had him sent for, a boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes and pleasant bearing. The Lord said, ‘Come, anoint him, for this is the one.’ At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him where he stood with his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord seized on David and stayed with him from that day on.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 22(23) ©

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

The Lord is my shepherd;

  there is nothing I shall want.

Fresh and green are the pastures

  where he gives me repose.

Near restful waters he leads me,

  to revive my drooping spirit.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

He guides me along the right path;

  he is true to his name.

If I should walk in the valley of darkness

  no evil would I fear.

You are there with your crook and your staff;

  with these you give me comfort.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

You have prepared a banquet for me

  in the sight of my foes.

My head you have anointed with oil;

  my cup is overflowing.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me

  all the days of my life.

In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell

  for ever and ever.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:8-14 ©

Anything Exposed by the Light Will Turn into Light

You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth. Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast. The things which are done in secret are things that people are ashamed even to speak of; but anything exposed by the light will be illuminated and anything illuminated turns into light. That is why it is said:

Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 8:12

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

 

The Gospel According to John – John 9:1 - 41 ©

The Blind Man Went Off and Washed Himself, and Came Away with His Sight Restored

As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?’ ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned,’ Jesus answered ‘he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

‘As long as the day lasts I must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.’

Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man, and said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (a name that means ‘sent’). So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, ‘Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘Yes, it is the same one.’ Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’ The man himself said, ‘I am the man.’ So they said to him, ‘Then how do your eyes come to be open?’ ‘The man called Jesus’ he answered ‘made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, “Go and wash at Siloam”; so I went, and when I washed I could see.’ They asked, ‘Where is he?’ ‘I don’t know’ he answered.

  They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had been a sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man’s eyes, so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, ‘He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see.’ Then some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man cannot be from God: he does not keep the sabbath.’ Others said, ‘How could a sinner produce signs like this?’ And there was disagreement among them. So they spoke to the blind man again, ‘What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?’ ‘He is a prophet’ replied the man. However, the Jews would not believe that the man had been blind and had gained his sight, without first sending for his parents and asking them, ‘Is this man really your son who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?’ His parents answered, ‘We know he is our son and we know he was born blind, but we do not know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his eyes. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.’ His parents spoke like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to expel from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. This was why his parents said, ‘He is old enough; ask him.’

  So the Jews again sent for the man and said to him, ‘Give glory to God! For our part, we know that this man is a sinner.’ The man answered, ‘I don’t know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see.’ They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He replied, ‘I have told you once and you wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples too?’ At this they hurled abuse at him: ‘You can be his disciple,’ they said ‘we are disciples of Moses: we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ The man replied, ‘Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing.’ ‘Are you trying to teach us,’ they replied ‘and you a sinner through and through, since you were born!’ And they drove him away.

  Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you.’ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him.

  Jesus said: ‘It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind.’

Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, ‘We are not blind, surely?’

Jesus replied: ‘Blind? If you were, you would not be guilty, but since you say, “We see,” your guilt remains.’

 

The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year A)

A Homily – The Third Sunday of Lent (Year A)

A Homily – The Third Sunday of Lent (Year A)

 

First Reading - Exodus 17:3-7 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

Second Reading – Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 4:42, 15

The Gospel According to John – 4:5 - 42 ©

 

(NJB)

Listen!

God, the creator of the universe, God is not a miracle worker and God does not intervene in human affairs, that is not how the divine interacts with the world. God did not cause water to flow from the rock in Horeb. God did not lead the people through the desert as a pillar of fire and a column of smoke; these are metaphors. God had nothing to do with any of the events described in the reading for today.

These cannot be presented as literalisms, because the faith of the Church cannot be built on lies. These events, while they may refer to a historical reality, they did not happen as described. We may take the narrative metaphorically; if we do we may then extract this meaning…trust God.

Trust in the divine while enduring your immediate struggle, God will not free you from it, you must bear it to the end, but trust in the divine that in the end all will be well.

Be mindful!

God is the author of our wellbeing, and God will bring us to it…in the end. The divine seed that God planted in you will blossom and come to fruition in the end, and this is true of everyone. We will be face to face with God, who is wellbeing, in the place beyond where God is all in all.

This is a sustaining hope, one that is wise to hold.

Remember.

The whole of creation belongs to God, all that is good and all that we fear, everything comes from God, and everything we experience will redound to the good.

This is the faith of that leads to the way.  

Listen!

God is not a king.

It is good to show our respect for the creator and sing songs in praise of God, but God is not a lord, rather the divine person is our loving parent, active in the life of every person, preparing each of according to God’s wisdom for the divine blessing that awaits us all.

Consider the teaching of the apostle.

When we say that we are judged as righteous, and that we are at peace with God by faith; we mean to say that our trust in God’s promise of peace, and God’s promise regarding the restoration of the entire world, allows us to lead lives that are humble, just and merciful and this is the path to righteousnesss.

If we boast that our faith, this trust in God’s plan for the entire human race allows us to see the coming of God, it is only because we know that God dwells within us already, and in the relationships we have with each other. We know that when we look into each other’s hearts, we are able to see the beauty of the divine, the same divine spirit present in ourselves, and fully manifest in the love care we show toward each other.

Understand this!

Contrary to what the apostle taught and the church upholds, Jesus was not a sacrificial victim. His blood did not have magic powers. God, does not love holocausts and burnt offerings. The slaughter of Jesus, and his death on the cross was not a “type” of, or even the “type” of the paschal ritual in the Hebrew cult of animal sacrifice.   

God loves mercy and God love justice, not blood and guts burning in the fire. Jesus himself preached from the prophetic tradition that taught this.

What Jesus did was to act mercifully and with full regard for his followers when he allowed himself to be taken to the cross, many would have died if he had not and he had thousands of followers. He gave his life to save them, to save them in their own time and place, he did not give his life as a cosmic sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Jesus was a man, and this is the truth, and the Church must contend with it.

Consider the gospel for today.

This is not a story about who Jesus is. Though most readers and interpreters of the sacred text treat it as such. This is not a story about the Messiah or the Christ or living water, and it is not a story about baptism or even the benevolent mercy of Jesus. In sitting down with the woman by the well Jesus was not doing anything extraordinary. He was simply following the way; teaching its principles through simple actions.

This is a story about discipleship, and the first Apostle of the Christian Church; she was a woman, she was a woman without a husband, she was an outsider and a she was Samaritan.

It is clear from the text that this Samaritan woman was a person of influence in her community, we know this because after she met Jesus she went to speak with the people of her town, and on the strength of her testimony we are told that the entire community converted to the faith.

This community became the very first organized group of Christians, they are an an entire community of believers, formed by the witness of this woman, who shared with them a story about the compassion of Jesus, which opened their hearts to the way.

Jesus says to the disciples who arrived late in the day, after his encounter with his first apostle; he tells them that the harvest is already coming in, speaking of the work that he had just begun with this woman and without them. Jesus and the woman by the well had sewn the field, with honesty and kindness, and the harvest was gathered without delay.

This is why Jesus told the disciples that they would take credit for the work that others had done, because even though this story endured, the woman by the well is not given credit for the work she did in forming this first Christian community, one or another of the disciples took the credit in the end.

Be mindful of this, follow Jesus in the way, do not emulate the prideful nature of the disciples.

First Reading - Exodus 17:3-7 ©

Strike the Rock, and Water Will Flow from It

Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses. ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt?’ they said. ‘Was it so that I should die of thirst, my children too, and my cattle?’

Moses appealed to the Lord. ‘How am I to deal with this people?” he said. ‘A little more and they will stone me!’ the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take with you some of the elders of Israel and move on to the forefront of the people; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the river, and go. I shall be standing before you there on the rock, at Horeb. You must strike the rock, and water will flow from it for the people to drink.’ This is what Moses did, in the sight of the elders of Israel. The place was named Massah and Meribah because of the grumbling of the sons of Israel and because they put the Lord to the test by saying, ‘Is the Lord with us, or not?’

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;

  hail the rock who saves us.

Let us come before him, giving thanks,

  with songs let us hail the Lord.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come in; let us bow and bend low;

  let us kneel before the God who made us:

for he is our God and we

  the people who belong to his pasture,

  the flock that is led by his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

O that today you would listen to his voice!

  ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

  as on that day at Massah in the desert

when your fathers put me to the test;

  when they tried me, though they saw my work.’

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

 

Second Reading – Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 ©

The Love of God Has Been Poured Into Our Hearts

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. And this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men. It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 4:42, 15

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

Lord, you are really the saviour of the world: give me the living water, so that I may never get thirsty.

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

 

The Gospel According to John – 4:5 - 42 ©

A Spring of Water Welling Up to Eternal Life

Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied:

 

‘If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you:

 

Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.’ ‘You have no bucket, sir,’ she answered ‘and the well is deep:

 

how could you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?’

Jesus replied:

 

‘Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again; but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again:

 

the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.’

‘Sir,’ said the woman ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water.’

‘Go and call your husband’ said Jesus to her ‘and come back here.’

The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’

He said to her, ‘You are right to say, “I have no husband”; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.’

‘I see you are a prophet, sir’ said the woman. ‘Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said:

 

‘Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know:

 

for salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour will come – in fact it is here already – when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth:

 

that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.’

 

The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah – that is, Christ – is coming; and when he comes he will tell us everything.’

 

‘I who am speaking to you,’ said Jesus ‘I am he.’

At this point his disciples returned, and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, ‘What do you want from her?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’

The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people. ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the town and they started walking towards him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, do have something to eat; but he said, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone been bringing him food?’

 

But Jesus said:

‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.

Have you not got a saying:

 

Four months and then the harvest? Well, I tell you:

 

Look around you, look at the fields; already they are white, ready for harvest!

Already the reaper is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, and thus sower and reaper rejoice together.

For here the proverb holds good:

 

one sows, another reaps; I sent you to reap a harvest you had not worked for. Others worked for it; and you have come into the rewards of their trouble.’

 

Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of the woman’s testimony when she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to believe; and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.’

 

The Third Sunday of Lent (Year A)