3rd Sunday of Lent

If you look online, or in the missalette, there are some options for today’s readings, you can use the regular readings from year b for the Third Sunday of Lent, or you can use the readings for the Scrutiny’s that can take place today for those looking to receive the Sacraments. I opted to go the latter route, in part because we will be celebrating the Scrutiny’s, but also because the Gospel message from today is one of my all-time favorites. You see in today’s Gospel God shows us just how different His way of approaching things is from our own. The same patient God, who in our first reading puts up with the grumblings of His chosen people, who He delivered from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, now make accusations against both Moses and He. They have so little faith that they thought that He may let them die of thirst in the desert, after He went to all the effort to deliver them from Pharoah. I think this may have been one of those moments that every parent has to endure, and that truly defines their patience, and in the end God delivers, with a miracle of a gushing spring from a rock in the desert.

The things is, God was just getting warmed up with the water He provided his children. This is was simply sustenance for babes, because his people were still very much in their infancy. The time was coming though, when they had grown sufficiently as a people, to be taught some new and more complex lessons. This is where todays Gospel comes in, the teacher is going to show His people how very different His way of looking at things is from their own, and He does this as he is among them in human form, as Jesus. His disciples had already begun to realize a bit of how different things were in His teachings and outlook, but the people in general still had not heard or seen much of the message, as this was still very early on in His ministry. So, how does our Lord go about making himself more known to the people in general? He starts by having a conversation with a woman of Samaria, who is despised by her own people because of her sins. Now let this sink in for a moment, the first person outside His followers that our Lord reveals His true nature to, as the Messiah, is (A) a woman, (B) a Samaritan, and (C) a publicly known sinner. To fully understand the implications of this, please know that in Jewish custom, you did not talk to a woman who was outside your family, you definitely had nothing to do with Samaritans who were basically your avowed enemies, and you certainly tried to avoid contact with known sinners. This was especially true if you were a teacher of the people, one who imparted God’s word. Yet this is exactly what our Lord does, and if anyone had any misconceptions up to that point about how different things were going to be, and how radically different the way that God saw things compared with our own perceptions, this moment should have brought a bit of clarity. Our Lord showed just how little God valued the categories that we as humans seem to feel the need to place things, and people in, so that we can better grasp or understand things, it is a function of our own limitations, and certainly one that God does not share. God does not put people into neat little boxes or categories, where everyone who commits a particular type of sin goes in their own neat little category or compartment. No, our Lord looks at the heart, and the mind, and the soul, as only He can to truly size each of us up and know where we need his help.  That is also key, He did not come to judge or condemn that woman at the well, He came to help her to be better than she was, to be a true child of God and to leave her sins behind. He came to call her to a fuller life, with the promise of one day, calling her to her true home with Him in heaven. He loves all of us, and His message is as true for each of us, as it was for her, God loves us and wants us, no matter where we are in life, and no matter what we have done. He wants us to live better, and to be with Him in eternal life – that is our loving God and Father, who always tries to show us love here, and to eventually call us lovingly home. Oh, and to paraphrase a bit from one of my favorite portrayals of biblical times, a video series called “The Chosen” that I highly recommend – get used to different.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-v7jvn-fcd27e