From our Pastor’s Desk

Dear Family:

Fair-weather Christians abound in our world today. These sing God’s praises when he blesses them but should any misfortune threaten, they ask like the Israelites of Moses’ time “Is the Lord among us or not” (Exo. 17:7). Grumbling and complaining about how unfair and unjust life has been to us is an act of ingratitude and worse still, despairing in times of trouble is our way of hitting God right in the face. It is an act of complete distrust. It is the wrong path to tread. When our businesses thrive, our health is sound, and the ships of our lives are sailing peacefully on smooth seas, then, we love and honor God. However, when businesses become sterile, when our health fails and the seas become stormy, we quickly grumble and anger God with our distrust.

The first reading today tells us part of the beginning story of the chosen people of God, the Israelites. Having lived in Egypt for about 430 years, suffering and slaving for the Egyptians, and having been liberated miraculously by God at the appointed time, it was only right that the Israelites trusted and thanked God. Considering the mighty deeds he had done pursuant to their liberation, it was preposterous for them to think he would let them die of thirst in the wilderness. They, like all of us today, were quick to forget the wonders of God in their lives and grumbled against him. God, who cannot be outdone in mercy and patience, overlooked their blasphemies and granted their request by quenching their thirst.

Nonetheless, the Chosen People of God did not remain only with Jewish people. The Chosen ones grew outside Israel by the actions of our Mesiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Paul reminds us of that today in the second reading. He says, “For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly.” St. Paul in his letters to the Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11, also stressed that the salvation brought by Christ is for all: Jew or Gentile, free or slave, man or woman. All the separating walls, the dividing ideologies, the barricades of language, the barriers occasioned by different belief systems between us are not reasons enough to build mantles of hate and enmity. The challenge for us is to break down every wall separating us from our brothers and sisters and build bridges linking us to one another.

Faith is not static. It is progressive. Our encounters with Christ in different experiences of life are meant to help us experience this progression of faith. It is properly called spiritual growth. Those who meet Christ are never the same. Their life is transformed, and they take it upon themselves to go and share what they have seen, heard and learned with others. Thus, our prayer in this particular liturgy is to ask Christ to increase our faith, to transform our life and to give us the zeal to go to others and share with them the Christ we have experienced.

Today’s story in the gospel is a perfect example of what St. Paul reminds us. Let us begin by mentioning that Samaritans and Jews were not best of friends. They differed on the fact that Samaritans did not favor the rebuilding of the temple when it was destroyed by the Babylonians. In addition, they also rejected the prophetic books but only adopted the Torah, the five Books of the Law. So, for these and other reasons, the two tribes were not at peace with each other. In fact, Jesus is not even supposed to be having a conversation with the Samaritan woman, he himself being a Jew. Even worse, a married woman was not supposed to be conversing with other men in public without the consent of her husband. So, when Jesus initiates the conversation, asking her for water, he crosses ‘sacred’ boundaries. It explains why the disciples are shocked when they come back to find him talking to this woman at the well.

The Samaritan woman reminds Jesus that he knows the relationship that exists between the two tribes, and so he cannot ask for water from her. But Jesus overturns the conversation by challenging her to have asked for living water from him herself. The woman responds by telling him that He does not even have the vessel with which to draw water. Jesus, at this point, realizes that she does not know who it is that is talking to her. So, he tries to explain what he means by “living water”: that whoever drinks this water shall have eternal life. The woman’s attitude, even with this explanation, still demonstrates to Jesus that she does not know him. Now his task is to help her move from thinking in the physical way to having a spiritual disposition for her faith to mature.

To help her understand the kind of person he is, Jesus begins to talk about her private life. She is mesmerized by this. She understand He is the Mesiah. Immediately, the woman leaves the jar because she is not in need of physical water of the well anymore. She has discovered the true water that does not need a jar. Her faith has matured. She has moved from understanding Jesus as “sir” to “prophet” and finally, to “messiah,” if you follow her conversation with him. And since she has had this encounter with Jesus, and her faith has grown, she has to go home and share her experience with the others so that they too may come to see the messiah. Jesus stays with the Samaritans for more days, and as we are told, they too believe in him. In fact, the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman symbolizes bringing Samaritans and Jews together. Jesus, therefore, becomes the bridge that reconciles the two groups.

Those who encounter Jesus are never the same. And since they burn with the fire of faith, they go out to share their experience so that many others should come to the knowledge of the truth, Christ himself. Faithlessness can be very detrimental to Christian life. Because of this the Israelites rose against God by complaining about water in the desert. The action of God through Moses reminds them that even if the going gets tough, God never abandons them. On our journey of faith, we are always with God and his presence is our strength; it is the grace that gives us courage to face life as it presents itself to us.

St. Paul helps us to understand the living water in terms of the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts. This Spirit helps us seek to understand God even more and strengthens us especially when our desert journey gets tough. We are never alone; God moves with us and what he desires is that our faith in him will progressively grow from its current strength to strength like the Samaritan woman at the well. We need to allow our faith to be increased because when faith is static or worse still, begins to regress, even the smallest problem we may encounter is enough to knock us down.

May we strive for what really matters, eternity even as we live in brotherly love bridging all the unnecessary gulfs that divide us and does not allow us to be One Body, One Spirit, One Family! Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Katharine Drexel, Saint Michael the Archangel, St. José Gregorio Hernández, Pope Saint Pius X, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Charbel, pray for us.

Yours in Christ!
Fr. Omar