March 7, 2010
Third Sunday of Lent
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
The LORD answered Moses, “Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.” This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. Exodus 17:5-6
For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8
The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, 11 the one who is speaking with you.” John 4:25-26
Piety
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” The Lord is forever speaking to us through creation and all the good things of our lives. It is harder to realize that he is also speaking t o us through the rough times of life. The love of the cross is not easy for any of us. Graces are gifts and gifts have to be accepted. It is easy to reach out for the good things of life. The hard things make us flinch. The good things of life are like the burning bush of Exodus. We are attracted to the good things of life. The way we listen to what the Lord is trying to say to us gives us pause to reflect. A Lenten fast can make us aware of the attractiveness of food. Good food has its own attraction. Hunger makes everything seem tasty. To freely give up satisfying hunger is a major decision of grace when it is built around looking at the fast of Christ. Imitating the fast of Christ is what makes a Christian fast. Trying to lose weight makes a secular fast. We are called by our piety to use the tools of the spiritual journey which are prayer, fasting and good works. How we make our plan should be the result of a good process of discernment about how we can draw closer to Christ. If I connect my hunger to Christ, I will think of him with each pang of hunger. If I appreciate how Christ identifies with the hungry of our world, I will find Christ in myself when I am hungry. And my hunger can be for deeper awareness of the love of God in my life through Christ. I can be hungry for Christ. And I can be hungry in his name.
Study
The Story of the Samaritan Woman is an important story in the Gospel of John. The thirst that Christ has makes him notice the Samaritan Women and respond to her coming. That Christ has so much more to offer than the drink of water he so obviously wanted catches her by surprise. We hear the voice of the Lord not only by our own needs, but also by the needs of those around us. We study the events in the life of Christ such as the story of the Samaritan women that we might come to be aware of the Lord speaking to us in the events of our own daily lives. It Is one thing to say that in any moment we have all of God’s love coming to us by what is happening. It is another thing to realize that God gave us our freedom that we all too often surrender to our passions or bodily needs. The study of the events of Scripture helps us to realize that life itself is how God most loudly speaks to us in our needs and our pleasures. The fire that Moses saw at Horeb stuns him in the remarkable sight of a burning bush that is not consumed. We need to look beyond appearances if we are going to come alive to the voice of the Lord in life itself. In every happening of our lives, God is there to be found by our study of our environment.
Action
St. Francis is reputed to have said; Preach always and occasionally use words. The Lord is asking us by the example of the saints of our lives to do likewise with our lives. The best sermons we will ever give will be the actions of our lives that do good for others. Reaching out and offering help to the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, prisoners and the needy of life around us will merit us the call of Christ to sit with him; He takes whatever good we do in life as if it were done for him directly when we do it for his poor.
