Third Sunday of Lent
Ex
17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42
I just came back from the clergy retreat in
Bundu Tuhan. Anyhow, it was a good
retreat. I had plenty of time to reflect and pray. The retreat reminds me very
much of another retreat which I had gone through some years ago, It was in
Chiang Mai, Thailand in a place run by the Jesuit priests called “The Seven
Fountains”. Like all good retreats, I was not allowed to talk during the
retreat except to the retreat master. No newspaper, no TV, no radio and also no
mobile phone allowed. At the end of every day, I would be seeing the retreat
master and shared to him my daily reflection.
I had a lot of reflections during the
retreat but in particular I remember sharing to the retreat master my
observation on one Sunday morning shortly before the Mass started. By the way,
there was a small European community staying around the retreat centre. On that
particular Sunday, I noticed a number of European families attending the Mass. And
there was this one European couple with a lot of children. There were about 8
to 10 children with this couple. The number of the children was already unusual
for a European family. But what most striking me was the sight that even though
the couple was European, the children with them were not all European. Some
were Black, some looked like Eurasians, and others were Thais. I was puzzling
because obviously they are not the offspring of the European couple.
That evening, I was eager to seek
clarification from the retreat master, only to find out that the children were
all “special children”. “Special” in the sense that, they were all the HIV
infected children. Many of them were abandoned children (possibly children of
prostitutes), who have never seen their own parents. The retreat master told me
that, in spite of their condition, the European couple had adopted them. I was
stunned. Probably if the children were all Europeans, I would not have been so
much taken aback. But this European couple have treated the children as their
own regardless of the colour of their hair and eyes. For this European couple,
there was no such thing as human boundaries in the sense of racial or political
or even religious differences. That indeed was a great act of charity and a
living witness of human solidarity.
Today’s Gospel conveys the same massage for
us. The story of encounter between Jesus
and the Samaritan woman at the well is a story of breaking the human boundaries
by means of religion, racial and also political differences.
As a matter of fact, the Jews and the
people of Samaria were brothers. But centuries earlier, the Samaria had
intermarried with foreigners hence they were not allowed to share in the
building of the Temple nor were they allowed to worship there. And so, in the
year 931 BC, Samaria broke away from Judah and built their own temple on Mt.
Garizim. For the Jews, however, the temple in Jerusalem was the only place of
worship authorised by God thus the temple on Mt. Garizim was considered as a
pagan temple. So from that time onwards the people of Samaria had been most
unfriendly to the Jews. Sometimes they waylaid and even murdered them,
especially when the Jews were on their way to pray in the Temple of Jerusalem.
That day at Jacob’s well, Jesus broke down
the separating wall between the Samaritans and the Jews. But more than that,
Jesus offered the Samaritan woman a “new life”. The gospel tells us that the
Samaritan woman had had 5 husbands. It tells not only the unruly social status
of the woman but the desperation in her life. She was thirst for the meaning in
life and now Jesus is offering her the fountain of the living water. This water
is more powerful than the water from Jacob’s well. It is also far greater than
that of the rock, at Massah and Meribah, as mentioned in the first reading
today. This water, offered by Jesus, is springing up to provide the grace of
eternal life. This is the ‘grace’ St Paul was referring in his letter today to
the Romans. The grace that has enabled
us to share the glory of God the Father, in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus the
fountain of the living water.
Today, as we gathered here, the word of God
invites us, who thirst for meaning in life, to come to Jesus the fountain of
the living water. Too often, though, we try to quench our thirst with alcohols,
drugs, sex, works or material possessions. We think that five husbands/wives,
or five cars, or five figures of earnings or five of whatever will satisfy our
thirst for human fulfilments. And too often, in our attempt to quench our
thirst with these “deadly water”, we set human boundaries of classes,
politics, status, races and even gender.
The Words of God today reminds us that none
of these things satisfy us completely. They always leave us thirsting for
better things. But when we drink the water that Jesus gives—the water of his Word
in the Scripture; the water of his Spirit in the sacraments; the water in his presence
in prayer; the water of his grace in ministry—not only that we will never be
thirsty anymore but he will make us the channel of his fountain to others.
The European couple in Chiang Mai, Thailand
must have tasted this living water of Jesus. Let’s learn from them.