3rd Sunday of Lent - Fr. Leo
As Jesus sits tired next to Jacob’s well, and his disciples go off and leave him alone, a Samaritan woman comes to draw water. Jesus knows this woman’s personal history and her unfaithfulness to the cultic laws of her faith. Notice that Jesus does not judge or condemn her. He sees this meeting as an opportunity. Through their dialogue, this woman comes to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the messiah of God. Her faith frees her from her past and restores her to communion with her community. She becomes their apostle, as they come to believe In Jesus through their own experience of the Christ.
Freed from the law, the Samaritan woman now lives in the Spirit of Christ. This gift of faith is what Jesus stepped over cultural boundaries to give. Remember, she was a Samaritan and a woman. Two things that were to keep their conversation from happening. But Jesus, to the amazed witness of the apostles, ignores the law and brings the gift of faith to an out cast woman who came in the heat of the day to avoid ridicule from her community.
The Samaritan woman’s gift of faith becomes a gift to her community. With a new confidence she goes to them and shares her experience. Something that would have taken a lot of humility before. They listen and believe because of her honesty and then because of their own experience of Christ’s sin the two days he stayed with them.
Notice, that genuine faith builds genuine community. Condemnation is gone while faith, understanding, and the bonds of love now undergird the life of the peoples. So, let us pray for the faith that overcomes condemnation, and brings us all to live in the gift of Christ’s Holy Spirit without shame as the adopted daughters and sons of God. Amen.