May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still helpless, Christ extended
his love to us. St. Paul has been
reminding us in these weeks of the eternal love of the eternal God. Before the foundation of the world, God has
loved us. And while we were still
sinners, God extended his love to us in Christ Jesus. It was not because we were so very good that
Christ was sent. We did not earn and
could not earn the presence of God. We
were helpless. We could only receive his
presence as the gift of the Father.
Christ came to us while we were still helpless and Christ died for us
while we were still sinners. It was not
because we deserved him, but because God’s love for us is far deeper and far
more powerful than our sins.
The Israelites in our first reading complained and complained
and complained in the desert. They
grumbled because they were thirsty. The
people asked God for water, and God provided.
In our Gospel today, it is God who asked the Samaritan woman for water.
The Lord Jesus was resting at the well in the middle of the
day, and the Samaritan woman came to draw water. The detail about the time of day shows us how
separated this woman was from her community.
It is hot in the middle of the day.
It is, in fact, very hot, in the middle of the day. The respectable women would have come early
in the morning to draw water. She would
not have been welcome then. She had a
trail of husbands and the man she now lived with was not her husband. She was isolated because of her sins. She was alone. Because whenever we make friends with
temptation and sin, we will eventually be left alone and isolated. This is one of the most drastic and damaging
effects of sin. Sin isolates us. Sin not only separates us from God, but from
each other as well. By our sins, we
actually drive out love from our soul. And
so we have less love within us to share, and that separates us from
others.
The Samaritan woman was separated from God and separated from
her community. And yet, while she was
still in her sins and before she gave any sign of conversion or repentance, the
Lord Jesus reached out to her. He asked
her for a cup of water. He approached
her first. The power of the love of
Christ broke through the walls of her sin and isolation. Asking only for a cup of water, the Lord
Jesus offers her the waters of eternal life.
There was the Lord Jesus at the well, loving her when she was so
isolated from him and from everyone else.
While we were still sinners Christ died for us. While we were still helpless, Christ extended
his love to us.
And the love, compassion and mercy that Jesus Christ, our
Lord and our God, extended to the woman at the well, he extends to you and to
me. Even in our sins, Jesus Christ looks
on each of us with love. Even in, and
especially in, our isolation, Jesus Christ invites us into communion with
him. He asks us for a cup of water, and
he offers us the waters of eternal life. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church, Monroe, NC
