Commentary
Sunday, 3/19/2016, Third Sunday in Lent
The Great Intercessor
First Reading Commentary, Exodus 17:3-7
The people held a council against Moses and Aaron complaining because there was no water. They asked, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?” The Israelites had already been punished for their grumbling by God who told them that they would wander in the desert for forty years. Why were they still complaining and why did they not get the message? Because, they were hard headed, stubborn and defiant. So, Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people?”
Sometimes, our children are defiant and we have to correct them for committing the same act of misbehavior over and over again. We adults are not any better. We did the same thing when we were kids and we still do the same thing now. In Confession, we confess the same sin multiple times.
But just as we love our children and take care of them because we love them, no matter how angry we may be with them for being hard headed; God takes care of us and He took care of the Israelites. God told Moses to take his staff and strike the rock to bring forth water for the people to drink. Moses did as the LORD commanded in the presence of the elders and water gushed out in abundance.
Three things come to mind when I think about the water that came from that rock. 1- I think about Christ being lanced on the cross. 2- I think about the Eucharist with the Most Precious Blood as our spiritual drink. 3- I think of Baptism where we are sanctified by being cleansed of original sin.
The place where this happened is called Massah (the place of the test) and the waters are known as the waters of Meribah (the place of the quarreling) because it was there that the children of Israel contested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD in our midst or not?”
We see something more than the weak faith of the Israelites in this event. In spite, of his obvious frustration with the people, Moses interceded for them even though they failed to show gratitude for what the LORD had done. Instead, they still questioned and expressed doubt.
There is a limit as to how much you can advocate for someone who is being ungrateful. There comes a point where you become tired and you begin to believe that maybe you are wasting your time. There comes a point where you begin to believe that the one who you are advocating to will lose patience and never agree to what you are asking. The grumbling of the Israelites had no doubt driven Moses to that point.
It is all about faith! Moses had a very special relationship with God and did not need to be told about what God could do. He did not need to be told that all one has, to do is ask. These are themes which are consistent throughout the bible. Moses had to know from his experience with God that he had a special intercessory relationship with God. Therefore, he had no reason to doubt.
But as I said, Moses had been pushed to his human limits which is why he asked the LORD, “What shall I do with this people?” Nevertheless, Moses still willingly approached the LORD on behalf of the Israelites proving to be a great intercessor.
What we learn from this is that no matter who we are or what we do or what we say, if our faith does not run deep in our hearts, we may lose our eternal glory in heaven. The good news for Moses is that he corrected his mistake and has a special place in heaven. If this were not so, he would not have appeared with Jesus at the Transfiguration which was last Sunday’s gospel.
Anyone who evangelizes must rely on faith and can learn from Moses who did not give up. When we get tired and begin to feel like we are wasting our time, we should look to Moses for strength because he has been there, done that, and knows all about that! And every time that Moses asked, in spite, of the people’s ungratefulness, God delivered.
Like Mary and all, of the saints, Moses is an intercessor. But the greatest intercessor of all is Jesus who gave His life for our salvation.
Lent is a special time for us to stop and consider this: God is our Creator. God is the Trinity. The Son interceded for us with His life and the Holy Spirit, who always works within us, is our Advocate. The point is that God loves us so much that He makes Himself our greatest intercessor and our greatest Advocate. All we have, to do is show our gratitude with our faith.
God Paid Our Debt and Gave Himself to Us
Second Reading Commentary Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Christians everywhere believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior. It is because of our faith in Christ that through Him, we are able to be justified and find peace. In other words, we are able to be forgiven for our sins and the peace that we find is in heaven. It is because of this that Paul tells us that we boast in hope of the glory of God.
We hope for the glory of God because we look forward to the second coming of Christ. On that day, Christ will come in all of His glory and take those who have faith in Him to His Kingdom of Heaven.
Paul tells us that hope does not disappoint because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This means that God has given Himself to us. It also means that the Holy Spirit is a part of us and indeed He is always there in our consciences with His gifts which are designed to keep us out of trouble (sin).
We should also remember that hope does not disappoint because God does not break promises. We are promised eternal peace and happiness in God’s Kingdom if we keep our faith, obey the Commandments and repent for the sins which we commit. Christ gave His life so that this promise could be fulfilled.
The words are so easy to say and so easy to just pass right by when being read but stop and meditate on them for a moment. Christ gave His life so that His promise to us of salvation and eternal peace could be fulfilled.
As Paul tells us, Christ died while we were still helpless at the appointed time for the ungodly. We were both helpless and ungodly because of sin and we remain that way if we are without faith and fail to repent. But because Christ has already paid the supreme price on our behalf, all of us, no matter how helpless and ungodly we may be, can achieve the reward of heaven.
But Christ also sacrificed Himself for the just and the good. The way that Paul says this should make us stop and think. Paul makes his main point when he says, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” In other words, Christ died for all of us—the godly and the ungodly because we are all sinners.
The Woman Became a Messenger
Gospel Commentary John 4:5-42
The gospel of the Woman at the Well contains some very profound messages for us. Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at the well and He asks her for a drink. She asked Jesus how He could ask her for a drink since Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans. Jesus told her that if she knew the gift of God and who was asking, she would have asked Him and He would have given her living water.
What we learn right away is that Jesus practices what He preaches. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor and He tells us to proclaim the gospel to all people. In this encounter, Jesus does both showing us that He does not exclude anyone and reaches out to everyone. Also, in a subtle way, Jesus proclaims his divinity.
The woman cited that Jesus did not have a bucket and she asked Him, “Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? So, Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but…the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
At this point, the woman still does not know who Jesus is but she was curious and had enough faith in Jesus to want the water of life that He had to offer even though she was a Samaritan. Think about this woman’s level of faith in Jesus having just met Him, still not knowing who He was and compare it to those of us who know very well who Jesus is but still refuse to follow Him.
But Jesus was not done with her. Jesus knew that she was willing to listen and He knew that she was thirsty for something more than water (H2O). So, Jesus gave her a sign. He told her to go and bring back her husband and when she admitted to not having a husband, Jesus told her that she had already had five husbands and that the one she was with at the time was not her husband. In other words, Jesus let the woman know that He knew that she was an adulterer. To this she said, “What you have said is true.”
This presents another profound message for us. We cannot hide our sins from God. He is all knowing and is aware of our sins before we even commit them. There is only one way to approach God in our brokenness and that is to admit to our sins. That is the first step in being forgiven and that is what the woman did even though she did not realize it at the moment that she spoke.
But why did she not want to know how this stranger knew so much about her and what business was it of His? That is the way that most of us would have reacted. Unless we knew very absolutely that we were facing our Creator, most of us would have copped an attitude and been ready for an argument to say the least. But instead, this woman’s faith increased and she said, “I can see that you are a prophet.”
Then worship became the subject of discussion. She told Jesus that her ancestors had worshipped on the mountain where they were but that the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem. Jesus said, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."
I get two messages from what Jesus said here. 1- We can worship God in or at any place, at any time and for any reason. 2- We will worship God and give Him all praise and glory when we get to heaven.
Jesus told the woman that her people worshipped what they did not understand and said, “We worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. One could write a book on this statement from Jesus but the essence is that the Samaritans did not know who God was and that the Son of God was a Jew as was promised in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 to David.
The Jewish faith does not recognize Jesus as the Second person of the Trinity. Nevertheless, Christians should understand and not forget that Christianity has deep roots in the Jewish religion because Christ was a Jew. In fact, there are many practices and traditions within the Catholic Church which have their roots in the Old Testament coming from Judaism.
Keeping with the theme of worship, Jesus then gave the woman somewhat of an explanation of the Trinity. How many of us would like Jesus to sit down and explain things to us? I would! The woman at the well had that opportunity because of her increasing faith.
Jesus began by telling the woman that the time had come for worshippers to worship the Father in Spirit and truth and that the Father was seeking such people to worship Him. With this statement, Jesus proclaimed the Trinity—the Father, the Spirit and the Son who is the Truth.
Notice the wording, “…worship the Father in Spirit and truth…” Christians, Jews and Muslims alike know that the Father is God. Jesus was saying that God is also the Spirit and the Truth and that the Spirit and the Truth are in us. The woman told Jesus that she knew that the Messiah, the one called Christ was coming. Jesus said, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”
This conversation could not have taken more than a few minutes. Yet, in that short amount of time, because of her openness to faith, she became a believer and Christ revealed His identity to her.
Remember that the Jews and Samaritans did not get along and did not speak to each other. Remember too that in those days, it was not the custom for a man to approach a strange woman and strike up a conversation. So, when the disciples returned, they were amazed that Jesus was talking with her. Jesus threw all of that out of the window because His saving grace is for anyone who wants it.
The woman on the other hand, left her water behind and went into town telling the people what had happened and many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe because of the woman’s testimony.
Jesus not only reaches out to us. He also uses us to proclaim His Truth. Here, Jesus used the Samaritan woman at the well to reach many other Samaritans who invited Him to stay with them. After a couple of days, many of them were saying to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
What the other Samaritans said to the woman can be easily misconstrued unless we consider it with this thought in mind: When we hear the Word of God, do we put our faith in the person who is giving us the Word or do we put our faith in the Word—God? The Samaritans were saying that the woman was a messenger but their faith was in God.
