Homily:
Third Sunday of Lent
March
3 , 2002
Most
Reverend José H. Gomez
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver
My sisters and brothers in Christ:
“The water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life” St. Jn. 4, 14
Today’s readings bring to us the image of water as a source of life.
Both in the human and the spiritual life water is an indispensable
element to stay alive and to be healthy. Water is essential for
human life, and the water that can satisfy our spiritual thirst
is the grace of God.
It is a very appropriate image for today’s celebration because in
a sense our Candidates will start a new life today. A life of grace
in the Catholic Church to the service of God and others.
The account of Moses and the Israelites in today’s first reading
gives us a first-hand glimpse of the trials and joys of their long,
hard journey toward a deeper relationship with God. The people needed
each other and they needed God, only sometimes they forgot it. “In
those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against
Moses, saying. ‘Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just
to have us die here of thirst with our children and livestock? …”
Ex. 17,3-7
We are also prone as a people and as individuals not to recognize
God’s presence among us. Specially when things turn the wrong way
or we don’t understand something or we are asking for something
and we do not receive it right away.
For all of you accepted into full communion with the Church and
receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, this is a very important
issue because God is always with us and among us. Never forget that
God is with you always.
In the second reading, St. Paul tells the people that faith, hope
and love can help to sustain them on their journey. He tells them
that faith through Jesus will give them hope, a hope that will help
them endure the hardships that they will encounter as they preach
the Gospel of Jesus. Saint Paul goes on to teach that hope is satisfied
in the love of God “poured out into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us”.
The beginning of your “new life” is a special and challenging time.
You want to come to the Church because you want to have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. It is exciting but it is also difficult.
It is a high goal not to be completely achieved until you reach
heaven but it is possible because “the love of God has been poured
out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us” Rom. 5,1-2, 5-8.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is on his way to Galilee and has stopped
at a small Samaritan town. He is tired from his travels and stops
to rest and get water to continue on the way. What appears to be
an ordinary event turns into a divine revelation. The Samaritan
woman, a sinner, recognizes Jesus as a prophet and Jesus revels
himself to her as the Messiah: “I who speak to you am he” St. Jn.
4, 26.
“Grace brings about an amazing change in this woman. Now her whole
thinking centers around Jesus; she forgets what brought her to the
well; she leaves her pitcher behind her and goes off to the town
to tell people about her discovery” The Navarre Bible, Gospels and
Acts, p. 555.
This is also what is happen to you today. You have had a personal
encounter with Jesus Christ and he wants you to have faith in him
and to share your discovery with other people.
“This episode shows a whole evangelization process at work, beginning
with the Samaritan woman’s enthusiasm. ‘The same thing happens today
with those who are outside, who are not Christians: they receive
tidings of Christ through other Christian friends; like that woman,
they learn of Christ through the Church; they come to Christ, that
is they believe in Christ through this report, and then Jesus stays
two days among them and many more believe, and believe more firmly,
the he indeed is the Savior of the world’” St. Augustine in Navarre
Bible, Gospels and Acts, p. 556
Our time is a time of faith. Faith is the only thing that
gives us security and meaning. We are children of God. We believe
in the existence of God. One God and Three Persons: the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Life, teachings and
Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior and Redeemer.
Our mission is to share this wonderful gift that we have with other
people. “All faithful are called to take part in the work of evangelization:
‘Since Christians have different gifts they should collaborate in
the work of the Gospel, each according to his opportunity, ability,
charism (gifts) and ministry…’” Vatican II, Ad gentes, 28in Navarre
Bible, Gospels and Acts, p. 555.
You must be thinking, How am I going to do it?
With the help of the Grace of the Holy Spirit … The Gifts of
the Holy Spirit that you are receiving today.
They are “qualities imparted to the soul which make the soul responsive
to the movements of grace and give facility in the practice of virtue.
They make the soul alert to the silent voice of God within, docile
to His gently guiding hand. We might say that the gifts of the Holy
Spirit are the “lubricant” of the soul, as grace is the power of
the soul”
(The Faith Explained, p. 110).
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are:
Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety,
and fear of the Lord. (Cf. The Faith Explained,
p. 111)
In Today’s Gospel, Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for water: “Give
me water to drink”. She was surprised: “How is it that you, … ask
me for water…?” Jesus is still thirsty of our faith. He asks us
for the water of our commitment to our faith.
But then Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “If you knew the gift
of God, and who is it that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’,
perhaps you might have asked him and he would have given you living
water”
The gift of God is the Holy Spirit and the living water is the grace
of God. For all of us, this Lenten season is a time to change our
hearts, listen to God and rise when we stumble in our lives. It
is a time to open our hearts to the Gift of God, the Holy Spirit,
and to look for the living water, the grace of God, that comes to
us through the Sacraments.
Let’s ask Mary, our Blessed Mother for her intercession that today
you renew your faith as you start this new life, a life of
faith that fills your whole life with meaning, with security and
with joy.
“Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water
I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to
eternal life” St. Jn. 4, 14
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