FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

“ Im the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me”

(Jn.14,1-12)

Rev. Alexander Diaz

As time goes by, we enter deeper this wonderful time of Easter, today we are celebrating the Fifth Sunday of Easter.

This Sunday’s Gospel is a Gospel that recommend us to believe what Jesus does for the twelve. They feel in His words a great sadness, there is uncertainty in the teacher’s voice when He sees the human generation, that is represented by the Apostles, unable to believe and accept Him as Lord and Messiah.

Humanity has always questioned God and has turned against Him in spite of the multiple signs of love and in spite of His mercy shown thru His Son, Jesus Christ. The modern man and woman are day by day losing their faith and hope in God, not because God does not speak to them, but rather, very simply and straightforward, they have focused their attention on other concerns that do not allow them to believe, that makes them unhappy and lead them little by little to live a miserable and lonely life.

The Gospel of this Sunday reminds us that to have faith in the Father includes and realizes itself in our faith in Him. The encounter with the true God is possible only thru Jesus Christ: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn 14,6). All the paths in our sincere quest for our creator flows out to Christ.

To be a believer and to evangelize means to deepen the encounter of conversion with Jesus, to deeply know Him and to share the experience with others. To evangelize is not to indoctrinate or to commit oneself simply in social deeds; it is not even to give an intellectual speech about faith.

To evangelize is much more than that, it is to be a carrier, a bearer of a serious and profound friendship with the Lord. We have to try our best to get others to know Him with the same or deeper intensity.

Once someone asked Blessed John Paul II (Second), which was the most closer path to become a saint, the Blessed answered: the closer path to become a saint is to be a friend of Jesus, to establish a solid friendship without sense or notion, is simply to be an intimate friend in love and in the deep listening of this love. In our time, we have gotten used to receiving answers to the needs in our lives (i.e. food, clothes, etc).

They are satisfied and fulfilled with material things like money, machines, etc, instead of being fulfilled by people. It is true that all this comes to us thru the hands of other human beings, but none of these people become for us, the definite answer to all our interior needs.

We have made ours the famous phrase: “what you have is what you are worth” something that has no sense because material things do not develop or help you at all when you change it for the truth. In the context of the most profound needs of the human being is where Jesus’ affirmations are found. He is the path, and the truth and the life. It means this is the last explanation of the human life.

To find, to go in depth in the Lord is to build little by little the crossword puzzle of our lives. To put the pieces in their places so they will be completely visible. ¿How is it possible that those words pronounced by Jesus years ago, currently, at present, still make sense? ¿How Jesus keep on being today, after all these technical and industrial development, the answer to the human being?

The answers are very clear: Jesus’ words are addressed directly to the heart of each and every human being. It is the heart that must give the answer to the call. In spite of all the centuries, we, human beings, are not any different or unequal.

The history of humanity becomes present in our personal and specific history where we walk the same route. Also, on each one of us there is a prehistoric and a Middle Age, also a contemporary time that we have to learn how to conjugate in order to understand the role God plays in our lives.

Today text ends by reminding us that Jesus’ followers will do the works that He did and will do greater things than He did. The Lord describes to us the evolution process of faith.

Many people forget that faith has its process and an its evolution. We will not have a complete and total faith at the moment of our conversion.

Faith carves itself little by little, it is like a work of art where the authors are always two: God and you. In the extent we encounter the Teacher, we will become closer friends of Jesus and our faith will become more solid each day, because solid is our trust in Him.

AMEN!!

4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”

John 10, 1-10

Rev. Alexader Diaz

We are celebrating the fourth Sunday of Easter; this Sunday we call it Shepherd Sunday. Today is designated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations in the Catholic Church, it is specially set aside to pray that more men and women will hear and embrace the call to the priesthood and religious life; for the simple fact that the priest is the shepherd who feeds the spiritual flock entrusted to him.

In the Old and New Testament of the Sacred Scripture, we are compared to a sheep, in many cases we do not understand because we are not accustomed to seeing in it in our environment, in the Israelite culture was very common and many lived to be shepherds and devoted who lives to the care of these peaceful animals.

The image of the shepherd, so familiar to the people of God, is used by the Master to remind his people that He, who has conquered death, is the true guide of the Church. This suggestive image was used extensively in the Church of the early centuries, both in the preaching of the Fathers and as in the catechesis which was expressed through paintings.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who knows His flock and gives his life for them; “that God has made both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:14a, 36), and guides the "misguided" and is “guardian of our souls” (1 Pt. 2: 25).

He is the best of the shepherds, for He gives life- and in fact gave it - for his sheep. And his sheep know him and hear his voice. He also tells us that He knows each of his sheep by name and the sheep recognize his voice (cf. Jn. 10, 1-10).

We are the Lord's sheep. It means we are also fragile, as these helpless animals, although many times we believe to be very strong and very capable. We are, therefore, dependent on the Lord and, like sheep, we are not self-sufficient.

However, when we are deceived, we can spend much of our time and even our entire life, trying to be independent of God, trying to stand on our own.

How often does this happen to us? And it also happens that we get tangled in our spiritual life. And who can untangle us? Who can get us out of the bush or fence where we are trapped? Well, we already know it: we need our Shepherd. He looks for us, rescues us, heals us, and places us on his shoulder, like a lost sheep, to bring us back the fold. Out of 100 sheep, he leaves 99 safe in the fold and goes to look for the lost one.

How many times has the Lord done this with us, with each one of us every time we escape from the fold or take the wrong path. (Luke 15, 4).

We cannot, either, walk alone, "like lost sheep", as St. Peter says in the Second Reading (1 Pt. 2, 20-25); we risk being devoured by wolves who are always on the lookout.

Therefore, we have to recognize we are dependent of the Lord as are the sheep of his shepherd. So, like them, we can be totally obedient to the Voice and the Will of our Shepherd, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.

There is a figure totally opposite to that of the emblematic figure of the Good Shepherd; the bad shepherd, who Jesus called a thief and robber. We must not obey them.

They are not entering through the door of the sheepfold, but jumping from one side of the fence and try to deceive us, pretending to be shepherds just to take away the sheep.

These false shepherds are all those false teachers who confuse us, since they speak to us trying to imitate our Shepherd, with false teachings that seem real to get us out of the fold, to get us out of the Church, to make us lose the faith our Shepherd teaches.

They are the things that we see on TV, Internet, movies and books, which seem true but are errors. They are all modern errors and heresies contained -for example, that mass of lies that is the New Age.

The preachers of these errors is to whom Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel; who do not come through the door of the sheepfold, but instead jump on the other side: "A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;… My sheep recognize my voice... they do not recognize the voice of strangers". Beware of strange voices! Beware of not confusing them with the Voice of the Good Shepherd! They seem alike ... but are not.

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”

Jn. 24,13-35

Rev. Alexander Díaz

When confusion settles in the heart of the human being it is very difficult to recognize the presence of the Resurrected, because frustration and doubt fill the heart. This is what happens in the hearts of these two pilgrims, that frustrated were returning to Emmaus, to start their lives over again, they knew Jesus but never understood His principal mission.

They were walking fast with tears in their eyes, with lamentations, reproaches and resentments. Their words indicated their frustrations and resentments; this caused them to be blind and not be able to see clearly what the other pilgrim was telling them. This case of Emmaus, is the case of millions of Christians now-a-day, they live their own lives, with a Jesus of miracles, leader of the multitudes.

With a Jesus formed on their own way, but that is not real. They live, believing and thinking that the cross has no meaning, it is only an element of condemnation.

The Gospel explains to us that they were sad, that was the reason why when Jesus approached them, they were blind and could not recognize Him, because their disappointment has taken away their will to continue. In the tomb, they buried their hopes to be free and to overcome.

They left all their dreams inside the desolate cave. Many had told them that He was alive and resurrected, but they did not believe and by the look in their faces, they were not open to believe it. They were defeated and sadden, they were blind to themselves, they did not know how to digest their failure.

They tell Jesus. They tell Jesus their version of what had happened, but they do this with despair. They had waited, but their waiting had been useless. Now they return more disappointed than ever. Jesus’ words comfort them, but His death; the silence of the Teacher leaves them empty. Jesus begins to explain to them again, everything that was said about Him in the Scriptures. They listened but were not convinced.

They keep on walking. They arrive at the town and Jesus made believe He was going to continue ahead, but they invite Him to stay. They sit at table and again Jesus picks up the bread, giving thanks to God, He broke it and gave it to them. Scriptures says that at that moment their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus, but He disappeared. The last gesture Jesus had for His Apostles was a Supper.

Now, after His resurrection, He does the same gesture again in the fraction of the bread, that nourishes, that saves and opens the eyes of the blind. The Eucharist is the place of encounter with Jesus. He comes to them, giving Himself again, in a different way. He breaks for them, shares with them the bread and blesses God.

They discover Him, at the precise moment. How beautiful it would be if we, as Christians, as they did, could also discover Him in the breaking of the bread and that our eyes will open at the precise moment of this miracle.

The Christian life will always be linked, connected to the Eucharist, Cross and Resurrection. Over and over again in the life of the followers of Christ, these three moments will be present. There is a question that our non-believer friends ask: If Jesus resurrected, ¿Where is He now? Jesus is not in the tomb.

The tomb is empty. Neither is the resurrection a return to the past. The real encounter with Christ is now in the Word, in the Eucharist and in the profession of Faith. The Lord is in the new life that have come in the transformation of the suffering of this world. To find it, is to find the path to salvation. Jesus Resurrected is in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the special place for the presence of Christ.

To participate in the Eucharist means to have a personal encounter with Christ Resurrected. The Resurrected is also present where people feel united, together, where the same feeling is shared.

The Resurrected is among the most weak and poor of society, those that are most vulnerable to lose. Jesus, by overcoming death, allows them to regain their strength to continue life’s path, with hope and happiness in their hearts. To see, most of all see, that He is always by our side in all the moments of the journey thru our existence.

Do not lose hope. When you feel lonely and beaten; do not lose courage when you feel defeated, because Jesus will always be walking beside you as a pilgrim, recognize Him when your heart starts burning and when it feels comforted, it is Him, it could be no one else. He is alive and walks with us, Amen!

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed”

Jn. 20, 19-31

Rev. Alexander Diaz

We are celebrating the Second Sunday of Easter, called “Divine Mercy Sunday”, because it shows the mercy of the Resurrected to one of his apostles that proudly does not believe, just because he has not seeing with his own eyes this miracle. Every single year we read the same reading, precisely because it gets us closer to the mystery of this Sunday.

First it reinforces that Sunday comes from the Lord. The first Easter Sunday is the day of the manifestation of the Resurrected, first to the women, later to the disciples. The first concern the Lord had, was to reunite the disciples after the scandal of the cross. The second Sunday, the first of the week, and this is, today, the Resurrected returns to reunite the disciples to confirm them on their faith.

To confirmed them on their faith was not an easy task, since in order to digest the scandal of the cross, was not simple, neither was it acceptable because of the consequences it entailed, the fear was eminent. The Gospel tells us that “when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews” (Jn. 20,19). Fear is one of the mechanisms that evil uses to bind us and not allow us to grow and be fruitful as true, real Christians.

Jesus came and stood in their midst, and with very simple words, words that will forever mark the lives of all Christians; “Peace be with you” (Jn. 20,19). Peace is the first message of the Resurrected to the eleven, an element that will allow men to transcend and find himself. This is why a Christian that is not a bearer, carrier, an announcer of peace, have not understood Jesus’ project. The Apostles were full of resentment and hate against those who crucified our Lord Jesus to the cross.

Blessed John Paul II (second) told us, the Christians of the third millennium many time, “The Christians, in particular, are called to be guards of peace, in the places where they live and work, in other words, we are asked to watch out so the consciences do not give in to the temptation of selfishness, deceit, lies and violence.

Let us, together, ask God, who is rich in mercy and pardon, to subdue the sentiments of hate in the moods of the populations, to cease the horror of terrorism and lead the steps of the people responsible of the nations thru the path of mutual understanding, solidarity and reconciliation”. Only when the human being is able to find peace within himself, then he will understand what is the real significance of his vocation.

One of the fruits of fear and being afraid, is frustration and rejection, skepticism and unbelief when confronted with new events, this is what happened to Thomas. He was not in the second day of the week when this happened, for this reason he becomes arrogant when faced with the resurrection. Thomas does not believe in God’s great things easily. Thomas is today’s world that asks for proofs and certainties. The world asks for such huge proof, that only God can give it to them thru His Resurrection. We asks God for signs and proofs when in reality, we are a mystery to ourselves and even to others.

Only for God we are not a mystery. God knows what resides in our hearts and knows how to give the correct answer at the right time. God knows of our deaths and resurrections, He knows of our cowardice, greatness and miseries. He knows the mud we are made of. To live as a Christian is to tune in our life to the rhythm of God, only then will life give us answers. To put your fingers in the wounds of Jesus is to enter His interior, to discover His pains and surrender for us. ¿Don’t we live a weak faith, which many times, does not transform us? To go into Jesus interior is to feel like Him.

Our life is full of sins and mistakes that multiply as we get farther and farther from God. It is not estrange then, that in the text of Jesus’ appearance, the reference to the Holy Spirit appears and also the forgiveness of sins. To accept the Holy Spirit is to accept the presence of God in our lives. When a person is with God and in God, sin plays a very small part in his existence.

Thomas asked for vital proof. He needed to see, touch, feel the tangible presence of the supposedly Resurrected. To evangelize is nothing else than to offer others this sensible experience of Jesus. To believe is to see, to touch, to feel Christ.

The crisis of the apostle was more of faith than of reasoning. When we follow the path to the Resurrected, the doubts become less and less each time. Some people suffer internally because their doubts would not allow them to believe in no one, not even in themselves. ¿What does a person without faith needs to feel the presence of the Resurrected? It gives me the impression that he must start at the beginning, go over and over again from Bethlehem to the Cross and the Resurrection Sunday with amazement and respect.

When we put our fingers in the wounds of Christ, it does not causes pain, but Love. Love that changes and converts the heart of anyone who gets close to Him.

Amen!

Fifth Sunday of Lent

“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live”

Jn 11, 1-45

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Today the word brings us to see Jesus, human and divine.  We don’t see only a Jesus who heals and resurrects at the same time, we see a Jesus who cries, who is perturbed by His friend’s death, a Jesus who has friends, a Jesus close to his people.  He was perturbed and wept over the loss of His friend.

This shows us the quality of human being that He was, His words become alive among us.   There are many people who, when the subject of death is approached, get shocked, they get depressed or they simply are afraid to touch the subject.  This will destroy them and submerge them in sadness. 

They try to prevent talking about death as much as possible.   Jesus gets close to us and gives us an answer, when we are confronted with the sad reality of death.  It is normal to falter when we lose a love one,  to miss him.  

It hurts us to see him return to the Father’s house,  it is normal to experiment all these feelings, we are not saying it is wrong to feel that way, even Jesus in today’s Gospel felt and do the same, what is not normal is not to accept this moment, which we all will go thru and face sooner or later. 

But that will only be a bridge that will mark the beginning of a new life.  So when we die, we will still live, spiritually speaking.   This Sunday’s Gospel makes us reflect in a profound manner about the subject of not only our corporal and biological death, but also the spiritual death that so many of us are submerged in our society.

Jesus goes to Lazarus tomb and tells them to “Take away the stone”.  Martha, sister of the deceased , answers: “Lord, by now there will be a stench, he has been dead for four days” Jn11,39).  The teacher is not worried about the stench, His only interest is to bring him out of the bad smelling and no sense tomb. 

The dead ones who need to come out of the tomb are those people who stop growing and have lost all hope.  Are the ones who live full of fears, when the Gospel tells us time and time again:  “Do not be afraid”.  Those are the people who have very easily thrown down the towel, when Jesus invites us to fight. 

To be dead in and buried in, is to be unhappy, is to allow love to die, to allow loneliness to win the fight, to be a coward, to be indifferent, the boredom of our routine, the absurdity of our past, the stubbornness of our pessimism and the in-satisfaction.

I do not get tired of saying, that many in this society do not live life to the fullest, they just  survive and agonize. There are many reasons that will make people lose their willingness to live.

There are many people who, instead of facing their serious problems would rather let themselves die.  I have always told myself, that to confront the difficulties and problems od this life, what I need to do is fight to overcome them.  It is sad and disheartening to see people be seized by loneliness, discouraged and disheartened; see how they suffer day by day. 

They get stock, they will not move neither interior or exteriorly, they constantly complain because they are unhappy but they are not willing to step out and go further than their boredom.    We have to read this Gospel remembering the prodical son (Lc ll) since the younger son “was dead and came back to life”.

 He came back to life because he was able to liven up, turn back his footsteps and move forward.  It does not pay to stand still and do nothing but complaint all day long.  You have to struggle, fight for what you want, you have to sacrifice to obtain what you desire.  

The suffering of many people could be avoided and diminished if they had the capacity to change, get up and go back to the Father’s house.  But no, they constantly complaint about their past, their present and their future.

To die, is to allow the different ways of dying (sins) present in the world, to win our earthly interior. To resurrect is to “stand up” and go back to the Father’s house. 

The words of Jesus impact me, when with authority, He calls out, from the tomb’s door.  The Gospel tells us that Jesus cried out in a loud voice:  “Lazarus, come out” (Jn. 11.43).  Jesus’ phrase is a spiritual order for us to come out of our inferiority complexes that do not allow us to love and be loved, to come out of our depressions, to come out of our exhausting and dying past, to come out of the frightening tomb to be a better person, to overcome our complexes and exceed ourselves, to live. 

To come out of that toxic environment that is killing us, an environment created by your own friends, coworkers, even your own family.  “GET UP”, Come out, breath the fresh air of the resurrection, of peace, of joy, of the goodness and the kindness you are losing.   Come out of the tomb, Jesus is telling you every day thru the people who love you.

Lazarus obeys and comes out, with difficulty, the Gospel tells us that “the dead came out, tied hands and foot with burial bands, and his face wrapped in a cloth”  So Jesus said to them: “Untie him and let him go”. (Jn. 11,44). Those words have a very deep meaning in this actual and modern world, because the modern world is full of people who are dedicated to suffocate, stifle others, they are the burial bands and cloth that will not allow Lazarus to freely come out. 

People who live their lives spreading the culture of death on them and others.  They are supporters, advocates of a world of death, they are the ones that normally and without regrets support the mother who is willing to abort, (kill) the child she carries in her womb.  They will advise a couple to get divorced, instead of fighting and struggling to save their marriage, they promote and encourage the idea of the terminally ill and the old be exterminated. 

These are people that in their project of life, if something does not come the way they planned, they will promote, as a quick way out, the auto elimination, suicide, as an expression of liberty.

 I will never support the culture of death, I will never agree with the ones who make death, breaching, breaking, dividing the solutions to their problems.  Do not become an accomplice to the well known “culture of death”.   The culture that Jesus brings us is, the culture of life, physical and eternal life. 

The resurrection that Jesus proposes to us, is of our hearts.  The person who is united to Christ will support and collaborate with Him so the interior of many human beings will be transformed and be, at the same time, able to transform others.  You and I were born to live, we were not born to die.  Remember and be aware of Jesus’ words: “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”.   Live in Christ.

Amen!!

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

“¿Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Jn. 9, 1-38

Rev. Alexander Díaz

It is interesting to see how Lent advances, and what I love the most is to see how it develops; from the temptations, we pass to the transfiguration and from there to the encounter of Jesus with the woman from Samaria. 

The Liturgy, the readings of each Sunday center us towards the figure of Jesus. Finally, the whole period of Lent is oriented to remember the intense days of the Passover in Jerusalem, where Jesus lived His own personal Passover. 

The gospel of this Sunday marks another event in the public ministry of Jesus and is given thru the healing of a man who was born blind.  In the biblical text of today, to “see” is a symbol of faith. “To see” is to have faith. 

To recover the sight is to enter the world thru faith. To enter this world, it is necessary to be close to Jesus.  The blind man had never seen  the light, hence he received  many beatings, he had been knocked down many times throughout  his whole life, he had been led by people he didn’t know. 

Jesus gave him the gift of sight, to feel the real world, the freshness of light.  Faith is the refreshing element that helps us see clearly the problems of our lives, this is why it is necessary to hold on to Jesus’ hand, because He is the only one who can give us the light we need to go on. 

“To see” is to look at the world with Jesus’ eyes, to perceive life as the Lord wants it to be, not as we human beings have been demonstrating.   “To see” is to understand that to follow Jesus is not only to transmit a few concepts or some doctrines, for the most part repetitive and empty. To follow Jesus is to carry these concepts and doctrines deep down inside, to plant them with conviction in this life and thru this life others around us will also understand.  

I always tell the Catechists that the children, who are getting ready to receive the sacrament of first communion to show them with conviction, make them understand, that they live it, not to configure computers that do not understand what they are saying while praying to our Lord.

Many will say, the children are ready to receive first communion because they can pray, they know all the commandments and the sacraments.  To know all these is very important because it allows us to go further than what we believe in, but what is really most important is to live fully in Christ. 

 I am sure that if I ask the children they will answer with mathematical precision.  On the other hand, if I should ask them, who is Jesus, most likely for them, He is a stranger.  It is important to educate our children to know Jesus, be with Him face to face, without any nearsightedness that will frustrate our encounter with Him. 

To accept Jesus as the One sent by God, the One who is able to open our eyes to understand.  But to overcome our blindness, the lack of understanding, is a long process that each person must do on his/her own. 

In the center of all these events, are the Pharisees,  who doubt not only the miracle but the capacity of seeing that the blind man acquire.  The Pharisees represent the complete lack of understanding, the real blindness; they do not want to recognize Jesus, even though they have in front of them all the proof of His good deeds.

They only see that He healed this man on a Saturday and that, to them, is to disobey God.   Afterwards the blind man will step forward to confirm that “this man is from God” and he even began to “teach them”, giving lessons to the ones who were supposed to be the teachers of the Law. 

The positions have been reversed and that offends the Pharisees, they are not willing to learn, because they do not want to admit their blindness.  Our grandparents used to say, there is no worse blind, than the one who does not want to admit his blindness, that is how they represent their ignorance. 

To them is not enough to see, to have good eye sight and be able to distinguish the figures and forms.  There is also, another way of seeing, of knowing, another way to interpret the figures that are seeing. 

The Pharisees said that the man who was blind from birth was born blind as a result of sin and that is why he is unable to understand clearly what he sees.    I ask myself: ¿Why as human beings, we always have to judge and question God’s plan? ¿Why do we always have to be right, even when we are wrong?  ¿Why do we play with the signs that God sends us? 

Those are our real blindness, enclosed, inflexible, and without exits.   In today’s Gospel Jesus is able to transform a belief to a new valor.  Who did not perceived faith, now recognizes Him as the Messiah, now he can “see” the world and himself with a very different look.  

We need for Jesus to heal our blindness, which are more than one.  It is possible that our glance on others might be in a serious trend of conversion.  It is possible that your sincere desire to follow Christ produces magnificent possibilities of miracles towards the ones around you. 

But the blindness that must really worry you is your own, the one that does not allow you to see yourself as you are for God, for yourself and for the others. 

There are Christians able to perceive the blindness on other people but are not able to see their own darkness.  To be blind inside is not to find the path of hope, is to be an ignorant of God and oneself.  Jesus does not act on that person’s life because his mind is far away from His message; “To see” means to love. 

Whoever does not love, stays in absolute darkness, in the most profound death of his faith.   The fact is not to ask ourselves how much or how little we know about biblical texts, not even if we have deep theological knowledge. 

The question is if all I know will get me lovenly closer to God and others.   If I see myself growing in love, I am on the right path. If I perceive that my love for God and others decreases, then my blindness has grown. (Mario Santana Bueno)

We are Christians not only because we follow what Jesus said.  We are Christians because we follow Him in person.  We do not follow ideas, we follow Jesus, the healer and savior.   This gives me the impression that most of our brothers and sisters are not clear about faith.  They, as myself, need to be healed of their blindness.

Amen!!

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

“Give me a drink.”

(Jn.4, 5-42)

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday's Gospel tells of Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman. The text allows us to discover the delicate way in which Jesus approached people who were in complex situations, and how he accompanies them to discover the truth and the meaning of life. This context is a rich inspiration for evangelization services.

The first point to clarify is the origin of the woman who talks to him: Does it have a special meaning that it is a Samaritan woman or is it purely accidental, not planned or a coincidence?

I'm pretty sure in most cases; encounters between people and God are often set to be accidental or coincidental. Conversations are often held on the streets, at home, hospitals ... When we go to Church we put ourselves before God.

This encounter turns more interesting because relations between Jews and Samaritans were very difficult, the Samaritans were regarded as semi-pagan, because their faith was mixed with beliefs from other cultures, and for this reason, the Jews did not allowed them to participate in the reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, and their place of worship was on Mount Gerizim.

Jesus does not stand in solidarity with the rejection manifested by His people. Breaking down social barriers, strikes up a conversation with this woman, whom He treated with respect.

Through the conversation, Jesus leads this woman to find answers to her deepest concerns, and she ends up becoming a harbinger of the good news that changed her life: “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?”

How much good is done when we talk calmly, when we look for answers and listen quietly. Jesus does not address this poor woman for her mistakes, does not criticize her, does not confront her, only shows love, respect, charity and above all, peace, for her to find herself. It would do much good to many of us if we were to listen and correct with peace and tranquility as Jesus does with this poor woman.

Jesus attitude towards the Samaritan woman shows the universality of His message of salvation, which is not restricted to a particular culture, but is offered to all men and women of goodwill.

“Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
 It was about noon.” Tired, thirsty... Like any human being, Jesus feels the consequences of climate and labor.

At that time, a woman comes to the well to get water and take it home. Jesus begins a conversation with the anonymous woman, perhaps as we have done many times while we wait at the doctor's office or waiting at the bust stop.

Despite the sensitive subjects that are entering into the conversation, the woman at any time feels uncomfortable, by her comments and reactions, He is encouraging her to step into her internal growth.

The tact with which Jesus is guiding this woman makes us think of some priests who violate the privacy of the faithful and abuse their vocabulary. It is worth stopping to consider how Jesus is discovered, with great pedagogical sense, his true identity.

What began as a seemingly coincidental encounter ends up as the revelation that the great hope of the people of Israel, the Messiah, was present among the people.

A central element of Jesus catechesis is the water. And slowly is unraveling its meaning and goes from the role in daily life to a deeper symbolism, which is the communication of divine life.

Water is the center at the Liturgy of the Sacrament of Baptism; the text that the minister reads about the sacrament reveals the meaning of the history of salvation.

So this story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman, in which the WATER is the main focus, can be interpreted as a beautiful reflections on the meaning of baptism, which allows us to participate in the divine life within the community, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 
but 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.”

The water that leads to eternity. Today it is preached little about eternity. It is as if what really is worth to address must always be momentary. But the Gospel is an invitation to God's eternity. It often happens that preachers found themselves more comfortable talking about the human horizon instead of the promise of eternal life.

This way, Faith becomes another part of philosophy or in a suitable technique for personal growth. Eternity is not fashionable, eternity is God's time. Many of our anxieties nowadays are due to the lack of time, failure to reach everything that needs to be done. God is in eternity, outside of time, so that we realize that our life and relationship with Him is forever. God is never rushing us...

Worship in spirit and truth. The worship to God is not in Jerusalem or the temple of Gerizim, but in the attitude of faith. A person can spend all day stuck in a cathedral or in any church wanting to discover God, but their heart is spiritually thousands of miles away. To find Jesus in the tabernacle, in the Eucharist, or the Word is to first: find a place within us, find one or more reasons to give thanks for and have a spiritual ear that seeks to ensure that we do this in divine premises. I invite you to the sanctuary, the Eucharist and the Word not only in the walls of the church, but to be the base in your heart.

The true temple of worship is Jesus or the Word of Jesus that bears fruit in people's hearts through the Holy Spirit. God is above all places. Our real contact with God is through Jesus. Anyone who wants to find God will find him in Jesus Christ.