February 24, 2008 THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
24 FEBRUARY 2008, 5:15, 8:00, 10:30
READINGS: Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42
SAINT MARY PARISH, VIROQUA
Introduction: This winter, especially, it is rather difficult to imagine what it must be like to live in the desert. Here surrounded by mounds of snow and blustering winds we seem very remote from the Middle East, from Samaria where Jesus met the woman at the well. Perhaps if we imagined all the snow to be sand, we would better understand. Perhaps if we imagined the temperatures to be 120 degrees above zero instead of 20 degrees below, we would better understand.
1. Thirst is a universal human experience. It makes us all brothers and sisters of each other. Antoine de Sainte-Exuperey was a French airplane pilot and a writer. He flew his small plane delivering mail all over the world in the 1930’s. Once over Libya he and his co-pilot crashed at night in the Sahara. Neither was injured; neither foresaw the adventure that lay ahead of them. When morning came they searched in vain for any sign of life; not even a blade of grass could be found. They had one orange and a bit of coffee. No water. In the morning they began to walk from the crash site. Every time they topped a hill they saw nothing before them but more desert, rocks and sand. Day followed day without rescue. Roasting in the sunlight of day, freezing from the winds at night, they could find no refuge. Surviving only by some light dew they collected each morning they began to hallucinate, to be delusional as they wandered aimlessly hoping to be rescued. Days later they saw footprints, then, they saw the Bedouin in the distance. With weak voices they called to him and waved their arms. Slowly, he turned and looked in their direction. The miracle had come to pass. “He was walking toward us over the sand like a god over the waves.”
2. (Read “Wind Sand and Stars” page 234) “The Arab looked at us without a word. He placed his hands upon our shoulders and we obeyed him: we stretched out upon the sand. Race, language, religion were forgotten. There was only this humble nomad with the hands of an archangel on our shoulders. Face to the sand, we waited. And when the water came, we drank like calves with our faces in the basin, and with a greediness which alarmed the Bedouin so that from time to time he pulled us back. But as soon as his hand fell away from us we plunged our faces anew into the water.” The author goes on to say, “You, Bedouin of Libya who saved our lives, though you will dwell forever in my memory yet I shall never be able to recapture your features. You are humanity. I shall recognize you in all the faces of humankind.” We might also say, “You, Bedouin of Libya, are an image of God.”
The people of the Exodus are dying of thirst in the desert. God tells Moses, “Go over there with your staff. I will be standing there in front of you. I will supply the water.” In the gospel story, Jesus is already at the well waiting for the Samaritan woman. He promises her living water. God longs to satisfy our thirst.
3. Dear friends, we hunger and we thirst for so much in this life:
a. We thirst for friendship which can double our joy and divide our grief. Jesus calls us friends.
b. We thirst for purpose in life. He is the way, the truth and the life.
c. We thirst for justice and peace. Only if they originate from God will they be real.
d. We thirst for human dignity for everyone. It must be a God-given dignity.
Conclusion: We were baptized in the living waters of a baptismal font. There we learned to thirst for the treasures that come to us only from God. Like the Samaritan woman, let us be faithful disciples who bring others to the Living Waters of faith where all of us find life.