WEBVTT 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:09.759 There are some encounters in life after which nothing can remain the same. 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:17.600 You may try to return to your routine, to the old patterns, the old excuses. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:30.160 But once you've truly encountered someone who sees you completely and loves you anyway, you cannot remain the way you were. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:36.240 This is the drama that's being played out today in today's gospel. 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:43.520 Jesus does not meet the Samaritan woman in the temple or in a synagogue. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:54.000 He meets her at a well in the middle of an ordinary day, in the heat of the afternoon, in the middle of her complicated life. 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:59.759 And that matters because it tells us something about God. 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:06.480 God does not wait for us to become worthy before He comes looking for us. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:09.359 He meets us where we are. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:16.400 He enters the dust of our lives, he comes to the places we would rather keep hidden. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:18.959 He comes to the well. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:24.640 And this woman is carrying far more than a water jug. 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:33.840 She's carrying shame, she's carrying disappointment, she's carrying a past she cannot rewrite. 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:36.079 She's carrying thirst. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:39.840 And if we're honest, so are we. 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:48.640 Some come to church carrying grief, some come carrying resentment or private sin. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:59.920 Some carry loneliness, some carry a spiritual dryness that has lasted so long they have already made peace with it. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:05.519 Into all of that Jesus says, Give me a drink. 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:09.360 At first it sounds strange. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:13.840 The Son of God asks her for something. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:18.240 But this is how divine love works. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:21.599 God approaches with humility. 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:30.080 He does not force his way into our lives, he invites, he engages, he begins a conversation. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.639 But the conversation quickly goes deeper. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.280 Jesus is not really speaking about well water. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:42.400 He's speaking about the human heart. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:51.280 He's speaking about the restlessness in every person that no created thing can ever satisfy. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:56.479 This woman has been thirsty for a long time. 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:07.599 Thirsty for love, thirsty for stability, for meaning, and she's searched for it in many wrong places. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:15.280 She's had five husbands, and the man she now lives with is not her husband. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:27.680 Her life has been a search, and Jesus touches that place not to humiliate her, not to condemn her, but to free her. 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:32.560 This is one of the greatest truths of the spiritual life. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:38.000 Jesus never reveals our wounds in order to shame us. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:43.680 He reveals them in order to heal us, to set us free. 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:49.759 The devil exposes our sin to accuse us and to ridicule us. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:54.319 Christ exposes sin to save us. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:01.199 And that is why, and this is what must have shattered her heart. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.439 Because most of us live with one great fear. 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:10.800 If people really knew everything about me, they would leave me. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:17.360 But here is Christ who knows everything and still says and still stays. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:21.279 He knows everything and still speaks to her. 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:25.759 He knows everything and still offers her living water. 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:29.120 And that changes everything. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:32.480 She came to the well for water. 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:36.399 She leaves having found something. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:41.839 Then the gospel gives us a small but powerful detail. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:45.040 She leaves behind her water jar. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:49.279 This detail is not accidental. 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:56.000 She leaves the very thing that she came for because she has found something greater. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:03.519 The old errand suddenly seems less important because she has encountered Christ. 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:12.560 And then she runs into town and says, Come and see this man who told me everything I have done. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.360 Could he possibly be the Christ? 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:22.399 The woman who came hiding becomes a missionary. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:27.920 The woman whose life was disordered becomes an evangelizer. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:31.279 This is how grace works. 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:36.879 Christ does not simply forgive you and leave you where you are. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:39.279 He transforms you. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:43.839 The place of your shame becomes the place of your witness. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.519 The well becomes a pulpit. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.560 The womb becomes a witness. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:53.920 The sinner becomes an apostle. 00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:59.120 That is why the church gives us this gospel during Lent. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:04.879 Because Lent is not about appearances or religious cosmetics. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:08.879 Lent is about letting Christ bring us to the truth. 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:12.639 And we resist most times. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:17.519 We would rather talk about religion and then admit our thirst. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:21.839 We would rather debate worship than surrender our hearts. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:30.800 We rather talk about what's wrong and what's going what's corrupt instead of giving in and allowing truth to penetrate. 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:38.399 Even the Samaritan woman tries to change the subject by arguing about where people should worship. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:43.439 But Jesus will not let the conversation stay abstract. 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:48.079 He is, after all, after her heart. 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:51.680 And he's after our hearts. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:57.439 Some of us are still drawing water from wells that will never save us. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:04.879 Success, distraction, social media, pleasure, busyness, control. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:13.040 We keep going back to the same wells hoping that these things will ultimately satisfy us. 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:18.079 But the truth is where freedom begins. 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:27.680 And this gospel gives us a glimpse not only of conversion but of Easter, a foreshadowing of what's to come. 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:32.160 The Samaritan woman becomes like Mary Magdalene. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:36.959 She has encountered Christ and she cannot keep him to herself. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:38.000 What does she do? 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:40.720 She runs out to tell others. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:44.639 That's the whole logic of evangelization. 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:51.519 You do not become a witness because you know everything, you become a witness because you have met someone. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:58.319 The apostles left their nets, she left her water jug. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:04.319 Whenever Christ is truly encountered, something gets left behind. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:11.040 So the question this Sunday is not whether we have whether we admire this gospel. 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:15.839 The question is whether we recognize ourselves in this gospel. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:19.839 Where are you thirsty? 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:24.480 What water jug are you still carrying around? 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:33.600 Because until we're honest about our thirst, we will never understand what Jesus means by living water. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:39.120 This woman did not leave the well with all of her answers. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.159 She left us something greater. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:44.960 She left with Jesus Christ. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.480 And that was enough to change everything. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:55.600 So, my brothers and sisters, this Lent, let her story be your story. 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:59.679 Come to the well, this well. 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:06.639 Come with your thirst, come with your unfinished life, and let Christ meet you there. 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:15.360 Because once you truly encounter him, you cannot simply go back to the same old, same old. 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:22.879 And when he's touched that deepest thirst in your heart, then go and what and do what she did. 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:25.120 Tell someone. 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:30.639 Tell someone, come and see that I have found the Christ. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:31.679 Amen.