SPEAKER_04: Hello and welcome to the heart of the Homily Podcast.
SPEAKER_04: Happy Monday, Father.
SPEAKER_04: We're back.
SPEAKER_04: Happy Monday.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, Michelle?
SPEAKER_04: Good.
SPEAKER_04: And and we're your host, Michelle.
SPEAKER_04: And this is Father Bigoga, our pastor at St.
SPEAKER_04: Augustine.
SPEAKER_04: And um, we're delighted to open up the gospel and the homily from this past weekend, third Sunday of Lent.
SPEAKER_01: It was a long gospel, huh?
SPEAKER_04: It was a long gospel and uh reading.
SPEAKER_04: You're not gonna read it, right?
SPEAKER_04: Homily.
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_04: Not about it.
SPEAKER_04: Actually, your homily wasn't as like when he prepared, you said like long gospel, long homily.
SPEAKER_04: I was like, oh wow.
SPEAKER_04: Well, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: I did the 530 mass and it was the long gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I mean the long homily.
SPEAKER_01: And when I was giving the homily, I said I felt, I just felt this is a little bit too long.
SPEAKER_01: So after that mass, I went back to my desk, kind of tweaked it, and uh I shortened it.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And see, every week my my homily is either 10 or 11 pages, 20 font, double space.
SPEAKER_01: So I know that I'm the same homily every single week, right?
SPEAKER_04: Nice.
SPEAKER_01: And I timed it, and that's what I think feels most comfortable for me.
SPEAKER_01: But this one was 14 pages, 20 font double space.
SPEAKER_01: So I knew it was longer.
SPEAKER_01: And it just felt longer.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing that's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: So the 5:30, I gave it, I said, oh, I got a tweak.
SPEAKER_01: I went back to my desk.
SPEAKER_01: 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: in the morning is the one that you hear on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and I think that's the one that we put on our website.
SPEAKER_01: That's a shorter homily.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And then 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_03: Oh okay.
SPEAKER_01: I went back to the long homily.
SPEAKER_03: That's funny.
SPEAKER_03: Well, I was at the 12.
SPEAKER_01: You were at the 12.
SPEAKER_03: So I think I got the the longer one.
SPEAKER_03: The longer homily.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But I thought that the longer homily was a little bit more powerful than the shorter homily on the 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: that you could see on on YouTube.
SPEAKER_04: That's so funny.
SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: So people are going to be curious, though, like what was the what was?
SPEAKER_01: I think it's, I mean, it's just a love for for the homily, a love for trying to allow God to speak through the homily.
SPEAKER_01: And I just felt after I gave the 8 a.m., I said, no, I need to go back to the longer homily.
SPEAKER_01: And someone said something really cool.
SPEAKER_01: Someone said to me, every word of that homily belonged there.
SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
SPEAKER_01: Because they had gone to the 5:30.
SPEAKER_01: Then they heard the 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: in the morning.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Um, they were like one of the we have double dipper, double dippers.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and so she was, she said to me, she goes, every word had meaning.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's when I was like, yeah, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
SPEAKER_01: But I love this homily or this gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It is long, but it's so detailed.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: More than other gospels, right?
SPEAKER_01: And um, I don't know if you you we've seen the chosen, we've seen a lot of the scenes.
SPEAKER_01: We've used some of the scenes for catechetical stuff, but that scene in the chosen where Jesus is talking to this woman at the well is very powerful.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never seen that that scene, go and maybe YouTube it or go on uh the chosen and find it, but it's a very powerful scene.
SPEAKER_01: And someone said to me this weekend, they said, Oh, you know, it I I that is one of my favorite scenes in The Chosen, but something that you said that is not in the chosen that I was able to pray with that was so powerful was that I never realized that she just leaves the water jar there.
SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that she came for, she leaves without.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because she leaves with something greater.
SPEAKER_01: And um, so yeah, so that's just a little bit of the what happened.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and that happens sometimes more than than not uh when I'm preparing homilies that I'll go back and 5 30.
SPEAKER_01: I always tell the people they're my guinea pigs because I always I I I give the homily and then I can figure out if I need to tweak something or if it's something didn't work.
SPEAKER_04: So I bet they always listen to the ADM or like the homily time.
SPEAKER_02: Did he change it?
SPEAKER_02: Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
SPEAKER_04: Well, this gospel, like you said, is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_04: It's the woman at the well, so we're not gonna read it because it is uh very long, but we encourage you to read it because it's just um so powerful.
SPEAKER_04: And really um part of what you started off with, Father in your homily, was talking about how Christ kind of met her in the ordinary of her life, but also met her in a place where she was hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_04: Which I thought was very powerful.
SPEAKER_01: Um Well, I think that something that we talked about last Sunday, right?
SPEAKER_01: So the last I think we met on Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we were discussing the homily from this Sunday before, which Lent is about movement.
SPEAKER_01: And I've been trying to stress that and trying to kind of emphasize that Lent is about movement.
SPEAKER_01: We got to move, we gotta make it where it's it's different than the 365 days or the rest of the year, let's say it has to, it Lent has to look differently, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so again, if you go to this, if you go to um this gospel, it is also a reminder about movement.
SPEAKER_01: Can't stay where you are.
SPEAKER_01: You may feel stuck, it may be the same old same old, but Jesus, as you just mentioned, is gonna meet you where you are.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not the beauty of how who God is.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't wait for you to be all cleaned up, God doesn't wait for everything to be perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you got your act together.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now I'm gonna approach you, or now you can approach me.
SPEAKER_01: No, God is so great and so majestic in how He He sees us and He He treats us that He comes to us knowing everything.
SPEAKER_01: And he comes to her.
SPEAKER_01: And I love that detail in the noon time of the day.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably the worst time of the day to be sitting at our at a well, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because that is gonna be scurching hot.
SPEAKER_01: And if you we've been to the Holy Land, you know that it can get really hot.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm talking uh, you can fry an egg on the ground because it's so hot.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it just speaks about where Jesus comes to her in the messiness, in the sweat, in the grime, and the gross feeling of uh it's just so hot and my life is complicated.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and as you said, uh, Jesus comes even in in those hidden aspects of my life.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and and her going at noontime is she's going when no one else is there.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: That's a good point.
SPEAKER_01: It's too hot.
SPEAKER_01: People are not gonna go draw water when it's so hot.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: But it's incredible how you know Jesus meets her right there in her thirst, and and and where she's trying to hide, like that he shows up to be lit in by her to more.
SPEAKER_01: What a good point.
SPEAKER_01: Because she's probably the ridicule of that town.
SPEAKER_01: Five husbands.
SPEAKER_01: She's living with the man who's not her husband.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure the women, the men, people there love to be talking about her.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, that's the only reason why she would go to the like the well at noon when no one's there.
SPEAKER_01: And she's by herself.
SPEAKER_04: Like carrying the water, but yeah, it's like very lonely, but also to she's ostracized from the community.
SPEAKER_04: So very interesting.
SPEAKER_04: And I um I think one of the things in the homily that was so powerful for people and even for me when I was listening to it, is just that reminder that um God meets us, like God knows our whole story and isn't afraid of it.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Like he wasn't afraid to to encounter her and her and her messiness and her thirst.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: Um, but also that we don't have to, and I I think when we when you grow up Catholic, you like know some of the faith enough to know that you broke rules.
SPEAKER_04: And so sometimes it can be this barrier being like, Well, I can't approach God because like I know the rules and I broke them, or like we can kind of put ourselves or put God at a distance, thinking like, there's no way that he can love me because I I know better.
SPEAKER_01: I see that a lot in confession.
SPEAKER_01: I think that that was uh something that was so beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: What Pope Francis tried to uh make a very strong point about this idea that the church needs to be seen as a field hospital, not a museum, not for perfect people, not for saints, but people who are going to see the physician.
SPEAKER_01: And and you're making a very good point because there is that idea that I'm too broken, I'm too sinful, I'm I'm I have these hidden parts of my life that if people only knew they would run.
SPEAKER_01: And and the church is saying, No, this is exactly where you need to be.
SPEAKER_01: And the gospel, that's if we see how Jesus is approaching her at that very moment where he knows everything, he tells her, Yeah, you know, you have five husbands, and the guy that you're living with is not your husband.
SPEAKER_01: And she's blown away saying, Wow, he knows everything about me.
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's the words that she used to evangelize was basically fine.
SPEAKER_04: Like, I met a man that told me everything.
SPEAKER_01: I met someone who knew who knows everything about me.
SPEAKER_04: And it's not a pretty story, you know, but like she's now courageous to be able to say it in a way that's not condemning, but like in knowing that um there's it's healing, it's mercy that she received in the face of her story.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so beautiful.
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's a great invitation during Lent to remind everyone and remind ourselves that like God wants us to come as we are, but He loves us so much that when we if we really come as we are with an open heart, we leave changed.
SPEAKER_01: We do leave change.
SPEAKER_04: So it's not like we come as we are and we're like, this is just how I am, but no, like we come as we are, and God's mercy, like if it's if we're experiencing God's mercy and it's uh depth, we can't be the same.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And that's well, one of the points that I was trying to make of how important it is to realize that Jesus is going to show you your wounds, show you your sins, but to heal you, not to shame you.
SPEAKER_01: Because the enemy will will use your sins, use your past to ridicule you, to accuse you, to belittle you, to remind you that you are a piece of crap or that you are those sins, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus does the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: He puts his finger on it, but he puts his finger to say, I'm not shaming you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to lift you up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to, I'm trying for you to see that this is not a way to live.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to so so that I can free you from this, so that you can be saved and live as a free person, not someone who's enslaved.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so that's where I think the the beauty of our faith, the beauty of who we are, and and when we come to understand that we are his beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Would you share a little bit more, Father, about that?
SPEAKER_04: Because um, what you're kind of saying is that the enemy calls us by our wounds and Jesus calls us by our name.
SPEAKER_04: Like, could you share a little bit more what you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so the enemy is going to constantly remind you of lies, even the lies that you tell yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And the enemy will use your sins to break you down, to belittle you, to shame you, to uh have so much guilt.
SPEAKER_01: To even, like as you said before, you don't why are you going to church?
SPEAKER_01: You're a sinner, yeah, you don't belong there.
SPEAKER_01: And and so it's these ideas that we even fabricate to ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We create monsters where there are none, and we separate ourselves from God.
SPEAKER_01: And it and it's where where you hear a gospel like this uh on Sunday, and where Jesus is saying, I know everything and I still want to save you, I still want to love you.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and he's he's he's and it's an important lesson for us because this is who God is.
SPEAKER_01: He desires an encounter, he desires a relationship, but he doesn't bulldoze his his will upon us.
SPEAKER_01: He says he comes to the will to the well knowing you, he knows you, he comes to the well, and he still says, Give me a drink.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's all on you, right?
SPEAKER_01: So that's again the freedom to say, Yes, I will give you a drink, or no, I'm not gonna give you a drink.
SPEAKER_01: I'm out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's that freedom to love them or not to love them.
SPEAKER_01: That's how much he loves us that he gives us that free will.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_04: Because it's like the remedy for all of life issues is being offered to you, but you are free to be like, no, thank you.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: You know, and sometimes in our hardness of heart, we could we could make that choice.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: That choice.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing is that one of the things that we we come to understand very quickly from reading this gospel is that this woman was very thirsty.
SPEAKER_01: She was quenching, right?
SPEAKER_01: She was so thirsty because she's going from cistern to cistern, from well to well, trying to fill a thirst or to satisfy a thirst that she she hasn't been able to.
SPEAKER_01: Five husbands, that tells you right now that her life has been about a search.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04: Searching for, well, love.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_04: Meaning, meaning, and also um yeah, desires to be met.
SPEAKER_04: And even in all the good things of the world, like only Jesus can meet those at the deepest place that we're hungry for.
SPEAKER_04: And I I find it interesting too that it is, you know, her story is the five husbands, because, you know, in scripture, you know, the husband or the love between man and woman is kind of like the closest analogy to understanding God's love.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: And so it's kind of like, you know, she maybe knew something was there, but it didn't work, it didn't work, it didn't work, and was trying to allow, you know, uh finite love to fill an infinite gap in her heart for for God's love.
SPEAKER_01: I I've seen it today.
SPEAKER_01: This this gospel, it plays out every day in in different people.
SPEAKER_01: It may not be five husbands, but it's it's uh complicated lives, it's messiness, it's disordered affections, disordered lives, hidden lives, where it's very, very destructive.
SPEAKER_01: And so it one of the things is what well are you going to?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because we may be trying to to to bring water up from the well of success or the well of pleasure, uh affection, or um whatever it is, and there has to be this understanding that there's this restlessness that that nothing, nothing created will ever satisfy.
SPEAKER_01: You can search the whole world over.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing created that will ever satisfy that thirst, only Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the and the sooner that we realize that and start to nurture that and figure out what does that mean in my life?
SPEAKER_01: How how can I really, really, truly have an encounter with Jesus where it does satisfy me?
SPEAKER_01: Because we have people who are sitting in the pews are still suffering, who are still dying of thirst because they haven't understood that that encounter and what that means and how does that change your life?
SPEAKER_01: Because you said it uh earlier, where Jesus will transform you, right?
SPEAKER_01: He will heal you, but it's not for you to stay in the same place, right?
SPEAKER_01: To stay same, oh, same old.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna, he's gonna transform you for you to then move again, you know, uh to a better, more beautiful place, uh, a healthier place, so that then you become an instrument of God's grace in someone else's life.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, to be fully alive.
SPEAKER_04: And that's fully alive.
SPEAKER_04: And that's what he's asking.
SPEAKER_01: And in and like in this the case of this woman, it you don't have to be a theologian, you don't have to know everything, but you still are are being brought to uh if it's a true encounter, right?
SPEAKER_01: So if if you're you're being brought to a place where then now you can go out and evangelize.
SPEAKER_04: And I like what you're highlighting about encounter because it's something that we also need to ask for.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: And that's something I I I think a lot of people don't know, is like we should seek it out, you know, and ask the Lord for an encounter if we haven't experienced him in a personal way, or if we need a renewal of that experience of his personal love for us.
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
SPEAKER_01: And that that's the key to all of faith life is there has to be that encounter.
SPEAKER_01: You tell you ask someone in the pews or you ask someone and say, Have you had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people will say, I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: I want to, uh, that sounds nice, but they haven't had that encounter.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that we talked about a little bit about this last week about retreat experiences or um doing some of these extraordinary faith experiences that allow for the space for an encounter or to be taught what that means or what that looks like or what that could look like in my faith life.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: And, you know, we look at the woman at the well, and it this is a very personal like moment for her and for Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: And like that's those are moments that like Jesus desires for our own life too, is to have like these personal moments of encounter with him.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why I think that Lent is so important.
SPEAKER_01: Lent allows those 40 days for us not to be more religious or to seem more religious or more pious.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's beautiful and everything, but it's really about movement into a place of encounter, of a deeper uh relationship with the Lord, but also doing those things in your life that remind you that you're in that state of uh penance or purification or of reminder, a daily reminder.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm in Lent.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I act differently, I respond differently, I see my life uh a little differently, or I may uh curb some of these other things so that I can leave open more space for uh for Jesus or an encounter with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Look, I was at um a parisher's house last week and I was having dinner, and I love when parishers invite me to come over for dinner, and it's it's so nice.
SPEAKER_01: And and the kids were there, they're little kids, and the oldest is eight years old, and Father Vigo is coming for dinner, right?
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and we had a great dinner, and the the their son, the oldest son, eight years old, is sitting next to me and dinner finished, and then mom brings out this beautiful dessert, a Pavlova, and she says, Father Vigo, you know you're here, and we wanted to to bring out a really nice dessert um because uh you know, you don't eat, you don't have dinner with us all the time, and this is very special for us, and this is my husband's favorite uh dessert, and my kids love it.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, great, you know, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: So they bring it out, and she says to um her son, she says, Hey, Jake, are you gonna have a piece of cake?
SPEAKER_01: And uh Jake says, No, mom, remember, I am uh I gave up sweets for dessert.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, Well, you know, it's a special day.
SPEAKER_01: Father Bigola's not with us all the time, and maybe you can just for this day.
SPEAKER_01: She he goes, No, I I want to stay true to Lent and I'm gonna go eat an apple.
SPEAKER_01: And he went and grabbed an apple, sat down and watched us eat this dessert.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to myself, if Jake can do it, I can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm gonna eat a t-shirt that says if Jake can do it, I can do it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, eight years old, little Jakey knows more about sacrifice and and being true to the faith and and understanding that there's a greater uh love that can be expressed through our denial to be able to say no so that I can say yes.
SPEAKER_04: Eight years old.
SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_04: How impactful.
SPEAKER_04: And also what a what a witness to to you and to the whole family.
SPEAKER_04: Like that's really beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Incredible.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, these these parents are doing the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: The grandparents too.
SPEAKER_01: They're they're just incredible in how I see these domestic churches.
SPEAKER_01: I get to see that up front when people invite me to their homes.
SPEAKER_01: And and uh it's not fake, it's not pretend, it's not a put on.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's real life domestic church out in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Incredible.
SPEAKER_04: That is incredible.
SPEAKER_04: Uh Father, well, you talked a little bit about this, but I would love to hear a little bit more about um her leaving the water jar as a sign of transformation.
SPEAKER_04: And I think you kind of were, you know, towards the end of your homily, kind of talking about how the jar symbolized like leaving behind another life and accepting like this new invitation to mission.
SPEAKER_04: Would you want to share a little bit about what that water jar kind of means as a sign?
SPEAKER_01: And I we we touched a little bit about that, but it's it's again, it's this that water jug ways, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it's that daily grind of having to go and and find water, and you're gonna have to go get more water, and it's gonna be out, and you're probably using it for everything, for washing dishes, to cooking, to eating, to drinking.
SPEAKER_01: Um and you have to go back and go back and go back, right?
SPEAKER_01: And what's what I love about this dialogue that Jesus has with the Samaritan woman is he says to her, I will give you water that is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: You will never have to go back.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, I give me of that water, I want that water.
SPEAKER_01: Who wouldn't, right?
SPEAKER_01: So who so it's it's right there, Christ is saying, I am the one who will satisfy this finally.
SPEAKER_01: And so leaving that water jar is so symbolic in the sense that I don't need it.
SPEAKER_01: I I have received those that water of that eternal water.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then she leaves it behind.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because she's now compelled, she's overwhelmed, she she has that excitement to go and tell someone.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I think that that's where we all need to be.
SPEAKER_01: We all need to be in our faith life, so excited about sharing the faith that we leave everything behind because the most important thing is to evangelize.
SPEAKER_01: If you think about it, if you read a book or you're watching a series on something, or even a diet, or something that works, you're excited about that.
SPEAKER_01: You want to tell people about it.
SPEAKER_01: Because those beautiful, happy, joyful things we don't keep for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: It's not for me, for myself.
SPEAKER_01: It's like someone who has this beautiful voice, and they don't go to the bathroom and sing in front of a mirror, right?
SPEAKER_01: They want to share it to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's the point of that watch.
SPEAKER_01: Where I leave it behind because I have found something greater than that constant going back and constant searching.
SPEAKER_01: I have found what I what I've been searching for, and it's far greater than I could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_01: But I have to go, I have to run and tell people about who and what is happening in my life.
SPEAKER_01: This encounter with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I've told people this many times is the reason why the church grew as fast as it did and um so far and wide is because people were sharing with one another, this is what Jesus has done in my life, the person, right?
SPEAKER_01: Rules and philosophy and church law and all of that is super important and wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: But if it's not about this encounter and what that means, this is who, this is what Jesus has done in my life.
SPEAKER_01: This is how I know him, this is how I live the faith with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so yeah, I think that that was the main thing of being able to go to those townspeople, the same townspeople who were gossiping and talking about about her.
SPEAKER_01: She now becomes an evangelizer, a missionary, an apostle.
SPEAKER_01: Um, again, like I mentioned in the homily, almost a foreshadowing of Mary Magdalene who has that encounter with the risen Lord and then can't contain it.
SPEAKER_01: She just runs away from that empty tomb to to go tell the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: And how beautiful to live your faith in such a way that it's so exciting that you can't contain it.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Can't contain it.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: And that's um, I mean, I think about that's so quick, you know, like she encounters Jesus and then she goes.
SPEAKER_04: And I think sometimes, you know, in our modern day culture, I think we're like, oh, we encounter Jesus, and then we're like, oh, well, I have to go read a couple theology books.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: I have to go like get my life in order in all these other areas.
SPEAKER_04: And then like once I look the job, like then I'll be able to like share with my neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Then I can be a missionary.
SPEAKER_04: And I think she's an important witness where it's um, as you are, like where you are as you encounter Christ over and over again, like you share from that place.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still practicing, I'm still practicing my faith, still practicing Catholic, trying to get it right, but I can't contain who Jesus is and what he's done in my life and and what he means to me.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I think is super important for this gospel, and I hope that people go back and read it because it's it's intentional why, where it's placed in the year, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's placed in Lent.
SPEAKER_01: And um it but it's it's super important that people go back and read it and they see themselves in that story.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we're honest, we're all that Samaritan woman, constantly searching for whatever it is to fill that void or fill that emptiness or that loneliness, or um, or just even the the bad behaviors that we we fall into that we don't want to fall into.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, and if we're living Lent well, um, or at least trying to live Lent well, by week three, we want what we've given up, you know, like we're thirsty for what we have, you know, chosen to fast from or chosen to do.
SPEAKER_04: You know, I think that's also really intentional.
SPEAKER_04: We're like thirst means something to us right now because we are in the desert of Lent.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: You know, like that the meaning of thirst in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_04: Um but also I love how um yeah, Jesus not being afraid of her thirst.
SPEAKER_04: And then when it's when it's quenched, that she's able to invite others to come and and like receive the same, you know, not to keep it to herself, but to be able to let others know that there's more, there's there's the more that's available to them through through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's what we've been trying to do at St.
SPEAKER_01: Augustine is at least I have really tried to build my priesthood on this idea that to drill it into people's mind that our parish has to be a parish on mission all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Those Easter baskets that we're gonna do now, we were, I had a meeting earlier today about three, four projects that we want to do, um, constantly assisting and helping those who are in need.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever that means, uh, being available, we we're very we've kind of adopted these four poor schools and poorer communities that we want to be active there.
SPEAKER_01: And then the street ministry that we're doing, um a lot of the outreach you guys do a lot of with the Mother Teresa sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but so how do we uh ingrain in the hearts of our parishioners that it's not just about coming to Sunday Mass, that that encounter should compel you or push you or should be that that that the catalyst to to do more, to be on movement um and to serve.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask you, what are you doing other than coming to Sunday Mass?
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and the hope is that just like her, our quench our thirst thirst is quenched and then it overflows for others.
SPEAKER_04: Overflows for others.
SPEAKER_04: And I think if we continue to seek that authentic counter with Christ, encounter with Christ, then it's it should be kind of like a natural response that happens in our soul to want to give, to want to serve, to want to share.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because the Lord wants us to dive deeper, right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, not to stay in the superficial.
SPEAKER_01: Even I I mentioned a little bit about it in the homily, where even the Samaritan woman falls into that bad habit that we have.
SPEAKER_01: When it starts to get too serious or too personal, or you're digging a little bit too deep.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we tend to want to distract or deflect in the sense that she starts talking about, well, you know, you were talking, shouldn't we be worshiping in Jerusalem or or this or that?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus brings her back to center and says, wait, wait, wait, wait, let's talk about what's important here.
SPEAKER_04: Father, that point in your homie was actually super powerful because that is such a tendency, especially if, especially if we f are in a place of of hiding or not feeling worthy of it.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_04: Kind of like, let's go to a place that I'm I'm I feel more comfortable talking about, you know, the fluff, you know, or talking about what's more in my control.
SPEAKER_04: And then, but to allow Christ to get to the heart is is the hardest to look at.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, where there's gonna be growth is gonna be uh where you're able to really start to go deeper and not stay superficial or in the shallow water.
SPEAKER_01: Duke and altum, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's it's go out into the deep because most of us want to stay in the shallow water.
SPEAKER_01: And again, the shallow water is something I can control.
SPEAKER_01: I can see my feet there, I can uh it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: This is good.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need anything else.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no growth, there's no pushback, there's no uh sticking the finger in in the problem or what needs to be addressed.
SPEAKER_01: And and so we like that.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus brought her back.
SPEAKER_01: He said, wait, wait, wait, let's not stay there, let's let's continue to talk about the heart of the problem here, or um, this is where the area that that needs change, needs healing, um, because I want to save you.
SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, I I think that that was a powerful moment to be able to look at it and say, Well, that I've done that and I do that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I I want to just stay superficial because I can control that.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I think sometimes people can struggle even in prayer because you know, there's there's so much going on under the current, but it takes courage to like allow all things to go into the light and to like invite Jesus into those places that are that are thirsty.
SPEAKER_04: And I think the gospel helps us know that Jesus is not afraid of our thirst, but also like he's he's seen it all, and but it's there, you know, it's there to actually be satisfied and not to drive us nuts.
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's part of the clarity that happens in the gospel is like yeah, every human heart has a thirst for something more than what the world can offer.
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_04: And the good news of Christianity is that like God has come to meet the thirst.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That that's that's the whole thing right there.
SPEAKER_01: And the sooner we understand that, the sooner we are in freedom because a lot of people come to mass uh with a lot of grief, a lot of loneliness, um, resentment, even that spiritual dryness that they have just gotten used to living out, and they've made peace with it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to push it, I don't want to I'm I'm I'm okay.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask of me any more than what I'm already giving because I can't do anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Lord is pushing you, and hopefully when you're sitting at mass or you're you're in your Bible study or you're out at on mission or doing a service project, hopefully that that is something that's pushing you into the deeper waters.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: So, Father, as we wrap up our conversation, would love to give you give us a challenge.
SPEAKER_04: What would be like a challenge that you want people to take from our conversation?
SPEAKER_01: I would say the challenge would be to move again, right?
SPEAKER_01: So Lent is about movement, to continue to move in those spaces that are not comfortable, to go outside of yourself, to challenge yourself, to do those Lenten practices that you started with.
SPEAKER_01: If Jakey can do it, you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: And just to commit to a deeper seriousness about Lent and not just any other season of the year.
SPEAKER_01: But uh if you have if you've been, if you've fallen off the wagon or if you haven't been that good today, say, all right, I'm back on it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm back on it, and um, do something extra.
SPEAKER_01: Like I mentioned to you, do something extra this Lent.
SPEAKER_04: And perhaps one of the extra things could be to do what the woman at the well did, which is invite others to Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: So maybe invite someone to mass or kind of do that invitation.
SPEAKER_01: Do that, do it this Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Bring someone who hasn't been to Mass in a while, bring your neighbor, uh a niece or a friend or whoever it is, bring them to Mass and say, I'd like you to join me this week.
SPEAKER_01: And then introduce them to me.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I brought this person to mass.
SPEAKER_04: And then ask Father out for dinner or lunch, right?
SPEAKER_04: You're gonna get a flood of you don't have to cook for a while now.
SPEAKER_01: Put the whole thing of uh come and see.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see what Jesus has done in my life.
SPEAKER_04: Praise God.
SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you, Father, for this conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Michelle.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_04: Sounds good.
SPEAKER_04: Thank you all for listening.
SPEAKER_04: God bless.
SPEAKER_01: Bye bye.