Unlike the unwillingly liberated slaves, who gave Moses such a hard time, the Samaritan woman at the well was ready for something new. The gift Jesus is offering is so new that the woman takes time to understand what He means by fresh water. At first, she thinks of it as an improved supply of what she has come to the well for. People not taught about Christ may be attracted to Him as an improved version of humanity. But that is not yet true faith in God’s Son. The woman moves forward in her search when she discovers that this man knows about her former life but does not allow that knowledge to distract Him from His offer of living water. Neither does Jesus brush aside a distracting discussion of where God should be worshipped. He uses it to teach the woman more about the God she is searching for. Including the fact, that this God is searching for her to be a worshipper in spirit and in truth.
It is an amazing paradox that God who is the source of living water is thirsty for our faith. When Jesus says quite plainly of the expected Messiah I am, the woman doesn’t immediately make a profession of faith. She does two things: she leaves her water jar, and she goes back to the city to call people to meet this extraordinary man. There is more to leaving the jar than just a practical move. She has encountered something – someone – who is offering a whole new way of life which gives her new priorities. She is in a hurry to let other people know about this possible Messiah.
Come see a man who told me everything I have done, she says to the people of the city. Some people believe in Him right away, while others come to believe in Him as they encounter Him during His stay with them. The Samaritan woman with the shady past gives testimony to the identity of Jesus. Many came to believe in Him because of her honesty and enthusiasm.
All of us have met Jesus at the well of Baptism. We are all called to do more than worship Him. We are called to change our priorities and find opportunities to make Him known to others – honestly and enthusiastically.
Fr. Hernan Cely
Pastor
What we expect to hear in Lent are lessons on prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and perhaps corporal works of mercy. This Sunday we are surprised to hear an account of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The leap from the lessons we heard last week – about the fasting of Christ, His hunger, and resisting of temptations of the devil - to the glory of Christ’s divine face briefly revealed to the apostles on the mountain seems an odd development.
In the first reading, when we listen to the story of Abraham being given a promise of great inheritance and St. Paul telling us that our citizenship is in heaven, it is clear that the readings are focused on expectation.
What do we expect of our Christian lives and religious practices? What do we expect of the Lord?
Many of us seek peace of heart and mind. Many value the character-building qualities of Catholic discipline and want to raise our families in that spirit. Some want to strengthen a life of virtue. Some seek consolation in pain and want to join their suffering with the sufferings of Christ. Many look for the inspiration and energy to make our world a better, more just place.
Today’s Gospel points to another expectation. It is the hopeful expectation to experience with Christ the glory of the Resurrection, the glory of His radiant face.
Our instincts may tell us to make the best of this world, to make the best of God’s creation, and to govern it with justice. But the Gospel reminds us that we are not to aspire to pitch our tents here in the assumption that we might glory forever in the clumsy successes of our earthly stewardship.
The true prize of a faithful Christian life begins in the Resurrection, the transfiguration of our lowly body to conform with his glorified body, and rest in the vision of God face-to-face. We are invited to imitate St. Paul, not just in the discipline of his life in Christ, but first in his hopeful expectation to be united with Christ in the glory of His Resurrection.
As we go about our Lenten practices, let us renew this focus within ourselves.
Fr. Hernan Cely
Pastor
On this First Sunday of Lent, we receive some good advice from Moses in the reading from Deuteronomy. He tells us to remind ourselves where we came from, how our lives have changed, and the good things we have because of our friendship with God. Moses wants his people to remember the goodness of God, thank God, and testify – give witness – to the good things God has done. So often, we miss the joy that is meant for us as God’s beloved children. We end up in situations and behaviors that are inappropriate for the sons and daughters of light. We haven’t intentionally turned away from God, but we have forgotten His goodness. We have allowed the Good News to slide from the front of our minds where it can shape our choices, emotions, and thoughts, to the back of our minds where it gets buried. We allow other priorities to loom in our consciousness and become distractions. When we remember the Lord, either through our own testimony or hearing the testimony of others, the Good News is brought back to the front of our awareness, we are more able to choose the right path, live in hope, and control our thoughts and emotions. In this season of Lent, the Gospel of Luke leads us into the desert for forty days and forty nights. Like Jesus, we confront the sources of sin and temptation. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are encouraged to make full use of the tools we are given for the struggle: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These actions help us remember the Lord and His goodness. They help us bring what is most important, our friendship with God, to the front of our minds. This Sunday’s readings remind us of one more tool at our disposal: the healing and saving power of testimony. Perhaps we might take a pen and paper and remind ourselves of where we have come from, the changes and blessings that God has worked in our lives, and the good things that we have now. Is there a biblical story or verse that illuminates or resonates with our experience of God? This Lent let’s bring the remembrance of goodness to the front of our minds. Let it shape our choices, emotions, and thoughts. Once we have brought our story to mind, we can share it with husband, wife, sister, brother, friend - anyone. We will be strengthened by witnessing to the goodness of God working in our lives, and we will strengthen someone else by sharing that story. Fr. Hernan Cely Pastor Find past articles here: https://stvincentschurch.org/pastors-message
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil, for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
Today’s Gospel passage is difficult for us to accept. None of us is innocent when it comes to there being a gap between what we are and what we say. We resist the idea that we can only say good things if we are good ourselves. But this is what Jesus is teaching today.
Our ability to speak is a powerful and dangerous tool. It allows us to communicate in ways that are often creative and subtle. Language permits us to speak what we imagine and what we feel. Language enables us to realize some truth or feel some emotion as we follow through an argument or read a moving story.
On the other hand, language can be used to manipulate others - often to their harm. Language can destroy, undermine, conceal, lie, and flatter. So, our wonderful gift of speech can criticize the actions of others when we are secretly guilty of the same faults. The negative side of language makes us feel uncomfortable with this Gospel. We might convince ourselves that our good words can have positive effects even if we remain sinners. They can’t. Jesus admonishes us to remedy our faults before we try to correct others.
This Gospel sets out a vision of the integrity between what we are and what we say. It tells us to cultivate goodness in ourselves. It tells us to be concerned with our own spiritual and moral welfare if we want to be certain to help others.
We cannot give good advice to others if there is an absence of good in ourselves. We can’t be sure it is good advice if we do not have the pattern of our own lives to guide. We owe it to others to make sure that our advice is effective. It is effective when we have struggled with ourselves to put it into practice.
Harmony within the elements of our lives brings us closer to God, who is perfect harmony. Disharmony between what we are and what we say leads to limited good. Harmony in our whole being holds out the promise of supreme goodness.
Fr. Hernan Cely
Reflection The Catholic Church, we say, has the authority to teach on faith and morals. What are these morals we are bound to live specifically as Catholic Christians? The world we live in distinguishes Catholics from other Christians in a negative way: No contraception, no divorce, no abortion, no purely secular education for their children. These things are not, in fact, distinctively Catholic things at all. Decisions about sex, family, and education is a matter of getting things into perspective simply as a human being. The Church refers to these issues as truths of the natural law. Any sound human society would come to the same conclusions even if they had never heard about Jesus Christ or His followers. If anyone asks what is distinctive about the Catholic understanding of life, today’s gospel passage answers. St. Luke’s summary of the ethical teaching of Jesus Christ is not about being an ordinary, decent, good-living member of natural society. This passage is so different from the usual advice to be fair to other people and do no harm that it sounds wild and maybe, downright foolish. This teaching demands love of people who hate you and work against you so that you become vulnerable to them. It commands that you refrain from condemning anyone who does you harm and that you give, give until it hurts. Any society that tried to put this code into practice would probably collapse overnight. Gospel ethics are impractical because they are for humanity as it ought to be – humanity in the image of Christ as the Father intended it. Catholic Christianity is not primarily a teaching. It’s a way of salvation. It is sharing in the power and freedom of God, going into the life of God Himself. God entered the world in the person of His Son to make Himself vulnerable in the weakness of Jesus Christ. Through Him, we touch the extravagant generosity of God required by today’s Gospel – at least, occasionally. Holiness comes when we respond to the non-calculating goodness of God in Jesus Christ. The Catholic understanding of life is to live with such ridiculous generosity as to be a fool in the eyes of a fallen world. Fr. Hernan Cely Pastor