Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 12 March 2023

Duccio di Buoninsegna: Christ and the Samaritan Woman. Google Art Project

Third Sunday of Lent
Worship and work

When you attend the liturgical celebrations of the Church do you see them as a work that you have to do? That's an interesting question, one of the interpretations of the word liturgy itself, actually means 'the work of the people of God'-and this has its roots in unselfish acts of work done for the good of others. Having been a Cantor in the monastery of my profession for many years and also involved as a priest in the solemn celebration of the liturgy and sacraments, now as one who minsters as a Greek-Catholic in one of the great eastern traditions of the Byzantine rite, worship is something that I know as hard work. It needs care, we have to learn its deep theology and symbolism, understand how it works (particularly for those of us who minister in an official way) and not only has it to be celebrated as well as we can manage, but through it we work together to enable and allow its rhythms and assemblies to draw us and others in word, prayer, music, symbol, rite and silence into that living encounter with Christ-who through the Spirit, and with us, praises the unseen Father and not only nourishes our faith but equips us for the work of the harvest! Liturgy is the work of our vocation as praying people, by our participation in it we manifest what the Liturgy Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, calls the 'fons et origo', the fountain and source:

"The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows"(SC Chapter 1: 10)

The well of living water

I see in this a direct link our gospel today, with the well, the living water and the dialogue of Jesus with the woman of Samaria, all of which takes place in the context of 'work; the hard work of the Samaritan woman, the searching for provisions by the disciples and the tiredness of Jesus busy in his work, as he puts it to his followers; "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work".(Jn 4:34) There are so many interesting layers in this gospel, some of which we really need to listen to very carefully. At a time when the Church is stretched by the tugs of war between various factions-including ill advised public comments by bishops, when even liturgy is a cause of division, and Pope Francis gets stick for doing what he has to do, bring us all back to a common denominator and focus on our vocation and make again what Sacrosanctum Concilium gives us as a map for our liturgical life, to find again that deep well of living water, and share it as he does, with those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness and justice.

A Greater Salvation

The woman at the well is an outsider, she also, as we find out is living with somebody who is not her husband - having had five already. This straight away pushes us into a Lenten Temptation, what would we do if somebody not of our faith or race or whose lifestyle and morality didn't apparently equate with where we ourselves feel secure, asked us about Christ, wanted to know how life in God affects us, and challenged us to show them how this all matters. What would we do? Jesus, I note, makes absolutely no mention of her lifestyle, his comment about the man she is living with serves only to let her see that He understands her life, knows about her - what a contrast to the brouhaha we get between Christians casting stones at others who struggle to discern their way in a complex society, whose notion of gender or sexuality or racial equality does not match our own. True, Jesus points out that salvation starts with, or as John puts it, 'comes from' the Jews, but then opens out the panoramic vision of a faith not bounded by race, gender or particular Law except that of salvation through love, a greater, salvation offered to all through Him. Here it is as plain as plain can be:

"The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything."Jesus said to her, "I am he,* the one who is speaking with you"'(Jn:25,26)

Let us bless our work

So where does this leave us? Quite simply with a blessing on all the work we do which is part of the harvesting of seed sown by others. In this passage Jesus recognises that work is a component part of life and needs dignifying with his presence and blessing, so that a task of drudgery, as in that woman coming to draw water, becomes the sacred place of an encounter where the life flowing waters of the Spirit gush into our lives. Christians are a people of liturgy writ large, liturgy in the church celebrations, but also in the domestic setting of home life, of working life, in fact wherever we are. In meeting us, in their hospitality of friendship, just as the woman who met Jesus, we might be for others part of their salvation, for they may, in words from the letter to the Hebrews, find in connecting with us messengers of the Word himself: 'Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels'.(Heb 13:2)

Lectio Divina

Sacrosanctum Concilium

9. The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church. Before men can come to the liturgy they must be called to faith and to conversion: "How then are they to call upon him in whom they have not yet believed? But how are they to believe him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear if no one preaches? And how are men to preach unless they be sent?" (Rom. 10:14-15).

Therefore the Church announces the good tidings of salvation to those who do not believe, so that all men may know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and may be converted from their ways, doing penance [24]. To believers also the Church must ever preach faith and penance, she must prepare them for the sacraments, teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded [25], and invite them to all the works of charity, piety, and the apostolate. For all these works make it clear that Christ's faithful, though not of this world, are to be the light of the world and to glorify the Father before men.

10. Nevertheless the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the sacrifice, and to eat the Lord's supper.

The liturgy in its turn moves the faithful, filled with "the paschal sacraments," to be "one in holiness" [26]; it prays that "they may hold fast in their lives to what they have grasped by their faith" [27]; the renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and man draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them on fire. From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as from a font, grace is poured forth upon us; and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward their end, is achieved in the most efficacious possible way.

Reflection of the Woman of Samaria

Augustine Treatise on the Gospel of John

He asks for a drink, and he promises a drink. He is in need, as one hoping to receive, yet he is rich, as one about to satisfy the thirst of others. He says: If you knew the gift of God. The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But he is still using veiled language as he speaks to the woman and gradually enters into her heart. Or is he already teaching her? What could be more gentle and kind than the encouragement he gives? If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink", perhaps you might ask and he would give you living water.

What is this water that he will give if not the water spoken of in Scripture: With you is the fountain of life? How can those feel thirst who will drink deeply from the abundance in your house?

He was promising the Holy Spirit in satisfying abundance. She did not yet understand. In her failure to grasp his meaning, what was her reply? The woman says to him: Master, give me this drink, so that I may feel no thirst or come here to draw water. Her need forced her to this labour, her weakness shrank from it. If only she could hear those words: Come to me, all who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Jesus was saying this to her, so that her labours might be at an end; but she was not yet able to understand.