{"id":1001,"date":"2013-03-04T11:05:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T16:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1001"},"modified":"2013-03-04T11:05:58","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T16:05:58","slug":"homily-for-holy-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-for-holy-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily for Holy Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homily for Holy Hour
\nUsing Readings for 3rd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nExodus 17:3-7
\nRomans 5:1-2, 5-8
\nJohn 4:5-42
\nMarch 2, 2013<\/p>\n

These readings that we are using for our Holy Hour tonight are taking from the Third Sunday of Lent which we celebrate this weekend but they are the readings from Year A while we are in Year C.<\/p>\n

In the story from Exodus, the Israelites are grumbling but they have a legitimate complaint, they have no water.\u00a0 Water is essential for life and God provides water for them in a way only God can, by making it flow from a rock.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, as the gospel begins, Jesus is sitting at the well (no ordinary well.\u00a0 It is Jacob\u2019s Well).<\/p>\n

While Jesus is sitting there, a Samaritan woman comes to draw water.\u00a0 Jesus asks her for a drink of water.\u00a0 She is shocked.\u00a0 He\u2019s a Jew and she\u2019s a Samaritan.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t supposed to talk to each other for the Jews and the Samaritans hate each other.<\/p>\n

Yet even though she knows not to talk to Jews, she is.\u00a0 She is open.<\/p>\n

Jesus then speaks of living water and tells her that if anyone drinks of this living water they will never thirst.\u00a0 So she asks for this living water.\u00a0 The problem is that she is taking Jesus very literally.\u00a0 She\u2019s probably thinking, \u201cWow, if I drink this water I won\u2019t have to come to the well again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus knows she is taking this literally and he wants to invite her to a deeper faith.<\/p>\n

So he speaks to her about her husband.\u00a0 She replies that she doesn\u2019t have one to which Jesus replies that she has had five.\u00a0 Now, we might have questions about how she came to have five husbands but that isn\u2019t the question here.\u00a0 Jesus is saying things about her that he shouldn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Because of this she comes to realize that Jesus is a prophet.<\/p>\n

Then Jesus speaks of the hour that is coming.\u00a0 She responds that she knows the Messiah is coming and he identifies himself as the Messiah.<\/p>\n

What was her reaction, disbelief, praise, thanks?<\/p>\n

She had been taken Jesus literally.\u00a0 We can\u2019t fault her for this.\u00a0 At this point the disciples return and are amazed that he is talking to a woman and then he speaks of the food he has to eat.\u00a0 Doing no better than the Samaritan woman, they all take him literally.<\/p>\n

The Samaritan woman, who is still trying to make sense of this, goes off to the town and tells the people about Jesus.\u00a0 Because of this people begin to believe in Jesus.\u00a0 They go to Jesus and come to believe in him because they have heard for themselves.<\/p>\n

Great story with a great ending, people come to believe in Jesus.<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t just a story.\u00a0 We read this story to see where we are at in our faith.\u00a0 There are several questions we can ask ourselves.\u00a0 The Samaritan woman came to faith in Jesus.\u00a0 Where are we in our own journey of faith?<\/p>\n

The woman was a Samaritan but open to speaking to a Jew.\u00a0 Are we set in our ways or are we willing to grow in our relationship with Jesus?<\/p>\n

At first, the Samaritan woman took him very literally, only seeing his words in physical terms.\u00a0 When he spoke of living water and thirst, she thought of water to drink.\u00a0 Do we understand that in living water, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit?<\/p>\n

We might like to say that since we are in church right now that of course we are open.\u00a0 How open are we?\u00a0 Are we too set in our ways or are we open to change?\u00a0 Do we take what Jesus says at face value or are we open to something more?\u00a0 When we look for something more, do we forget about the basic (face value) things?<\/p>\n

Because she is open, she comes to realize that Jesus is a prophet.\u00a0 Do we understand that Jesus is a \u2018prophet\u201d, meaning his words are good and come from God?<\/p>\n

Because of her openness, Jesus reveals himself to her as the Messiah.\u00a0 At this she goes off and tells others about Jesus.<\/p>\n

Do we tell others about Jesus?\u00a0 We might feel that we don\u2019t understand enough about Jesus and we won\u2019t know what to say.\u00a0 The Samaritan woman didn\u2019t wholly understand either, yet she shared what she did know with others.<\/p>\n

Because of her sharing others came to faith.\u00a0 Do we share our faith?\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to know everything to share?\u00a0 Jesus can pick up for what we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Where are you in your faith journey?\u00a0 Is Jesus just another Jew?\u00a0 A prophet?\u00a0 The Messiah?\u00a0 What does it mean to you to say Jesus is the Messiah?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homily for Holy Hour Using Readings for 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Exodus 17:3-7 Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:5-42 March 2, 2013 These readings that we are using for our Holy Hour tonight are taking from the Third Sunday of Lent which we celebrate this weekend but they are the readings from Year …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily for Holy Hour’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9,82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-g9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}