Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent.
God’s love poured into hearts
March 7, 2021
“The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 5:2
The Samaritan woman at Jacob’s was certain this was impossible for her. “Not gonna’ happen to me,” she must have been thinking. After all, she had been divorced five times. Imagine the pain of one broken marriage; multiply that five times over and we have an idea of why the Samaritan woman came to get water at noon, when no one else was at Jacob’s well. She had decided that isolation and loneliness were better than a group of women staring at her in scorn.
However, one day, when she arrived at the well, Jesus was there, and, contrary to custom, He spoke to her, even asked her for a drink of water — this was not supposed to happen.
What she did not know was that Jesus came into our world for sinners, not the self-righteous. He came to demolish the kingdom of Satan and to usher in the Kingdom of God. He came to break down walls of separation caused by sin and shame that prevented people from receiving God’s love.
Through His Baptism by John in the waters of the Jordan, Jesus took upon Himself the burden of iniquity, that built walls and caused division. And He pledged to conquer it by His suffering and death on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection. Already at His Baptism in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Jesus and the voice of God the Father was heard to say, “You are my Beloved Son.” The wall of iniquity was being destroyed, and that victory of mercy would reach its climax through Jesus’ total gift of self on the Cross.
The American poet Robert Frost wrote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” That’s true; and yet, an even deeper truth is this: “Some One there is who doesn’t love a wall, who wants it down.” The One who doesn’t love a wall is Jesus. St. Paul wrote in his Letter to the Ephesians (2:13), “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, He who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity…”
Jesus repaired the terrible division caused by sin, reconciled the human family with God, and removed whatever walls keep us from loving one another. But many did not recognize Jesus as our Savior and walked on the edge of despair. Therefore, it is easy to imagine the Samaritan woman, before she met Jesus, pouring her heart out to God in prayer with the words of Psalm 44 (vs 16), “All day long my disgrace is before me: my face is covered with shame.” And then, after opening her heart to Jesus at the well, imagine her saying with Psalm 118, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His love endures forever.”
When the Samaritan woman told Jesus, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” He answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” Since the woman still did not understand, or perhaps was afraid to understand, Jesus went on to say. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.” Since the woman was afraid to talk of something that really needed to be addressed, Jesus moved the topic in that direction, saying, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
To her credit, the woman admitted in all honesty, “I do not have a husband,” thereby allowing the conversation to switch from water to human relationships, from physical thirst to the thirst of a heart wounded by sin. Now, a conversation of depth was able to happen.
Jesus, gently yet candidly told her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.”
A wondrous thing occurred at that point. Even though Jesus made clear that He knew all about her shameful past, the truth of His words did not embarrass her. On the contrary, the truth, spoken in love, set her free. It gave her a new sense of self, lifted her out of her misery and opened her eyes to see Jesus, not only as a man but also as the Messiah, and to see herself, not as an object to be used and cast aside but as a beloved daughter of God, as one whose dignity was restored.
When she first arrived at the well, her shame made her try to hide all the painful things of her past. After a conversation with Jesus, she rejoiced that He knew everything about her. This is what happens when we open our hearts to Jesus in trust and confess our sins to Him.
And that brings us to another amazing fact: as a result of this one conversation, this Samaritan woman became an incredibly successful messenger of Jesus’ love!” She returned to her hometown with a new awareness of being known and loved by God. No longer isolated or ashamed, she told all her neighbors about Jesus. One statement of hers in particular got their attention: “He told me everything I have done.” She rejoiced that Jesus knew her failure and wounds, because she discovered that whoever opens her heart to Jesus receives the waters of His mercy. Jesus knows He also loves.
Many of the townsfolk, then, seeing that there was something new and wonderfully different about this woman, went to see Jesus for themselves and also put their faith in Him.
What do you and I learn from the woman at the well? At least four things:
First, that God knows everything about us and loves us still. Even if our lives have become a tangled mess, He loves us still. As St. Paul writes to the Romans (5:8), “God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” This is the wondrous mercy we celebrate every time we go to confession and whenever we celebrate the Eucharist.
Second, the Lord constantly seeks us out, when we least expect Him, when we are fearful or ashamed, and even when we try to hide. He draws near with His mercy, in order to set us free. As Jesus says: “Here I stand, knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house and have supper with him, and he with me.” Rev. 3:20
Third, God gives us far more than we can ask for or imagine. The woman at the well said to Jesus: “Give me this water, sir,” thinking of ordinary water; what Jesus gave her instead was far greater:
- the water of forgiveness,
- the water of mercy and truth,
- the water of the Holy Spirit to bring her new life in Christ and restore her dignity.
God always gives us far more than we can ask or imagine.
Fourth, Jesus calls sinners like us not only to be His disciples but also to be His witnesses to the merciful love of God.
If the Lord could use a 5-time divorcee to bring His message of hope to her neighbors in Samaria, He could use you and me. That is what He desires to do. That is why St. Augustine said, the woman of Samaria represents the Church. What Jesus did in and through her, He longs to do in you and me. He longs to heal our pain and forgive our sins and thereby make us messengers of His mercy and witnesses of hope.
