3rd Sunday Lent A - Homily 5

Homily 5 - 2020

Towards the end of the second last chapter of his Gospel, John the evangelist made clear why, about two decades after the appearance of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, he chose to write a fourth one. He wrote: “There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name”.

John apparently saw Jesus’ public life as a rich source of what he called signs, pointing to mystery and depth in Jesus that mere history could never do justice to. That mystery John had clearly stated in the opening verses of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God… The Word was made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory… From his fulness we have, all of us, received … grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.”

In the rest of his Gospel, John built on incidents from the life of Jesus. He saw them as signs; and proceeded to reflect on them through a variety of literary means: long conversations, monologues, etc, to illustrate and open the way into the mystery of Jesus. He wanted to help his readers — second and third generation Christians by now — to reflect on their human experience of life since their conversion and to see there confirmation of the on-going presence and action of Jesus within themselves. He did not pretend to give them necessarily the actual words or deeds of the historical Jesus; but wanted to suggest how an original incident could be seen as a sign pointing to the deeper reality of Jesus, the risen Jesus, the Word of God, whom they had come, or could come, to know through their reflection on life and their prayer.

Now, two thousand years later, we Christians can use the Gospel of John, his book of signs, to lead us to reflect on our lives and our prayer in order to find Jesus there and to deepen our personal relationship with him.

Today’s Gospel passage is a wonderful illustration, a wonderful sign, of what can happen in our lives. The passage finished up: “Many Samaritans from that town came to believe in him because of the woman's testimony, ‘He told me everything I did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. Many more came to believe because of what he said. They said to the woman, ‘We have come to believe not because of what you had to say. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that he is truly the Saviour of the world’.

Does that speak to your experience? You became followers of Jesus at first because someone else, probably your parents, shared their faith with you. Like the Samaritans, might we now say to our parents, "We have come to believe not because of what you had to say. We have heard him ourselves… [Our faith has grown and become personal]. We know that he is truly the Saviour of the world.” There is a world of difference between knowing about Jesus, and knowing him personally, knowing him intimately.

Notice, too, the woman’s invitation to her fellow townspeople, "Come and see someone who told me all I have done. Could this be the Christ?” No way had there been time for Jesus to have told her all she had done. But her brief encounter with him was enough to assure her that she, with all her colourful history, was totally and unconditionally accepted by him. John would love us, his readers, to have that same certainty — if we do not have it already — by coming to know Jesus ever more deeply through our prayerful reflection on life.