been married multiple times and that the man she currently lives with is forgiveness and her willingness to accept his merciful gesture will

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1 Homily for the 3 rd Sunday of Lent, Year A 2017 (Jn 4:5-42) In the Early Church and throughout the Middle Ages, it was common to interpret the Bible through what is known as the 4 senses of Scriptures. They are the literal, spiritual, moral and anagogical senses. Think of these senses like watching an epic soccer goal in slow motion from 4 different angles, each of them giving you a different perspective on how the goal was scored. The story of the Samaritan Woman is an excellent example of how one can interpret a Gospel passage based on these 4 senses to unveil the multiple layers of meaning within. In the literal sense, we read how Jesus encounters a woman of Samaria by a well, which was a most unusual practice in ancient times when men and women would very infrequently meet alone in public settings. He speaks to her a major moral dilemma in her life: that has been married multiple times and that the man she currently lives with is not her husband. Jesus calls this woman to repentance, conversion and forgiveness and her willingness to accept his merciful gesture will inspire her to proclaim the Good News of Salvation to her people. For this reason, this passage has long been read on the Third Sunday of Lent

2 to encourage those who were preparing for baptism at the Easter Vigil to accept the Lord s call to conversion and forgiveness for their past sins. When we move to the spiritual sense of this passage, we discover that even more is taking place than the calling of one woman to salvation in Jesus Christ. Long ago, the Jews and Samaritans were a single nation. When the northern portion of their kingdom was destroyed in the 8 th century BC, foreign nations moved in and the Israelites began to intermarry with them, resulting in them adopting many pagan practices and causing them to be looked on with contempt by those in the southern portion of the kingdom. We know that 5 pagan tribes moved into what would become the land of Samaria, with each of these nations bringing the male idol of their religion to the land that the Samaritans began to worship. These idols were often referred to as My Lord or My Husband. On a spiritual level, the Samaritan woman represents the entire Samaritan people, who in the past had taken 5 pagan gods or husbands as their adulterous lords. Jesus, the Son of God and the long foretold Bridegroom of God s people, calls the entire nation of Samaria, as represented by this woman, to

3 abandon their 5 false husbands and be united to their one true husband, Jesus Christ, in whom resides the fullness of truth, grace and salvation. After understanding the spiritual sense of this passage, we can look at its moral sense, that is, how this passage applies to our own every day moral life in Christ. There is a very contemporary application to this gospel passage, one that is being hotly debate in much of the Catholic Church today. It is the issue concerning those Catholics who have been divorced and remarried outside of the Catholic Church without a declaration of nullity, also known as an annulment, for their previous marriage and asking whether or not these individuals can receive Holy Communion at Mass. Last year, the Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the NWT composed a pastoral letter that addressed this issue. The letter first of all encouraged couples who are divorced and remarried outside the Church to talk with their local pastor about beginning the process of obtaining a Decree of Nullity so that they can be married in the Catholic Church. The letter than went on to describe what happens when a decree of nullity cannot be obtain:

4 In the case where the tribunal upholds the validity of the first union, obedience in faith to the indissolubility of marriage as revealed by Christ will make clear to them the actions that must follow. They are bound to live with the consequences of that truth as part of their witness to Christ and his teaching on marriage. This may be difficult. If, for example, they are unable to separate for the sake of the care of children, they will need to refrain from sexual intimacy and live in chastity as brother and sister (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 84). Such a firm resolution to live in accordance with the teaching of Christ, relying always on the help of his grace, opens to them the possibility of celebrating the sacrament of Penance, which in turn may lead to the reception of Holy Communion at Mass. 1 The Bishops of Alberta and the NWT upheld what has long been taught in our Church, that those who are divorced and remarried and for various reasons cannot end this relationship are not able to receive Holy Communion unless they resolve to live like a brother and sister, abstaining from sexual intimacy. Because of the difficulty of this teaching, Pope Francis has encouraged fellow Catholics to be a source of accompaniment and consolation for couples in this situation, continuing to welcome them to become active members of our parish communities, having them pray 1 Guidelines for the Pastoral Accompaniment of Christ s Faithful Who Are Divorced and Remarried Without a Decree of Nullity

5 with us during Mass, and encouraging them to grow in their life of prayer and faith, even though they are unable to receive Holy Communion. We do not know what happened to the Samaritan woman after she meet Christ, whether she left the man she was living with to start her life anew or if she continued in this relationship and had to endure the consequences of her actions. What we can be certain of is that her encounter with Christ changed her life forever and set her on a path of conversion that we can hope resulted in her one day being set free of all her sins and able to know eternal life in heaven. Finally, we can look at this passage in what is known as the anagogical sense. This sense refers to the how this passage speaks of the last things, of judgement, heaven, hell, purgatory and need for the Church to continue her saving work of proclaiming the Good News of Salvation in Jesus Christ. By extending his call to repentance, conversion, and forgiveness to the Samaritan woman, Jesus was revealing that salvation was not only a gift offered to the Jewish people, but to people of every tribe, tongue, language, and nation, and that no one was to be excluded from becoming part of the People of God. This story reminds

6 us that as Christians, we too must take seriously the need to call our family, friends, neighbours and enemies to accept salvation in Jesus Christ and His Church. Each of us is called to be like The Lord in meeting people by the well, that is, in our sport teams, schools, places of work, community associations and all other facets of life and invite them to become part of Our Church. If we abandon the call to evangelize others, then we will be like the Fig Tree in the Gospels, which failed to bear fruit and was eventually removed by the Lord for its lack of vitality and produce. Let us sure that our Christian lives are spend spreading the Good News and love of Christ to others, lest we meet the Lord at the end of life and he judge us harshly for having failed to bring others to Him and even forgo our place in his kingdom