Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
10 March 2023
'Would you be willing to work for Our Lady?' Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A
GospelJohn 4:5-42 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
[For the shorter form (4:3-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42,
omit the text in brackets.]
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near
the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was
there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside
the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said
to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the
city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a
Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked
him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to
him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do
you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He
gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus
said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty
again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give
me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw
water.”
[Jesus said to
her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered
him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I
have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have
is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ]The woman said
to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.Our
fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem
is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the
hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such
people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must
worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know
that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he
will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am
he.”
[Just
then his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was talking with a
woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So
the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come,
see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They
went out of the town and were coming to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him,
saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat
that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one
another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to
them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to
accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then
comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the
fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving
wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower
and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds
true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent
you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have
laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”]
Many Samaritans from that town believed in
him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever
did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with
them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of
his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you
said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”
Alfie Lambe was born in Tullamore, Ireland, joined the Irish Christian Brothers but was advised to leave because of his poor health. He joined the Legion of Mary where he showed outstanding qualities and was appointed to South America as a Legion envoy, with the mission of helping the Legion grow there. With Seamus Grace, another Irish legionary, he left for Bogota, Columbia on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel 16th July 1953. He was only 21.Until his early death in Buenos Aires, he was to serve in Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil. He acquired the Spanish nickname El Corderito, 'the little lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires initiated the cause for his beatification in 1978.
Noel Lynch, who went to South America as a Legion envoy around the time of Alfie's death, wrote about Alfie. One story he tells parallels today's gospel.
One of the ideas of the Legion
Handbook is that a legionary most always be on duty. Alfie taught by example.
One dayAlfie met a young man in a railway
station. With a smile he asked him would he like to do something for Our Lady.The young man answered that he would but that
he did not go frequently to Sunday Mass. Alfie replied; 'I did not askyou
about Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?' That same week he
attended his first Legion meeting.Within a few weeks he was an officer
of that Praesidium and soon after became officer of his Curia. Within a few
yearshe went for the priesthood and today is rector of the diocesan
seminary.
The Praesidium is the basic unit of the Legion of Mary and meets weekly while the Curia consists of the officers of a group of praesidia in a particular area and meets monthly.
In today's gospel Jesus asks for help: Give me a drink. He asks a stranger, a Samaritan woman, which astonished his disciples. Alfie approached a stranger while waiting for a train and asked him if he would like to do something for Our Lady.
The question of Jesus to the Samaritan woman led her to become a missionary that very day to the people in her own town. Alfie's question to the young man in the railway station led him to become a missionary in his own diocese as a priest.
Jesus was aware of the background of the woman. Alfie didn't know anything about the young man he approached but wasn't put off when the latter indicated that he didn't attend Sunday Mass regularly. Alfie replied, I did not ask you about Sunday
Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?
The gospel has these striking words: Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me all that I ever did.' Clearly the woman was not filled with fear or shame like someone whose sins have been publicly revealed. She wanted to share the good news that she had found the Messiah.
Her words echo those of Psalm 139 (138): O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar . . . For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother's womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being . . . O search me, God, and know my heart. O test me and know my thoughts. See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal.
The woman at the well experienced the truth of the words : O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar. Jesus called her to be her real self, to be the person God wanted her to me. The young man approached by Alfie Lambe discovered who God wanted him to be through the gentle invitation to work for Our Lady.
Because of the Samaritan woman's missionary work among her own people they came out to meet Jesus and many more believed because of his word. And the final words of the gospel tell us that a missionary's work is to bring people to meet Jesus: It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
That too was the whole purpose of Alfie Lambe's work in South America: accompanying Our Lady knowing that her mission is to bring us all to know her son.
That too is the mission of the Legion of Mary: The object of the Legion of
Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by
prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary’s and
the Church’s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign
of Christ (Handbook, page 11).
Ave Regina Caelorum
This ancient Latin hymn to Our Lady is traditionally sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer) from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2 February, through Wednesday of Holy Week.
Hail, Queen of heaven; hail, Mistress of the Angels; hail, root of Jesse; hail, the gate through which the Light rose over the earth.
Rejoice , Virgin most renowned and of unsurpassed beauty. Farewell, Lady most comely. Prevail upon Christ to pity us.
Daffodils emerging, St Columban's Dalgan Park
10 March 2023
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation (Psalm 139 [138]).
Traditional Latin Mass
Third Sunday in Lent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-12-2023 if necessary).
Dearest Father Seán, That Gregorian chant is so beautiful: Ave Regina Caelorum. The Samaritan Woman at the well remains a wonderful teaching. Hugs and thanks for your prayers. Mariette
1 comment:
Dearest Father Seán,
That Gregorian chant is so beautiful: Ave Regina Caelorum.
The Samaritan Woman at the well remains a wonderful teaching.
Hugs and thanks for your prayers.
Mariette
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