“Is the Lord among us?”
Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-8; John 4:5-42
“Is the Lord among us?” remains a pertinent question for every human being, given the economic, financial and Coronavirus/COVID-19 drama unfolding globally; but particularly for those individual Christians who pray hard everyday for God to intervene in the moral decay of our times, and all those who long for a new lease of life to be infused into Christianity and Christian practices. In fact, a new Pentecost is what is longed for and needed.
Our first reading’s question, “Is the Lord among us?” is the cry of thirsty Israelites on their way to the Promised Land. Material need was uppermost on their minds, since they needed physical strength to travel to the Promised Land. The thirst for water threatened to hijack the plans of God for them. Momentarily, they took their gaze off the future full of promises and hope, and concentrated in the present bite of thirst. As a matter of fact, their thirst offered them the opportunity to forget about the hard labour they were subjected to and the inhumane treatments meted out to them as slaves in Egypt; even the Shekinah—pillar of Cloud by day and column of Fire by night—they could no longer recognize!
How quickly human beings create a new god for themselves, substituting the true God who has been there for them, especially when their wishes are not met! For the Israelites, thirst became an occasion for ingratitude and idolatry – the worship of the stomach! The God who liberated them from Egypt suddenly became powerless to give them water to drink, at least, so they thought. As far as they were concerned, Moses was God’s instrument to be used to kill them through thirst, so they complained! They wanted to know, whether God was still among them; they badly needed a water-miracle, an improved condition from what the Egyptians offered them in Egypt. After all, the situation of children and citizens should be better than that of slaves!
Moses had a direct-line of communication with God: he informed God of the needs of the Israelites, in this context, they needed water to drink. In this particular occasion, they grumbled and complained, yet God did their bidding by giving them the water they wanted. According to our first reading, water came out of the rock to assuage their thirst. In other words, God created a new stream of water from the rock for the Israelites to drink. Yes, the rod with which the Nile was parted into two served to bring water out of the rock; the staff that turned into snake and swallowed up the snakes of the Egyptians continued to be useful when needed. The God of Israel proved himself present by bringing a new source of water into existence, without leading Israelites to an already existing source of water.
A line not to forget, in our first reading, is the statement: “I will stand before you there, on the rock at Horeb.” God became the source of water for the Israelites to drink. Although the Israelites complained against Moses, it was God himself who was their leader: he passed in front of Moses, and stood before the rock which provided water for Israelites to drink. This simply means that only God himself can assuage both the physical and spiritual needs of his people. Every human quest that excludes God remains insatiable; God alone can quench every human longing, be it material or spiritual.
The Samaritan woman of our gospel came in search of water, but found and met her Lord and God. Her quest for physical water brought her to this well several times. This time around, it was different: Jesus promised her a special source of water which never runs dry! The moment the Samaritan woman accepted the gift of salvation offered by Jesus, she abandoned he bucket and went as a missionary to evangelize her fellow Samaritans. Her quest for physical water passed to the back burner, her spiritual spring of water was overflowing to reach her fellow Samaritans. Indeed, Jesus Christ offered her a special kind of water—“welling to eternal life”—faith.
If the Samaritan woman could forget the bucket and water she came to fetch, and headed back to the village as a missionary, how much more, Jesus Christ refusing to eat, with the statement – “I have another kind of food of which you are not aware.” Jesus is not only the water of eternal life, like his Father who provided water from the rock for the Israelites to drink, in our first reading; Jesus is also the bread of life that nourishes to eternity, all who eat his body and drink his blood. Failed marriages and the reputation of adultery all disappeared from the Samaritan woman, thanks to her encounter with Christ. Her newly earned identity, having met Jesus Christ, led to the conversion of other Samaritans.
All the symbolism of water, in the readings of today, will be incomplete without the unique meaning St. Paul gives to it in the second reading – the water of citizenship and Christian identity. If God provided water for the Israelites from the rock, it is because Israel was the Lord’s special possession. If Jesus offered spiritual water to the Samaritan woman, it is because Jews and Samaritans are both children of God. If Paul talks about the “Justification” of all and sundry, in the second reading, it is because the blood of Jesus-Christ, shed on the cross of Calvary, has justified and made the whole of humanity children of God.
The journey of the Israelites to the promised Land was a journey towards naturalization and citizenship as children of God. The trials on the way are all the required tests to be passed in order to become children of God. The reality of division between the Samaritans and Jews got resolved when the Samaritans accepted the gift of eternal life from a God made a Jew by birth, but still offered water of life to Samaritans, Jesus-Christ himself. The hallmark of Jesus’ death and resurrection offered humanity peace and reconciliation. Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, rich and poor, male and female – we are all children of God.
Perhaps the best way not to forget that “God is among us” is the fact that we are the images of God on earth, and adopted children of God, with the right to present every need of ours to God, with a guarantee that we will be heard. Above all else, however, since we are the images of God, can we provide food for the hungry and water for the thirty with the money in our pockets? Like Moses, can we be the spokespersons intercessors of the hungry and needy of our society, especially in our COVID-19 pandemic?
Assignment of the Week:
Many Nigerians and other citizens of the world are very hungry and legitimately complaining: could you be the visible God some of them will meet this week, through your generous gifts to them of food and water?