The Samaritan Woman: Drinking Deep

By Tom Ponchak

I want to continue to break down the Gospel reading from the 3rd Sunday of Lent. Yesterday I examined the lessons Jesus taught us about evangelization. Today the focus is on the promise of finding true satisfaction and peace--Jesus' promise of life-giving water.

 “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst”
Reflecting on his life of searching for meaning, St. Augustine wrote, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." This statement is true for everyone, but the problem is our lives are so overwhelmed by distractions that we are rarely still or quiet long enough to listen to our hearts. Our modern culture is consumed with improving “quality of life” but our understanding of the meaning of life is so shallow that the things we chase ultimately lead to greater dissatisfaction.

 Here in this passage from John’s Gospel we see Jesus offering real meaning and purpose. He is the only satisfaction for our souls. Christ alone is our source of life, meaning, joy and fulfillment. He calls us to turn from the world and rely on him alone.

 Isn’t this the purpose of Lent? The whole idea of “giving something up for Lent” is to help us realize that the things we use to fill our hearts can’t really do the job. What is our well that we keep going back to looking for satisfaction? Do you use chocolate or ice cream to feel better when you’re down? Are you like me and escape into television when you just don’t want to deal with stress or life? Jesus is calling us to leave those wells behind and rely on him to fill us with what we need.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Being and Doing

By Tom Ponchak
Image
"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her." (Luke 10:42, from the Gospel for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time) I was listening to a podcast with Fr. John Riccardo and he said something to the effect of “we often think that the calling to be a disciple is to work for Jesus, but the calling of a disciple is to be with Jesus.” The Gospel account of Martha and Mary this week is so important for us to hear and learn from.  Over the last six years, I have worked in two suburban parishes doing adult formation. Both parishes are located in very affluent areas and have a large number of upper middle class, white collar professionals. We have CEOs, attorneys, physicians, salespeople, pharmaceutical professionals, corporate executives, and even professional athletes. I’ve joked at times that our home could probably fit in the garages of some of the parishioners I kn...
Read more

Cultural Insanity and The Christian

By Tom Ponchak
Image
On multiple occasions over the past year I’ve had a reoccurring dream. I find myself in an insane asylum where the inmates have taken over and have the appearance of zombies. I was going from room to room looking for other trapped people, some asleep and others unaware of what was happening, and leading them to escape. At the same time, I encounter a few of the insane zombies and I am able to cure them so they become “normal” and leave with us. I believe this is a prophetic dream speaking to the nature of our culture and our mission as Christians. In the early telling of the story of Narcissus in Greek mythology the young man become enamored with his own image and committed suicide after despairing that no one could love him as much as he loved himself. It’s from this story that modern psychology takes the name Narcissistic Personality Disorder to describe an individual with an inflated sense of their own purpose and a lack of empathy for others. The Mayo Clinic lists the followin...
Read more

Tempus Fugit Memento Mori

By Tom Ponchak
Image
“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  – Luke 12:40 Several years ago I had a dream. It was an incredibly vivid dream. It was about the end of the world. I was in a house busy with nothing in particular. Suddenly there was a loud noise outside, almost like a siren. In fact, if you’ve seen the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds it was similar to the horns that the alien tripods used. I went outside to see what was going on. The house was on a hill in the middle of a green field. The sky was nearly cloudless a bright blue like a mid-summer’s day. As I went outside I looked up at the sky and suddenly I saw it being peeled back like someone peeling an orange. As the sky was being ripped open, it revealed a bright almost perfect golden light flooding in from behind it. I knew immediately that it was the Second Coming, the return of Jesus, the end of the world and Judgment Day. I felt immediate conviction and remor...
Read more