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3rd Lent A

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The story of the Samaritan woman is one of the great readings of the liturgical year.
As always, Jesus cuts across established divisions when he speaks to the Samaritan woman.
He was not one for separating one man from another or man from God. He came to unite us with each other and with God.
We know that he also sat and ate with ostracized people called sinners and touched the sick, even lepers in order to heal them.
Since we are called to imitate him we could today examine our own lifestyle,
admit truthfully what divisions we uphold and ask ourselves, would Jesus have done that?

Speaking to the Samaritan woman Jesus said:
“If you only knew what God is offering?”
We are not newcomers to Christianity, not beginners, yet, I think, many of us could be asked this same question.
For the full package God’s offer is so great that it is difficult to take it in.
To be the friend and brother the Son of God is very different from being a miserable sinner who trembles before the distant power of God.

Further down in the reading Jesus said: “God is spirit and those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Seeking the truth, accepting the truth about everything, speaking the truth about everything is worshiping God who is TRUTH. We need to peel off, bit by bit, all that are not true in our lives and we come to discover the beauty of ourselves, and through ourselves the beauty of God whose image we are.

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