Homilies: Third Sunday of Lent (A) Mar. 8, 2026

Music

Christians engage in many activities.

We build places of worship.

We conduct rituals.

We pray.

We theologicalize and teach.

We have commandments and customs.

We go on pilgrimages.

We use various objects and images.

We have publicly recognized leaders in the community.

We have monasticism and mysticism.

We have fundraising and do works of charity.

We pray.

We fast.

We dance.

We sing.

In other words, we do the same things as followers of other religions.

Obviously, what makes Christianity unique is not to be found in such activities.

The basic difference between Christianity and other religions is an acknowledged relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ.

Certainly, all people and all creation have a relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ.

But Christians have accepted God's invitation to live in the knowledge of that relationship.

Some theologians would say that Christianity is not even a religion.

They feel it is more accurate to say that Christianity has religious elements attached to it.

But because of the relationship upon which it is based, it's basically so different as to be in a separate class from religions.

A position makes sense, but whether we consider Christianity to be a religion or to merely have religious-looking aspects,

let us look at what makes it look like a religion to outsiders.

So, what activity is unique to Christianity when viewed as one among many religions?

To be baptized, to be a Christian, means that one not only does religious things, worship, meditation, study, service, etc.

But that one is first and foremost united with Christ and is therefore an evangelizer, a missionary as he was and is.

Today's gospel passage is the one of this year's Lenten readings that brings the relationship between baptism and mission to the four.

The first evangelizer at the well, as in our lives, is Jesus.

When he meets the woman, he does not hesitate to speak with her.

Rabbis avoided contact with women.

Jews avoided dealing with Samaritans and to accept food or drink from one was to risk impurity.

John later presents even more reason for Jesus to avoid this particular woman.

She's a notorious sinner.

The woman is shocked.

How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?

So are his disciples.

They were astonished that he was talking with a woman.

But this is the heart of evangelization.

Jesus showed that God's love has no limits by breaking the limits of custom, propriety, and even religious purity.

This is the source of the missionary vocation that each Christian shares with Christ by reason of baptism.

Mission comes from being known by Christ and accepted by him regardless of who we are.

The way in which he does this in the case of the woman is important.

He invites her to break the same limits of custom that he has broken.

When he asks her for water, he's giving her her first chance to evangelize to share God's caring love.

He's willing to share his vocation with her.

This is the reason evangelization includes the call to baptism, to membership in the church.

We wish to share the missionary essence of our vocation with all.

The woman does not stop with giving Jesus some water to drink.

As she comes to realize the extent to which Jesus has loved her, she leaves him to evangelize others.

Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.

She said to the people, come and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done.

He knew her yet loved her.

Christ has not called me to be a disciple because of any goodness I have to offer or because I have talents that might be useful to the kingdom.

As St. Paul tells us in the epistle to the Romans, God proves his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

To accept that love and to be baptized is to accept as well the vocation that Christ has from the Father, a vocation he chooses to share with me.

That is the vocation to be an evangelizer, a missionary.

I do not have to wander the world looking for opportunities to fulfill that vocation.

I can find them even over a glass of water.

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