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Christians engage in many activities.
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We build places of worship.
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We theologicalize and teach.
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We have commandments and customs.
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We go on pilgrimages.
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We use various objects and images.
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We have publicly recognized leaders in the community.
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We have monasticism and mysticism.
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We have fundraising and do works of charity.
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In other words, we do the same things as followers of other religions.
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Obviously, what makes Christianity unique is not to be found in such activities.
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The basic difference between Christianity and other religions is an acknowledged relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ.
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Certainly, all people and all creation have a relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ.
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But Christians have accepted God's invitation to live in the knowledge of that relationship.
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Some theologians would say that Christianity is not even a religion.
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They feel it is more accurate to say that Christianity has religious elements attached to it.
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But because of the relationship upon which it is based, it's basically so different as to be in a separate class from religions.
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A position makes sense, but whether we consider Christianity to be a religion or to merely have religious-looking aspects,
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let us look at what makes it look like a religion to outsiders.
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So, what activity is unique to Christianity when viewed as one among many religions?
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To be baptized, to be a Christian, means that one not only does religious things, worship, meditation, study, service, etc.
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But that one is first and foremost united with Christ and is therefore an evangelizer, a missionary as he was and is.
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Today's gospel passage is the one of this year's Lenten readings that brings the relationship between baptism and mission to the four.
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The first evangelizer at the well, as in our lives, is Jesus.
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When he meets the woman, he does not hesitate to speak with her.
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Rabbis avoided contact with women.
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Jews avoided dealing with Samaritans and to accept food or drink from one was to risk impurity.
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John later presents even more reason for Jesus to avoid this particular woman.
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She's a notorious sinner.
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The woman is shocked.
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How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?
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So are his disciples.
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They were astonished that he was talking with a woman.
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But this is the heart of evangelization.
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Jesus showed that God's love has no limits by breaking the limits of custom, propriety, and even religious purity.
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This is the source of the missionary vocation that each Christian shares with Christ by reason of baptism.
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Mission comes from being known by Christ and accepted by him regardless of who we are.
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The way in which he does this in the case of the woman is important.
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He invites her to break the same limits of custom that he has broken.
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When he asks her for water, he's giving her her first chance to evangelize to share God's caring love.
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He's willing to share his vocation with her.
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This is the reason evangelization includes the call to baptism, to membership in the church.
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We wish to share the missionary essence of our vocation with all.
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The woman does not stop with giving Jesus some water to drink.
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As she comes to realize the extent to which Jesus has loved her, she leaves him to evangelize others.
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Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.
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She said to the people, come and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done.
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He knew her yet loved her.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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That is the vocation to be an evangelizer, a missionary.
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I do not have to wander the world looking for opportunities to fulfill that vocation.
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I can find them even over a glass of water.
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The union of Catholicism