Second Sunday of Lent
St Mary's Cathedral
Exodus 17:3-7 Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:5-42
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
24 Feb 2002
"If today you hear his voice, Harden not your hearts"
This is a simple, clear message from the Psalm exemplified in the beautiful story of the woman by the well. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the Christian understanding of sexuality.
The story requires listening once again to an explanation of differences between the Jews and the Samaritans.
There was bad blood between them, like a family feud that had gone on for generations. The Samaritans were the descendants of the Jews not deported to Babylon at the fall of the Northern Kingdom about 722 B.C. In the sixth century BC they had opposed the Jewish return from exile in Babylon. Then, in the second century before Our Lord, they had fought with the Syrians against the Jews. They shared basically the same Jewish beliefs but they would not worship at the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Jews and the Samaritans were much more like the Irish than modern day Australians, with a sense of history which remembered the triumphs and the disasters of long ago as though they happened yesterday.
Therefore this was a completely unusual encounter because a Jewish man usually would not talk in public to any woman that he did not know, much less would he talk to a woman from a hostile neighbouring group.
It is interesting to remind ourselves that on many other occasions in the New Testament, it was only after a simple courtesy had been observed that better things could happen. On the road to Emmaus for example, it was only after the disciples had asked Our Lord in for a cup of tea and a sandwich which he accepted, that they realised just who he was.
It was after the woman replied politely that the workings of grace started to come and we had this fascinating dialogue. It is also consoling for us that when the woman started to talk with Our Lord she had no idea where she was going to end up religiously, what she was getting into. She and Our Lord were almost talking at cross purposes; certainly they were talking at different levels.
At the very best I think we can say, that her motives were mixed. Certainly after five husbands and one partner, she liked men. One of the commentators has even suggested that in talking to Our Lord she might have been making something of a pass at him.
Whatever her imperfections, and by the standards of the day when Jewish women were limited to three successive husbands, she was a star performer! But she did have an openness to the truth and disdain for a lot of those social conventions which restrain and inhibit us. Sometimes I suspect that big saints and big sinners have a lot in common as a human type. It is just that their energies run in different directions. She wanted the living water and she, together with many in her village after this, accepted the living water, that is, the teachings of Christ, because she came to realize that what Christ told her was touching her heart, bringing her peace.
Jesus taught the truth to that woman and to her village. Thank God that after she conceded to him that she had had five husbands and presently had a partner, he did not say to her: "That's very good. Keep up the good work." She was called to change her life.
The gospel is appropriate for this Lenten Mass and because of a local celebration which takes place this weekend.
To conclude I wish to repeat some of the basics from John Paul II's theology of the body, which he developed in 129 talks between September 1979 and November 1984.
"Why is the Church so hung up about sex?" "The Church should stay out of the bedroom." How often we hear comments like these. But whether people agree with the Church or not, we all intuitively know that sex is extremely important, more than entertainment.
For a start, none of us would exist without the sexual union of our parents. But the significance of our sexuality does not stop there.
Sexuality is God's gift to be treasured and celebrated. An asexual Church is as unholy and unredeemed as a sex-mad society. But there is a way through both distortions to wholeness, integration and truth.
The essential point is this: by reflecting on sexual difference, male and female, and the desire for union with the opposite sex, we discover the deepest reality of human identity and we even enter some way into the mystery of the Trinitarian God.
The creation story in the Old Testament book of Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve were made for each other. At the core of their beings, man and woman experience a deep desire for unity. We are made to love and be loved.
Our masculinity and femininity draws us beyond ourselves to each other. This "made for each other" is apparent in the differences between men's and women's bodies. Neither makes sense by itself, but only in union with the other.
The original harmony between men and women was ruptured when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. They mistrusted God's love and plan for them, and asserted their own will over his. But far from making them free, the result was to trap them in selfishness.
They no longer looked on each other as a reflection of God's image, but with lust and the self-centred desire to manipulate each other.
It is from the trap of selfishness that Jesus - God-made-flesh - promises to free us, and this freedom involves our sexuality.
The Church views the sexual union of man and woman as sacred and sacramental. The Church does not say "no" to practices such as pre-marital and extra-marital sex because it is against sex, but because it is radically for sex and the total, unreserved mutual self-giving it expresses in marriage. Marriage and the family are the bedrock, the basic cells of society and civilization.
Society's efforts to dodge or avoid the challenge of the Christian sexual ethic have often reaped tragic results and deep personal hurts. The theology of the body offers a fresh insight into who we are and helps us embrace the truth.
Sexuality is a highly sensitive topic. John Paul II recognizes the universality of the human struggle. No person has sexuality perfectly worked out! Redemption is a journey. It takes time, is often accompanied by mistakes, by sins that require repentance and forgiveness.
The gospel, though strong and confronting, is not meant as a condemnation but as an invitation to discover anew the gift and freedom of our sexuality. The woman by the well is an example of hope.
If today we hear Christ's voice, let us pray we harden not our hearts.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
