Homily

In the evening when I'm watching TV, I usually flip to another nearby channel during commercials. One of those channels is HGTV, and, it seems to me nearly every night, all night they have one or another program about couples looking to buy a house. The format goes that the couple tells a real estate agent what they want in a house, and where they want to buy and then the agent shows them three houses, and, by the end of the half-hour, they need to pick one of the three. (Obviously they get some kind of payment for being on the show.) Naturally they are all young couples.

Over the past year or so, just flipping over there a number of times, I've been rather surprised by the comments made when the couples are looking over a prospective house. I have learned that if a kitchen doesn't have granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances, it isn't fit to cook in. All floors must be wood because carpeting is horrible. Every house must have openness, best seen when the living room, dining room, and kitchen have no walls separating them. One room is called the "Master Bedroom," and it has to be big enough to contain a bowling alley and it must also contain a bathroom large enough to roller skate in. With two sinks, thank you. One of my favorite lines heard at almost every house by every couple is, "These cupboards are dated, we'll have to change them out." I didn't even realize cupboards had expiration dates.

I think of the home my parents built in 1950, using the talents of many relatives. They didn't have a Master Bedroom. We called it, "Mom and Dad's bedroom." It was large enough to hold a double bed with a dresser on each side of it, and about three feet of space between the bed and dressers, and about three feet between the end of the bed and the wall. Needless to say there was no "master bathroom." There was THE bathroom downstairs. (There was also a one-half bath upstairs which was so tiny and so funny to talk about, but no time here. Let me just say it did not have a regular door.) So the downstairs bathroom was so small that you could wash your hands in the sink while you were sitting on the toilet, and also move the shampoo bottle on the tub at the same time. No shower. Showers weren't big in 1950. So seven people used this room for their bathing needs. I am amused when couples on the TV shudder at the thought of sharing a bathroom with their own potential children. Ha! Please understand I have no problem with people shopping for nice homes or things they like in a home. But I think in my parents' generation, while home buyers certainly wanted a nice looking house, they were more concerned about the economical use of space in a practical way than people are today. A bedroom is just for sleeping. Why would you spend money on a room big enough for ballroom dancing? Why would you spend money for two or three full bathrooms in a four-bedroom house. And no realtor in 1950 would say, "And you could use this room for an office, or for an entertainment center." So there is a big difference in perspective and values between home buyers of my parents' generation and young people today.

A few days ago, I heard a story of a village in Africa where Catholic Relief Services dug a well for the people. No more travelling a half mile to the river to get water in buckets. One woman quoted was so happy that there was a water tap in her neighborhood she could hardly talk. "And, oh, I can't believe how good this water tastes," she said. Now that's a different perspective from my parents' generation, where tap water was hardly given a second thought if you lived in a city.

The well in Africa made me think of the Samaritan woman, who also had to come to a well to get water. We don't know anything about her home except that she kept stocking it with different men, most likely because she thought they would fill the holes in her life, smooth over the rough spots of her dissatisfaction, provide a support for her life and maybe even be a source of loving care.

I think Jesus had a great compassion for her, sensing her great need as she came to the well. She wasn't thirsting after updated kitchen cabinets, and, although she is intrigued by the idea of never having to carry water again in buckets from a well, that is not her real problem.

In his conversation, Jesus pulls her out of her regular, everyday perspective, away from her relationships, away from the everyday work of hauling water, away even from her own identity as a Samaritan and a woman. He is able to get her to put all that aside for this moment, so that she can truly and really see Him for Who He is. And when He tells here that He is the messiah, she believes. She now has a whole new perspective on her life. She's found living water! She's so excited about her new understanding, her new perspective on life that she wants to share it with everybody and tells all the people in town to come and see Jesus for themselves. She's converted, she has changed.

Here's how I think it goes: as people become more prosperous and wealthy, they tend to buy more things, and more expensive things. It is a natural human tendency to guard, look after and protect the things we have, and so the more things we have, the more time, effort and energy we devote to them. The more time, effort and energy we devote to them, the more they fill up our lives. I think somebody once said, "Where your treasure is, there you heart will also be." It's true. The more these things fill up our lives, the less room we have, the less attention we may give, to our hearts and our souls.

A wealth of material goods can weaken our lives and dry up our souls if we're not careful. I'm sure most of us would say, "Well, I'm not wealthy," and I understand that. But if any of us, any of us made that claim in front of the African woman whose village has one water tap, she might have a different perspective.

As our country has grown more and more prosperous, we have become less and less satisfied, and is it any surprise then that we have, with all of our material comforts, looked less and less for comfort in Christ? We have let our stuff lead us astray, we've allowed that which perishes and rusts to overtake that which is eternal, we've paid more attention to bottled water than to living water, because we can control and carry bottled water, but living water demands our faith. You would think that the wealthiest nation on earth would be the happiest nation on earth, but it is not so. You'd think the wealthiest nation on earth would be the most grateful to God, but it is not so.

Jesus led the woman at the well past the circumstances of her life, past the hardship of water-carrying, the men, the national identity, the physical place to worship—He led her past all those external things so that she could see Him. She saw. She was converted. May we have the wisdom to remember to see that whether there is only one tap in our village, or two sinks in every bathroom in our house, there is only One Source of living water, and if we don't want to die of thirst, we'd better be sure we are always and sincerely coming to Him, the lover of mankind, and all that we have helps lead us to Him, and nothing that we have keep us away from Him.