Homily

One of the great things about children is the amount of energy they almost always seem to have. They are like the wind-up toys that you never need to wind up because the spring never runs out. They can spend hour after hour playing and still be ready for more. There are some things that can tire children out, however—doing good can bring on instant fatigue. "Go and help your brother rake the leaves." In an instant the child realizes the extreme fatigue that has already overcome them, making such a request seems, at the very least, unkind and thoughtless. After ten minutes of raking you may see them again as they present themselves to you at the point of utter exhaustion, dragging the rake behind them, shoulders sloped, faces drawn and drooping, as they beg of you with pitiable eyes, "How much longer do I have to do this? I'm tired." And you, yourselves, want to weep at the sight; or maybe not.

It has been scientifically proven that kids have a lot more energy to do the things that they want to do, than they have for what you want them to do; but what about adults? What do we have energy for? Or, looking at it from the opposite side, what tires us out, makes us weary, brings on fatigue, saps our strength and tuckers us out? Is it doing good or doing wrong? Of course I'm not talking about physical tiredness. You can work very hard at doing good and very hard at doing wrong and at the end of the day be physically tired in equal amounts. I'm talking about that mental fatigue, that emotional weariness, that lack of energy that seems to afflict our souls from time to time, more or less, and maybe even today.

It's a fatigue that I think comes to us in different ways. It may be that we think we are working harder, trying more, doing more than others, and yet they are unwilling to do the same, or to acknowledge how much I am laboring on their behalf, and they have no gratitude for all that I do for them. Some people call this "parenting," others call it "marriage," and others say that it's "my job." But it can produce a sense of weariness within us. We may feel tired because of the repetitious or boring aspects of our lives, such as doing the same thing over and over again, maybe at work, maybe at home, maybe both. I don't know anyone who walks more slowly to the washing machine so that they can savor the moment.

Or it may just be a general sense that we're not getting the excitement and fun out of life that we ought to be getting. It may be that like little baby birds in the nest, our passions are cheeping and chirping, beaks wide open, waiting to be fed. And those passions will not close their mouths or end their chirping until they are fed. So we look for things, partake of things that will give us a sense of pleasure or excitement, mostly just to escape the sense of spiritual fatigue that seems to be weighing us down. There are many ways to try and escape these kinds of tiredness, and nearly all of them are potentially harmful, and some are potentially deadly if we seek them out with a wrong motive, or if we expect them to be remedy for a problem that they cannot fix.

The woman at the well has always struck me as a woman who is very tired, and not just from carrying water, but she's tired of her life. The six men she has lived with were her attempt, or perhaps I should say they represent all her attempts to put some liveliness, some satisfaction, some zest and vigor into her life but all of them have failed. And now, quite unexpectedly, in a way she could never have foreseen, she meets Jesus and her life changes. She leaves her water jar behind because she's no longer thirsty. She becomes a lively apostle, going around the town telling everybody to come and see Jesus. And according to tradition, she becomes a disciple of Jesus. He, as the living water has chased away her blues, refreshed her tired soul and given her a solid reason for living. That is not all. Jesus tells His disciples that He also has food that nourishes, which they may also share in. Food and drink—gifts of the Lord—genuine nourishment for life.

There is a constant temptation to find our own means to escape the weariness, the boredoms, the frustrations, the dull and difficult and demoralizing tiredness that we can sometimes feel pressing us down in life. But when we look to our own methods for relief we can all too easily fall into thoughts and behaviors that are bad for us, and often for others as well. These solutions are temporary. I think it is a much better idea to sit down at the well with the Lord, tell Him our water jug is empty, and ask Him to refresh us with living water. Let us be patient if we do not immediately feel like jumping up and spreading the Good News and then dancing the Hopak. Our feelings are not to be trusted. Instead let us believe in the Lord patiently, because we may not be able to drink too much all at one time, but we can be sure that every grace is adding to every other grace, and all of these are changing our lives.