Lent, 3rd Sunday (A) Jews looked down on Samaritans as apostates from the true faith of Abraham. Jesus doesn't avoid them. In fact, he travels through their territory, finds common ground, and spends two days with them. God has not forgotten his Samaritan children.

Let's talk about paganism. The pagans had lots of gods. The gods were personifications of all the powers and forces that are outside of human control. The pagans tried to win favor with them so they could be blessed and not smitten.

On the contrary, Christians believe that there is only one God. All the forces of this world, and the spiritual world, are servants of God. Faithful, obedient servants in the case of natural forces and the angels. Rebellious, disobedient servants in the case of the demons. God is a Father who loves his children. Far from being insignificant, you can trust that God is moving heaven and earth to give you the very best.

I fear that far too many of us pray like pagans. We believe we need to get God's attention and somehow convince him to be kind to us. We take challenges as signs that God doesn't care. Far from it! The challenges are actually bringing us the best possible blessings.

God allows us to experience neediness so that we can turn to him, trust in him, and learn to rely more deeply on him. Instead, we often hate our neediness. We pray for God to take away our neediness so we can stop relying on him. You can see why God would not answer that prayer.

Instead, we need to listen to our neediness. Not just our surface neediness, but the yearnings of your heart. Our deepest desires were given to us by God and they lead us to him. Listen to the yearnings of the heart and let Jesus meet you at the well.

(12 Mar 2023)

Going Deeper: What are your surface cravings? What are the deeper desires of your heart? Spend some time identifying what you really want. Let Jesus meet you at the well.

Image Source. I am indebted to Msgr. Tom Richter on Relevant Radio's The Inner Life for these ideas, though I can't point you to the exact episode. Over 10 years of homily episodes available at PilgrimPriest.us/podcast | Like, subscribe, and pray about one person in your life who needs to hear this message| Find me on Facebook and Twitter | Powered by Patrons | give through PayPal | Thank you new Patron Fr. Michael from Minnesota