QUESTION AND  

ANSWER  PERIOD

Quote for the Day  - March 28,  2011


"It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers."

James Thurber, "The Scotty Who Knew Too Much," Fables for Out Time, 1940

TWO WOMEN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Two Women.”

FIRST WOMAN

The first woman is the woman in today’s gospel – the so called, “Woman at the Well” or “The Samaritan Woman” in the 4th Chapter of the Gospel of John.

Notice she’s not a Jew, but a Samaritan. John’s community is reaching out to Samaritans and Gentiles. Samaritans and Jews didn’t talk to each other.

Notice she’s a woman and it wasn’t a woman’s world outside the home in the Mediterranean Basin at that time – and in some places in the world – at this time. Women and men were not supposed to talk to each other in public. (1)

There’s two things we can learn from this gospel story – and there are many other observations. It’s always been a favorite for speculative scripture study.

Notice we don’t have her name. John does this at times. We see this in the story of the Blind Man in Chapter 9 and the Sick Man at the Pool in Bethzatha in Chapter 5. For some, this helps people identify with these characters.

Notice the woman changes gradually. She’s a work in progress. Faith and understanding comes in stages. It develops. The plot thickens. It’s good story telling.

Notice the image and symbol of the well.

Notice the image and symbol of water.

Notice the movement from the literal to the figurative. The woman sees water as water. Slowly she sees the invisible besides the visible. Slowly she moves from the real to the symbolic. Slowly she realizes there is more to life than meets the eye.

Jesus triggers the big change when he brings up the question of the men in her life. Till she meets Jesus – there are 6 men in her life. Is John playing with the number 7 – a significant number in his gospel?

When Jesus brings her inside to her inner well – well she begins to change.

In her excitement, she then runs to the other members of the village to tell them about Jesus. This might be the Messiah.

The disciples saw her before she ran – in fact, did she run when she saw these men coming towards her?

The disciples then have to go through the same process – of moving from the literal to the imaginative, from the material to the spiritual, from the visible to the invisible.

They have to learn about deeper hungers – just as the woman had to learn about deeper thirsts.

Then the villagers arrive and it takes them two days to move through the same process.

A key text is when they say that they no longer believe on her word, but now that they have experienced Jesus for themselves, they know and believe.

An obvious message for the reading and listener to John, is that we too have to go through the same process.

We first believe on the word of others, parents, church, but hopefully the day comes when we experience Jesus for ourselves.

We too have to go through the growth and development process.

We too have to drink deep of the well called, “Jesus”.

Jesus offers the living waters that will quench our thirst.

Jesus offers the living bread that will satisfy our hunger.

THE SECOND WOMAN

The second woman is St. Teresa of Avila [1515-1582]. I chose her because her statue is here in our sanctuary.

I chose her because her life is one more example of the steps and stages of spiritual growth. You can read biographies of her life – or her Vida or autobiography.

You can read her book, “The Interior Castle.”

Today I would stress her image of water – and her garden. You can read this in her works – and the way I present it is sort of simplistic – but this is how I sort it out – having taught this stuff for years when I had a job called, “novice master.” I read the works of Teresa of Avila because St. Alphonsus our founder was a great fan and reader of Teresa. I would assume that’s why her statue is up here on our altar piece in parallel with Alphonsus. (2)

Here goes….

Teresa compares growing in prayer and a deeper spiritual life to watering her garden.

At first she uses buckets to bring water from a stream to her garden. She walks back and forth, back and forth, back and forth with the buckets.

Next, she uses a waterwheel with buckets on it. The buckets dip into the water and then she can water her garden a bit easier. I’m not too clear in picturing this. I looked for diagrams – but couldn’t find any.

Thirdly, she builds or digs a sluice or irrigation canal that runs to her garden from the stream. Neat. It’s makes work easier.

Fourthly, it rains. The water pours down from the heavens into her garden.

I love the progression. It’s how life works. Everything takes time. Learning takes time. Hopefully we keep growing spiritually, imaginatively, intellectually all our lives – and in the meanwhile without effort on our part, the skies open and the rain of God pours down upon.

Is one of life’s great delights to stick one’s tongue out and taste the rain or the snow on one's tongue and face as it falls?

CONCLUSION

So the lessons from these two women are: (1) You have to start the process by yourself. (2) You learn and grow by doing. (3) And don’t forget to stand in the rain in wonder and laugh at God and everything, because life and God is a God of surprises and twists and turns.

NOTES

The picture on top is part of the altar piece here at St. Mary’s Church Annapolis, Maryland.

(1) Confer page 98 in Bruce Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science on the Gospel of John [Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1998]

(2) Confer Libro de la Vida – the Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. Confer Chapters 11-22.

COMEDY ON STAGE - 

TRAGEDY BACKSTAGE -

ONCE THE MASKS COME OFF.

Quote for Today - March 27, 2011

"Nothing disturbs, or surprises, man so much as the discrepancy between his professions and his actual behavior; in that discrepancy lies the mother lode of intellectual comedy."

Christopher Morley, Introduction, The Best of Don Marquis, 1939

STANDING  ON  
THE EDGE OF THE SURE

Quote for Today  - March 26, 2011


"To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and the flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be."






Rachel Carson, Foreward, Under the Sea-Wind, 1941

ANNUNCIATION:

A PAINTING

WITH SIMPLE WORDS

I didn’t ask for this. I never even asked God for signs.

I trusted God. God has always been good to me – giving me the gifts of life, health, family, faith, village, and a good man that loved me: Joseph.

I heard the stories in the sacred scriptures – spoken to us in the synagogue – at Sabbath services. The Messiah was to come – but unlike the sun rising every morning and falling asleep every night – the Messiah was to come at a time when we would least expect him.

So I couldn’t believe it, when a messenger from the Lord, an angel, voiced his way into me – with the greeting, “Hail Mary full of grace – the Lord is with you!”
Compliments like that come from time to time in the marketplace – when the seller wanted to sell me bread or wine or lamb or what have you. And I knew enough to always ask, “What’s the price? How many pieces of silver will this cost me?”

So I asked the angel, this messenger, “What do you want? What are you asking me to do?”

My voice, my face, my being, my hands, must have been shaking because the messenger said, “Do not be afraid!”
Then came the reason why this angel came to me. “Mary, you have found favor with God.”
“Uh oh!” I thought. “What’s coming next?”

Then the next . These were the words:
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
Now that was a big next and I didn’t faint! And the two of us became very silent.

Then came my enormous question – the obvious: “How can this be – since I have no relations with a man?”

What would you do? What would you say?

Well, then the angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
God is a God of twists and turns – so then came another next, another surprise. The angel announced, “And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”
What does one do next? It sounded like God was about to do something new – and I didn’t know – how all this would happen, so then I said my “Yes!” And I added, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Then the angel left. Silence. Quiet. Feelings. Questions. Wonderings.

I thought of beginnings. This was to be a new Genesis. I felt like Adam being formed out of the clay of the earth again – with the rush of God’s Spirit coming upon both of us and all of us. I felt like Eve being formed from Adam’s rib. I felt new life rushing into me. Then I said to myself, “Annunciations are dramatic. I also sense that they are easy – compared to what I think is next – swords and suffering – surprise and a new sunrise over Israel – and how is Joseph going to deal with all this?

+++++ +++++ +++++

Painting on top by Nina Maria Kleivan. It can be found in the Bavnehoj Church in Kobenhavn, Denmark. The date listed is 1994.

I also have a few other reflections on the annunciation on my blog - on my meditations of the mysteries of the rosary and also a reflection back on March 25, 2009.

ANNUNCIATION

Quote for The Feast of the Annunciation - March 25,  2011



"One would have sworn that he was saying, 'Ave';
for in that scene there was the effigy
of one who turned the key that had unlocked
the highest love; and in her stance there were
impressed these words, 'Ecce ancilla Dei,'
precisely like a figure stamped in wax.
'Your mind must not attend to just one part,'
the gentle master said - he had me onthe side of him where people have their heart.
At this, I turned my face and saw beyond
the form of Mary - on the side where stood
the one who guided me - another story
engraved upon the rock; therefore I moved
past Virgil and drew close to it, so that
the scene before my eyes was more distinct."


from Canto X in Dante's Purgatorio, translation by Allen Mandelbaum 1982



Painting, Annunciation [1898] by Henry Ossawa Tanner -[1859-1898]

QUIET DRIVE

I need quiet to hear what I’m not hearing.
I need quiet to hear the voices of those people
around me whom I’m neglecting.
I need to ask others, “How’s it going?”
And then to hear, to listen, and then ask them
further questions and wonderings about
their further wonderings and wanderings.
I need quiet to hear my own inner voices –
especially those voices I avoid and put on hold.
God you know this. You know this better
than all of us – because You’re The Quiet One.
You know that by being quiet we understand
why You’re so quiet. I guess, we’re like two friends,

lovers, buddies, driving together on a long ride –
sometimes down dark highways – and we both realize
words and radio are not necessary. We speak
from time to time about those things that are on our mind
or all those interesting things – like lights at night coming at
our front windshield – and what’s on the other side
of dark tunnels. By the way: “Do you ever want to drive?”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2011