A while back, a young deacon came to our parish to help out on weekends. He loved coffee, the stronger the better. And if he wasn't drinking coffee, he had a large bottle of diet cola in his hands. So I was surprised on the night before Ash Wednesday when he announced he had decided to give up caffeine for Lent.
In today's gospel we see, in one finely crafted scene, the progress from sinfulness to a living faith. In her encounter with Jesus, the woman at the well moves through these steps. Those who actively pursue spiritual growth will recognize these passages, because we are bound to go through them time and time again on our way to deeper unity with God.
Most people can pinpoint the moment when the attraction they felt for someone turned to love. It usually has to do with seeing the person in a new light. As one man described it, "One night I watched as a woman who had been my good friend for many years gently stroked her dying mother's forehead.
As I walked through the ornate cemetery on the outskirts of the family hometown in Southern Italy with my cousin, I searched for family names on the graves. There were many such names, but not all were relatives.
I always felt sorry for Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz. She tried so hard to share the wonders of her adventure, and all she got from her Auntie Em and others were bemused stares.
Apostles Peter, James, and John were blessed with what we've come to know as a "peak experience," when everything finally makes sense and you can see clearer than you've ever seen before. Life offers similar moments to all of us.
As the people of God take their first steps on the Lenten journey, the temptation is to talk about temptation. After all, don't the readings offer examples of those who gave into temptation (Adam and Eve) and one who didn't (Jesus) and some reflection of the difference between them (by Saint Paul)?
In our lives, we'll all be tempted to commit prideful, selfish acts. For some of us, our greed and ego will reach enormous heights and lead to disgraceful acts of catastrophic proportions. For others our pride will be somewhat more contained: a white lie here, a bribe there.
A friend tells this story about the first apartment he rented after leaving the college seminary. His downstairs neighbor, for reasons never determined, was militantly anti-Catholic. So on Friday mornings as he was leaving for work, she would stand in the doorway waving a strip of bacon in his face.
To anyone who thinks God is remote and aloof, let them read today's Genesis account of Creation. How close is God? Imagine this: God bends low to the earth and scoops up handfuls of clay.