Third Sunday of Lent

Intro

The 7th husband

Wedding Analogy

infinite Good wishes give Infinite Good, Himself.

If that is true it means all that thought Christian life:

dull

empty

cheesy

one analogy/metaphor God uses for giving us infinite is wedding

no more physical symbol clearer for closeness and relatedness

no closer union possible than good one btwn husband and wife

Wedding here

Jacob’s well

Moses, Isaac, and Jacob’s wife found at well

For Jacob at Jacob’s well:

same time Gospel story

moving a rock for water placed at the well

Christ is rock of living water

Paul water in the desert was rock followed Israel and was Christ

Jewish legend well became spring of living water

Woman as bride

Represents non-Jews separated from God

God bring all into family

how non-bloodline family? Marry

make marriage [Catholic teach unbreakable] more imp than blood, closer relation than parent or sibling

closest passing physical relation, good rep of spiritual

already 5 husbands and a 6th false one

numbers imp to judaism

5 books of torah or 5 senses [fathers]

acquired a false 6th book or false 6th sense

bad faith, like all non-jew

calls beyond 5 senses [spirit and truth], reject the false 6th, and 7th husband [7 is completeness in Judaism]

Offers not passing water like Jacob, but eternal water

CCC 1617 Baptism analogous bath for marital feast

baptism washes old sins

gets confess and repent of 6th husband who false [baptism of desire]

abandons old ways becomes an evangelist immediately

spouse of Christ bring whole family too

Woman represents all, how react to God’s gift

The bride, lived most visual on earth as the mysterious nun, one of the clearest feminine images of the Church who is bride of Christ

without her not family w/ Christ

Offensive

Descend form cloudy heavenly mysteries back to earthly

on a 6th husband? really?

time of day suggesting she is outcast among outcasts

Jesus alone chatting it up with her in a setting associated with match making.

monk in bar with harlot

Offensive, but disciples trust no immoral

just like scandal of bringing a sinner back, but the Christian trusts

Old Testament, often images as marrying the rejected harlot

Christ brazenly risks offense to save

Us

Offense comes in all ways and forms

friend to the rejected

bring back those popular to hate

Teaching correct things politically incorrect

clear with the truth

willing to be around the sometimes offensive bride(the Church) and be offensive like Christ when charity?

or hold ourselves aloof of even God Himself as if could b better than the Good

care more about our status in the eyes of other people or about bringing God to the eyes of other people

Concl

Be like the 7th husband,Christ

Dare to risk offense by doing the right thing.

Notes

Me

Prob topics:

Do not test the Lord

Gen 24, Gen 29, Ex 2,

at noon, Jacob’s well

CCC 1617 baptism is bath for marital feast

water brings up and washes sin

Life thru sacrifice

5 senses, here 6th far sight is heretical

Christ comes at the 6th hour (Aug, Q64 [of the 83])

6th response is confession of Christ

worship in spirit and truth

apostles come thinking of earthly things

Christ speaks in riddles

Christ wearied like Israelite in desert, but focuses on the thirst for souls

not that senses bad (Christ uses, and apostles gone b/c getting food)

Rock in the desert represents Christ (1 Cor 10:4)

water flowing from Him (very contrary to normal course of action)

like uprooting and moving mountain

as Paul notes, the rock followed them

People complaining in the desert

Lord speaks in riddles and symbols

OT meeting wives at well

gets her to confess guilt when asks for water

5 husband [5 books] and her extra beliefs now are illegitimate

disciples: ‘he have some own meat’? So silly an interp, but we do the saem when think of earthly good and not spiritual. Even when we seperate only by degrees still not a quantum leap

Commentators

Pitre:

meribah ‘contention’, massah ‘testing’

Jesus wearies himself out on journey

Augustine:

woman type of Church

water enjoyed thru lust/pain and followed again by it, but God’s water forever

5 husband [5 books] and her extra Christ that dont yet hold [aug say bad interp]

5 husbands 5 senses

leaving waterpot is leaving love of world

Origen

6th husband is Samaritanism heresies

leaves waterpot (fleshly life) behind

Chrysostom

speaking of Church not being attached to Jerusalem or a mountain or that God is to be worshipped with soul b4 body

in truth is that what was typological/representative now is true in Sacraments

Christ speaks in visual signs b/c more vivid to human psyche

She is a gentile