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Community of Jeffersonville St. Augustine
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Catholic Community of Jeffersonville St. Augustine & Sacred Heart
Homily
by
Father Thomas E. Clegg
3 Sunday Lent A St. Augustine-Sacred Heart 2010
John 4:5-42
In January of 1983, I was a senior at Marian College
working on a degree in Elementary Education.
I had all my course work complete
and began my student teaching at St. Philip Neri School in Indianapolis.
I had a class of 26 sixth graders, among them a young boy named Donnie.
Donnie was what could be referred to as a “problem” child.
He got in a lot of trouble. He broke the rules.
He neglected his schoolwork.
He carried with him the label “lazy and unwilling to work.”
And that was pretty much my experience with him
as his student teacher for 12 weeks.
Two years later, after a brief stint on the Indianapolis Fire Department,
I received my first full-time teaching job.
Coincidentally, it was once again as St. Philip Neri
and it was with the same class that I had student taught
—only now they were eight graders.
I looked forward to it, but I wondered how I would handle Donnie,
the problem child.
When those 8th graders came to me that first month of school,
I realized Donnie was different.
He followed the rules at least most of the time.
He did his homework almost all of the time.
He came to school happy and willing to learn.
After about a month I went back to the 6th grade teacher,
the one who had been my supervisor, and asked her,
“What happened to Donnie?
He does his work….He follows the rules….He gets good grades…..”
She just laughed and said, “He met Mr. Chambers.”
Mr. Chambers was the 7th grade teacher and it seems he and Donnie clicked.
He was able to reach Donnie in a way no teacher had before.
He challenged Donnie when he needed to be challenged.
He accepted Donnie when he needed to be accepted…
But most of all, he loved him when he needed to be loved.
And slowly, but surely, Donnie responded.
And he began to grow as a student and as a person.
By the time Donnie came to me as eighth grader he was a different student.
I think we have a very similar story in our Gospel today.
We have a woman who has been labeled…
We have a woman who is an outcast…
She doesn’t come to the well in the morning as do the other women,
Because if she had she would be shunned and mocked.
She comes to the well and noon….and like Donnie,
she has an encounter with someone who will change her life.
How did Jesus do that for her?
The same way Mr. Chambers did it for Donnie.
He talked to her. He accepted her. He challenged her….
But most of all, he loved her when she needed to be loved.
But you see I don’t think the point of the story
is that we need to show love like Mr. Chambers showed love,
although that would be good..
I don’t think the point of the story is even that we need show love
like Jesus showed love, although that too is a good thing.
I think the point of the story is that each of us need to be loved
like Donnie was loved.
Each of us need to be loved like the woman at the well
was loved by Jesus.
You see, I think many of us, like the woman at the well,
are trying to satisfy ourselves with things that don’t satisfy us.
We look to the position we have in the company and think…
If I can just get that promotion then things will be better….
We look to our possessions…if I can just get that nicer car, that new house,
That new furniture, that new carpet…then I’ll be happier.
We look to our addictions…If I can just have another drink to relax me,
another smoke to calm me….another shopping spree to make me happy.
If I just have “whatever it is” then I’ll be okay.
Isn’t that what the woman at the well was doing?
Searching for that one thing, that one person who might satisfy her.
Wasn’t that what Donnie was doing?
Looking for a reason to believe he could make it?
And don’t we do the same?
And Jesus comes to us as he did to the woman at the well,
And he tells her, as the old country song says,
You’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.
And he tells us the same.
Jesus, in his own unique way says,
“look you’ve been reaching out for things that will satisfy you
for the moment…
I want to give you something that will satisfy you forever.”
And she recognizes this possibility,
“Sir, give me that water so I won’t have to keep coming to this well.”
Give me that which will satisfy me.
And he does….He gives her his very self.
This story calls us to look at our own journey.
Is there something in our lives that we are using to get temporary relief,
when what we need is the living water of Christ?
This story calls us to look at our own journey.
When we thirst for God and go to the well to draw water,
Is the well we go to real or is it just an illusion of happiness?
Today’s Gospel is all about bypassing those things
that satisfy only temporarily,
And accepting the gift of God---the life giving waters of Jesus Christ.
Donnie found those life-giving waters through the care of loving teacher.
The woman at the well found them in the eyes of a loving Christ.
We can find them too,
but only if we are looking for love in all the right places.
What are those places?
It’s here…. It’s in the man named Jesus….
It’s here….It’s in this faith family….
It’s here….It’s around this table…..
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Catholic Community of Sacred Heart | 1840 East Eighth Street, Jeffersonville, Indiana | 47130
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