Tag: lent

The Samaritan Woman

The Samaritan Woman

by Shery Abdelmalak

TEXT: JOHN 4:1-42

27 days into Lent. You’ve made in halfway. Things start to get a bit tough here. Or worse, you forget why you’re even fasting. Lent is a marathon of a fast and so, it is vital that you keep focused on the reasons why we fast, and not on the fasting itself. Why are you still depriving yourself of food that you love? There really is no point to giving up food if it’s not replaced by food for the soul. Do not starve your soul as well as your body. Eventually the desires of the body will become too much to bear if there is no replacement.

As we progress through the Lenten Gospels, we see the Love of Christ that runs deeper. What could be better than a father that runs out to greet his son that had left him for prodigal living? A God that actively seeks His children before they even know they need Him. For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ pursued the Samaritan woman while she was still in sin to implore her to repentance through His Love.

The major thing we can take from the interaction of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman is the gifts Jesus offers to us all and the way we should respond to Him. After a long day of baptising the nations, Jesus was on His way to Galilee but there was one of His flock that He still had on His mind. From Judea, He detoured through Samaria on His way to Galilee. A Jew traveling from Judea to Galilee would generally go along the Jordan Valley (right) or along the coast (left). The third way was to go straight through the mountains of Samaria. This was not ideal because of poor relations between the Jews and Samaritans, but Jesus had a purpose for going on this specific journey. This was the way He needed to go to reach His beloved.

Jesus arrives early to the well, around the sixth hour and waits for the Samaritan woman. As she arrives, He asks for a drink. This would have come as a surprise to her for three reasons:

  1. GENDER: it was unusual for the time for a man to start a conversation with a woman he didn’t know
  2. RELIGION: to the Jews, Samaritans were unclean half-breeds
  3. STATUS: the very fact that she went to the well at the sixth hour, in the heat of the day suggested that she was of low status and had an immense fear of judgement

Why would Jesus choose her? What was special about the Samaritan woman that Jesus would go out of His way to see her?

She was humble.

To receive the message of faith, one cannot be puffed up. She was the perfect candidate. The Samaritan woman questioned Jesus, not to belittle Him, but to understand His message. Jesus, in His wisdom, walks carefully, gives us only as much as we can receive. For as long as we are puffed up, He distances Himself.

“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Not because of any disgust or disapproval of our arrogance, but because He has no entry point. He cannot fill what is already full. We receive blessing through open hands, not clenched fists. The Samaritan woman may have been living in sin but she was open to receiving the Word. She did not think anything of herself, she chose to draw water in the heat of the day than risk facing another person. She was empty – and while living in this world this led her to despair and self-loathing. We aspire to empty ourselves first and foremost, to be filled with Christ through daily renewal in repentance.

Why is it that in the third world you can stand in the middle of a market place and preach and be heard but would never try that in Sydney CBD? Who would listen to you in Sydney? Try in a country like Kenya where they have so little to depend upon and nations are brought to Christ. It is in these countries that people are open to receiving the Word. They receive blessings and they receive them in abundance because they are ready to receive. The third world really does represent the modern-day Samaritan woman.

Without Christ, there will always be an emptiness of the soul, a void that cannot be filled. To alleviate this emptiness, we turn to other sources – to social media, to alcohol, to medications – anything that will temporarily fill the void. All this does is stop Christ from reaching us. He is sitting at the well waiting to meet with you, but we get lost along the way. We look to be filled but we look in the wrong places. For the Samaritan woman, it came in the form of male companionship. St Augustine says,

The five husbands represent the five senses since she has surrendered her soul to her physical senses. These could not satisfy her as they do not lead her soul to eternal life. They just satisfy temporary and short lived feelings. The one with whom she is living now, and who is not her husband, represents the mind (that is not sanctified) and that does not lead her to the Word and the Truth. Rather, it leads her to sin, and offers her incorrect knowledge. She needs the Bridegroom of her soul who will lead her to wisdom, truth, and fulfilment.

Christ could only fill the void these men had in her life through her honest admission in that she had no husband. At that point, she was ready to give it all up and be filled with Christ. Having received the Word, she leaves even her water pot behind and preaches the Messiah to the Samaritans. The same woman that could not face another human being was out proclaiming the message of Christ.

May we pray to empty ourselves like the Samaritan woman so that we can put to death all things of this world that fills the void that only Christ can rightfully fill. May we be resurrected in Christ and put on the new man that was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22).

 

 

3 Things To Do This Lent!

3 Things To Do This Lent

by Meena Awad

Welcome to Lent! Get ready to be smashed spiritually. Get ready to go through dry periods. Get ready to be attacked with division, complacency, judgement, gossip and anything that can go wrong. “But joy comes in the morning” – Psalm 30:5 and “he who endures to the end will be saved” – Matthew 10:22. For “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” – James 1:12.

So let’s go over 3 quick things that will not only help us benefit this Lent, but open our eyes to the beauty and sweetness of the Lord.

1 – Annoy your confession father!

We all avoid that one person who comes to us and has the exact same conversation every time. Unfortunately for our confession fathers, they can’t run away. So go be a pest. Every moment this lent you have a chance to confess, take it! Even if you confess more than once in that week. Take this opportunity to develop a strong connection with your father of confession. Have confession more times now than you ever have before. Even if you’re saying the exact same thing every time, even if you don’t have anything to say at all, take the opportunity to sit with him, he will tell you what to do.

2 – Focus!

The world is a noisy and disturbing place. Yet no noise on earth compares to the chaos found in the mind and heart of one who is unfocused.

St John Climacus divides this lack of focus into two things; Tedium and Despondency.
“Tedium reminds those at prayer of some job to be done, and in her brutish way she searches out any plausible excuse to drag us from prayer…” – St John Climacus

It’s a common problem. The constant feeling of having no time to pray or when we do pray, we remember, “Oh, I forgot to message family/friends/boss etc”, “I need to finish prayer quickly so I can work/serve/wake up for the mass tomorrow etc”. Or we just lose concentration during prayer and we think of everything but the prayer.

Despondency is the opposite end of the spectrum. It is when we have all the time and energy in the world, but don’t care enough to dedicate it to God and our spiritual life.

Both are problems of focus. Both have the same solution. St John says the best way to overcome these are by; mourning our past sins and thinking of eternal blessing. So this lent, let us truly mourn and repent of our sins so we can refocus on God. Take time in a quiet place each day. Take note of our short fallings and all that is heavy on our hearts, and mourn over them. Ask, “how can I separate myself from the One I love like that?” Then turn to the Lord and tell him “Forgive me sweet Lord, for I turned from you, I rejected you and caused tears to fall from your pure eyes.”

But repentance is not enough, there needs to be reconciliation. So now we return to God! We now learn that a relationship with a fleeting pleasure can never compare to a relationship with an unconditionally loving and eternal God. Pleasures will pass, no matter how great they may seem, but what God has for us endures forever. For, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” – 1 Corinthians 2:9

And in this way we will neither have Tedium nor Despondency.

3 – Get romantic with God.

It’s incredible what we will do for the things we love; stand up for hours to buy a burger and not complain once, spend thousands to see our idols and have no regrets, talk all night with the boy/girl we love and not get tired. Yet how often do we stand up to eat the Bread of Life and complain, give some money to the poor and have regrets or refuse to stay up and pray because we are tired? It’s time we take the romance in our lives that is aimed toward our passions and turn them toward God. Romance is a natural function inside all humans and it was put inside us by God for God. “All things were created through Him and for Him.” – Colossians 1:16

So this lent, let’s get romantic with God. Take a peaceful nature walk with the Lord. Spend what we can on gifts for His children. Light some candles when we sit with Him and stay up late talking truly and intimately with Him, sharing all our deepest thoughts, feelings, ambitions and dreams. Take Him with us everywhere we go, refusing to let go of His hand. Let our hearts beat as one, in total synergy with God. Let this Lenten period be a honeymoon between us and our most Beloved One.

“Scarcely had I passed by them, when I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go.” – Song of songs 3:4

Lenten Fasting – Revisited

Lenten Fasting – Revisited

by Shenouda Girgis

Holding the dog hostage and setting the eagle free – Lenten fasting revisited.

Diving into the Lenten season, we find ourselves face to face with an ogre in the room… the infamous no fish, no meat, no milk, no nothing fast. And my first reaction to the impending despair, is to honey the thought with a dose of cognitive behavioural therapy.

Don’t worry, it’s short.

Wait, I can’t lie to myself, its darn long.

Ok, let’s be truthful. It’s not that bad, I always look back and it was like nothing.

At this point I’ll start clenching my fist with a couple of catchy one liners; “what doesn’t kill me, can only make me stronger.”

With our mind fixated on the thought of the seriousness of the situation, we gradually develop our own maxims that push us to fast with more austerity. We become completely focused on eating less to discipline the body and free the soul, tame the dog to guide the eagle. This works – for a time. Then what? After a couple of dodgy fasts, we reminisce on the glory days, where fasting meant so much and felt, like, sort of- liberating. We relabel the focus with the same maxim that we developed a couple of fasts ago, and at it headfirst we go again!

It doesn’t work so we keep trying to uphold this cheap one-line which we can so sternly stare down and focus our glassy eyes on. The one line we set on a pedestal is usually a couple of cheaply put together words that are easy to remember and generally guide the intended thought behind the veil of the words. The more we think, the more the words take on new meaning and the initial thought in all its integrity is lost. What is left is a few flat words that Google thesaurus would dutifully snicker at. With time, we find this one line sink real deep into our mind and sort of take over our whole being, a bit like a mantra. Fasting and non-fasting times, we are just naturally gravitating toward eating less. Fasting loses its meaning; food becomes the obstacle to our goal; if we could just eat less, we would glimpse the shadow of the days of honey and milk. And do you see the monster we’ve developed?

In the beginning we loved food. The joy and complete utter miracle of eating was fresh in our senses. The rich crunch through an apple sent our spirits soaring. We were thankful with a heart overflowing with bliss. We were positive, we were happy. Fasting was a hold on our diet; a tool to violent recollection and inner peace; a stern development of character; it was the perfect balance between the eagle and the dog. Not an assassination of the poor dog. Now we’ve hung the dog at the stake, and the eagle has flown high. We’ve convinced ourselves into thinking we could be free like an angel. But we’re not angels. We’re human, we are body and spirit. The balance between the two and the complete cohesion and fullness of the two is a bliss more glorious than angels. Sort of like the dog attached to the eagle like a kite in an innocent boy’s hands.