March 8, 2026 Homily: Fr. Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03There are some encounters in life after
2. 0:06which nothing can remain the same.
3. 0:10You may try to return to your routine,
4. 0:14to the old patterns, the old excuses,
5. 0:19but once you've truly encountered
6. 0:21someone who sees you completely and
7. 0:24loves you anyway,
8. 0:27you cannot remain the way you were.
9. 0:31This is the drama that's being played
10. 0:33out today in today's gospel.
11. 0:37Jesus does not meet the Samaritan woman
12. 0:40in the temple or in a synagogue.
13. 0:44He meets her at a well in the middle of
14. 0:46an ordinary day,
15. 0:48in the heat of the afternoon, in the
16. 0:51middle of her complicated life.
17. 0:54And that matters,
18. 0:57because it tells us something about God.
19. 1:01God does not wait for us to become
20. 1:03worthy before he comes looking for us.
21. 1:07He meets us where we are.
22. 1:10He enters the dust of our lives. He
23. 1:12comes to the places we would rather keep
24. 1:15hidden.
25. 1:17He comes to the well.
26. 1:20And this woman is carrying far more than
27. 1:23a water jug.
28. 1:25She's carrying shame.
29. 1:27She's carrying disappointment.
30. 1:30She's carrying a past she cannot
31. 1:32rewrite.
32. 1:34She's carrying thirst.
33. 1:37And if we're honest, so are we.
34. 1:41Some come to church carrying grief.
35. 1:44Some come carrying resentment or private
36. 1:48sin.
37. 1:49Some carry loneliness.
38. 1:52Some carry a spiritual dryness that has
39. 1:56lasted so long they have already made
40. 1:58peace with it.
41. 2:01And into all of that, Jesus says,
42. 2:04"Give me a drink."
43. 2:07At first, it sounds strange.
44. 2:10The Son of God asks her for something.
45. 2:15But this is how divine love works.
46. 2:19God approaches with humility.
47. 2:22He does not force his way into our
48. 2:24lives. He invites. He engages. He begins
49. 2:28a conversation.
50. 2:31But the conversation quickly goes
51. 2:33deeper.
52. 2:36Jesus is not really speaking about well
53. 2:38water.
54. 2:39He's speaking about the human heart.
55. 2:43He's speaking about the restlessness
56. 2:46in every person that no created thing
57. 2:48can ever satisfy.
58. 2:53This woman has been thirsty for a long
59. 2:55time.
60. 2:58Thirsty for love.
61. 3:00Thirsty for stability, for meaning.
62. 3:03And she's searched for it in many wrong
63. 3:06places.
64. 3:08She's had five husbands.
65. 3:11And the man she now lives with is not
66. 3:13her husband.
67. 3:16Her life has been a search.
68. 3:18And Jesus touches that place.
69. 3:22Not to humiliate her. Not to condemn
70. 3:25her. But to free her.
71. 3:29This is one of the greatest truths of
72. 3:31the spiritual life.
73. 3:32Jesus never reveals our wounds in order
74. 3:36to shame us.
75. 3:38He reveals them in order to heal us.
76. 3:42>> [snorts]
77. 3:42>> To set us free.
78. 3:45The devil exposes our sin to accuse us
79. 3:47and to ridicule us.
80. 3:50Christ exposes sin to save us.
81. 3:54>> [snorts]
82. 3:56>> And that is why, and this is what must
83. 3:59have shattered her heart.
84. 4:02Because most of us live with one great
85. 4:04fear.
86. 4:06If people really knew everything about
87. 4:08me, they would leave me.
88. 4:12But here is Christ who knows everything
89. 4:14and still says and still stays.
90. 4:18He knows everything and still speaks to
91. 4:20her.
92. 4:22He knows everything and still offers her
93. 4:24living water.
94. 4:26And that changes everything.
95. 4:30She came to the well for water.
96. 4:33She leaves having found something.
97. 4:38Then the gospel gives us a small but
98. 4:40powerful detail. She leaves behind her
99. 4:43water jar.
100. 4:46This detail is not accidental.
101. 4:49She leaves the very thing that she came
102. 4:52for because she has found something
103. 4:55greater.
104. 4:57The old errand suddenly seems less
105. 5:00important because she has encountered
106. 5:02Christ.
107. 5:04And then she runs into town and says,
108. 5:08"Come and see this man who told me
109. 5:10everything I have done.
110. 5:12Could he possibly be the Christ?"
111. 5:17The woman who came hiding
112. 5:20becomes a missionary.
113. 5:23The woman whose life was disordered
114. 5:25becomes an evangelizer.
115. 5:29This is how grace works.
116. 5:31Christ does not simply forgive you and
117. 5:35leave you where you are.
118. 5:37He transforms you.
119. 5:40The place of your shame becomes the
120. 5:42place of your witness.
121. 5:45The well becomes a pulpit.
122. 5:48The wound becomes a witness.
123. 5:51The sinner becomes an apostle.
124. 5:55That is why the church gives us this
125. 5:57gospel during Lent
126. 5:59because Lent is not about appearances or
127. 6:02religious cosmetics.
128. 6:05Lent is about letting Christ bring us to
129. 6:07the truth.
130. 6:10And we resist most times.
131. 6:13We would rather talk about religion and
132. 6:15then admit our thirst.
133. 6:17We would rather debate worship than
134. 6:19surrender our hearts. We rather talk
135. 6:22about what's wrong and what's going
136. 6:25what's corrupt instead of giving in and
137. 6:28allowing truth to penetrate.
138. 6:31Even the Samaritan woman tries to change
139. 6:34the subject by arguing about where
140. 6:36people should worship.
141. 6:39But Jesus will not let the conversation
142. 6:41stay abstract.
143. 6:44He is, after all, after her heart.
144. 6:49And he's after our hearts.
145. 6:52Some of us are still drawing water from
146. 6:54wells that will never save us.
147. 6:57Success,
148. 6:59distraction,
149. 7:01social media, pleasure, busyness,
150. 7:04control.
151. 7:05We keep going back to the same wells
152. 7:08hoping that these things will ultimately
153. 7:11satisfy us.
154. 7:14But the truth is
155. 7:16where freedom begins.
156. 7:19And this gospel gives us a glimpse not
157. 7:22only of conversion but of Easter, a
158. 7:25foreshadowing of what's to come.
159. 7:28The Samaritan woman becomes like Mary
160. 7:31Magdalene.
161. 7:32She has encountered Christ and she
162. 7:34cannot keep him to herself. What does
163. 7:37she do? She runs out to tell others.
164. 7:41That's the whole logic of
165. 7:43evangelization.
166. 7:45You do not become a witness because you
167. 7:47know everything. You become a witness
168. 7:49because you have met someone.
169. 7:53The apostles left their nets.
170. 7:56She left her water jug.
171. 7:59Whenever Christ is truly encountered,
172. 8:01something gets left behind.
173. 8:05So, the question this Sunday is not
174. 8:07whether we have whether we admire this
175. 8:10gospel. The question is whether we
176. 8:12recognize ourselves in this gospel.
177. 8:18Where are you thirsty?
178. 8:20What water jug are you still carrying
179. 8:23around?
180. 8:25Because until we're honest about our
181. 8:27thirst,
182. 8:29we will never understand what Jesus
183. 8:31means by living water.
184. 8:34This woman did not leave the well with
185. 8:37all of her answers.
186. 8:40She left with something greater.
187. 8:42She left with Jesus Christ.
188. 8:45And that was enough to change
189. 8:47everything.
190. 8:49So, my brothers and sisters, this Lent,
191. 8:52let her story be your story.
192. 8:56Come to the well,
193. 8:58this well.
194. 9:00Come with your thirst. Come with your
195. 9:03unfinished life and let Christ meet you
196. 9:05there.
197. 9:07Because once you truly encounter him,
198. 9:11you cannot simply go back to the same
199. 9:13old same old.
200. 9:16And when he's touched that deepest
201. 9:17thirst in your heart,
202. 9:19then go and what and do what she did.
203. 9:23Tell someone.
204. 9:25Tell someone, "Come and see.
205. 9:28I have found the Christ."
206. 9:31Amen. Amen.