In the first reading in Exodus,
That scene that the Israelites are dying of thirst,
Or at least they think they’re dying of thirst,
It’s really not that bad, but they’re complaining
And they’re going to complain again
That they’re dying of hunger,
And then they’re going to complain
That the food they have isn’t good enough.

This is taking place early on in the Exodus journey,
And you’re all familiar with it, of course.

Moses is the leader of the Israelites,
And he’s got that staff of power and authority.

That’s the staff that he uses to wreak
The plagues on Pharaoh, and then he parts the Red Sea
With that staff, and to destroy Pharaoh’s army.

As they are moving through the Red Sea,
This is before they get to Mount Sinai
And get the Ten Commandments,
So again, it’s early on, and they stop.

Now, in my mind, when Moses takes that staff
And strikes the rock, I always had the image
That the rock is on the ground, and he kind of plunges it down,

And this water kind of bubbles up
Like a well from the ground,
Kind of like the well in our Gospel.

But not too long ago, I saw a very fascinating painting
Of this scene, and it had Moses,
Instead of plunging the staff down to the ground,
He actually had the staff spearing.

It was like a rock wall, and he speared
The rock wall above him with the staff,
And then the water flowed down more like a waterfall
As opposed to a well from the ground.

Now, either one could be correct,
But that image of spearing the rock above makes us
Think of Christ on the Cross when,
You all know, the soldier spears Him upon His death,
And blood and water flow down from His side.

And when the blood and water flow out of the
Pierced side of Christ, we say that that is one
Of the moments when the Church is born.

The Sacraments of Jesus’ body,
His Sacred Body, are coming out upon us,
And actually baptize Longinus,
The centurion who is spearing the side of Christ.

That image then of having your heart speared,
Okay, now metaphorically speaking,
But this is the idea of God really kind of penetrating us
Deeply with something authentic that we need to hear.

So this is how the Samaritan woman
Experiences that conversion.

Jesus doesn’t just preach to her,
He doesn’t kind of spew out theology and theory and whatnot,
But He addresses her heart.

This woman is suffering, and like we hear in the Gospel,

She’s been divorced five times,
She’s ostracized from the community,
So there’s a lot of pain going on in her heart,
Pain that’s caused from without by the people in her community,
But also something within her—she’s deeply wounded.

And this is what Jesus talks about.

He doesn’t just say, “Hey, you need to believe in God
Because, you know, if you don’t, you’re going to Hell,”
Or something.

No, He talks to her. He’s like, “Tell me your pain,” basically.

And when He speaks to her,
Remember the Word of God is very powerful.
It cuts through her, it pierces her heart.

And when she’s been pierced in her heart by Jesus,
Now all of a sudden
She’s fallen for Him,
And she loves Him, she becomes a convert.

And then she’s able to go out and go
To that same community that ostracized her,
And she’s able to preach to them about the truth of Jesus Christ,
And she gets that whole town in Samaria to convert.

So we’re always talking these days
About conversion and evangelization.

It’s not just like knowing the truth of the Faith and,
You know, preaching them and defending it or whatnot.

It’s having that authentic encounter with Christ,
Because we’re all wounded like that Samaritan woman.

We need to have Jesus pierce our hearts.
He wants to speak to us.

The question is, are we giving Him the space to do that?
Are we open to it?

Do we bring our hearts before the Lord?

That’s what the Samaritan woman was able to do.

Okay.

Last image I want to give you, all right.
So I gave this homily a couple years ago,

And I said, “Yo, her name—.”
I made up her name.
I called her Samaritan Sue.

Okay.

We need Samaritan Sue, this woman who’s wounded
And has that encounter with the Lord.

Okay.

Think of when I gave this homily, I was in Edison Park,
A neighborhood in Chicago on the North Side.

And I said, “Yo, who’s the Edison Park Eddie out there?”

Right now I live in Park Ridge.
I would say like, “Who’s the Park Ridge Paula?”
Or whatever.

We need you, whoever you are, whatever your town is—
Chicago Chuck, or Sheboygan Scott, whatever.

We need you people, all of us,
To be pierced in the heart for Jesus
So that we can go out and spread the Faith.