History Matters

“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”

Deuteronomy 4:9

Recently I have heard of more and more people working on “family history” projects or ancestry/family tree projects where people use programs and services to learn more about their family tree and ancestors and compile them into a neat collection so the current and future generations might come to know their history.

Moses reminded the Israelites to remember where they came from and who they were: the Chosen People of God. They were the remember how while they were enslaved by the Egyptians God heard their cry and saw their affliction and sent Moses to lead them out of slavery through the Red Sea and into wilderness where eventually they will reach the Promised Land. They were to remember their father Abraham and God’s covenant with him as well as the covenant God made with them. How God provided for them every step of the way. These things the people ought to remember and to pass on to their children so that all may come to know their heritage, that they were a people chosen by God.

Do we remember our heritage? The history of the Israelites is also our history. We, as Christians, are the descendants of Abraham. We are part of God’s family. Do we often think about that? Do we tell our children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends about our history — the story of God’s love for us? How God created the world and breathed into us the His very breath, the breath of life and when man sinned He continued to provide for them, making a covenant with Abraham with whom He made an unconditional covenant that was later further defined in David from whose line will come the Savior and Messiah. And when the fullness of time came, He sent His only begotten Son into the world to save us from the deadly effects of the world so that we might have eternal life and be in communion with Him, restoring the Paradise we once lost because of sin? This is our story brothers and sisters. Let us never forget and let us never be ashamed to share it!

Those We Discount

“Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

Luke 4:27

When we see someone on the street who may be dressed sloppily or someone on the subway wearing dirty sneakers with holes in them along with a torn t-shirt, what do we think to ourselves? Do we find ourselves judging them? Oh, he must be homeless. I wonder what he did to get himself in the shape he is today. Maybe we judge by our actions — we try to avoid them, look the other way, look down, and maybe clutch onto our belongings. If we are honest, I think most of us at some point in our lives have done something like that, either in thought or in action. We’ve judged others. We’ve discounted them.

The Scriptures record the affliction of Naaman, an army commander whose troops captured the Israelites. He was afflicted with leprosy and the little servant girl, who was an Israelite, told Naaman’s wife that if he only went to the Israelite Prophet he could be cured. He did but at first he was unimpressed because the Prophet Elisha did not call down the gods and cure him right then and there. Instead, Elisha told him to go and wash himself in the Jordan. Initially Naaman felt belittled, but after listening to the pleading of his servants, he went into the Jordan and was made clean. This resulted in Naaman saying, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”

In the Gospel, Jesus recounts the numerous things God has done in history, including healing those who were not Jews. He reminded the people of the case of Naaman where God healed him, a Syrian, while many Jews suffered from leprosy. Jesus highlighted Naaman’s faith. It is faith that saves, not simply our “connections.” Naaman discounted Elisha and the Israelites, but had come to faith. The Israelites were chosen by God to be a people “peculiarly His own,” but they had discounted God. While Jesus was pointing out the saving actions of God in history, including curing a pagan leper, the Jews grew furious and wanted to throw Him off a cliff.

Just because Naaman was a Syrian, the Jews passed judgement on him and on Jesus when He mentioned how God was merciful towards Naaman and how that had moved him to conversion. But the Jews had no time for that. The Jews listening to Jesus then were so content with their laws and customs that they had forgotten Giver of those laws. Instead of the worshipping the Law (Jesus) that was before them, they worshipped their own stubbornness and attachment to the letter of the law, and in doing so discounted all those who were not Jews.

Who have we discounted in the past because of our own pride and stubbornness? May we never discount someone simply because they do not share our views and opinions or because they look different or appear unkept, because that very person is who the Lord has placed before us so that we might encounter Him. When we discount anyone who may come our way, we discount God. Those whom we discount have much to teach us. Those whom we discount may bring us to faith. Let us ask the Father for the grace of humility and charity so that the next time we find ourselves discounting someone we might say to ourselves, “Lord, teach me to see You in him.”

Power of Encounter

“A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
‘Give me a drink.’”

John 4:7

When Jesus was heading back to Galilee He decided to pass through Samaria. To the Jews this would have flashed red flags because the Jewish People had a disdain for the Samaritans and would avoid them at all costs. So for Jesus to choose to pass through Samaria and not take one of the routes that bypassed it, He must have had His reason. There in Sychar, Samaria at Jacob’s well, Jesus sat down to rest and the Samaritan woman went to draw water. It was at the well that the encounter between God and man, Jews and Gentiles took place. It was there that all barriers started to break.

The woman who went to draw water to satisfy her thirst and daily chores unknowingly went to the well and met the Source of the living water. While Jesus asked the woman for a drink, He was also offering her a drink, a drink that will forever quench her deepest thirst — her thirst for love, true love, freedom, and new life. Jesus thirsts so that we might thirst for Him. He thirsts for love of us.

Jesus broke all sorts of barriers that day. For a man to talk with and interact with a woman one on one in public was unheard of as well as already mentioned the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. Moreover, for a woman to go to the well at noon and to do so alone tells us that she must have been shunned or not accepted by the other women. She must have been living a life that was inappropriate or sinful. And yet, Jesus looked at her, spoke to her, and offered her the gift of eternal life.

Jesus seeks to encounter us today and wishes to offer this gift to us today too. Do we want the living water that wells up to eternal life or are we content with the water that only satisfies our physical thirst for a while?