Fr. Paul D. Williams, Jr.
I once visited a man in the hospital who asked me, “Father, have you ever looked Jesus in the eyes?” Years ago, when he was teaching Sunday school, he saw a young girl with a handicap at church who apparently lived at a local nursing home. Well, after church, she was leaving with a man from the nursing home and since she seemed to be about the age of the kids he was teaching, he asked the man if she could stay for his class, and he happily agreed. So, the young girl had a delightful hour with her peers and was spared having to go back to the nursing home. Well, as he was helping her leave the church by literally carrying her to the car, she looked at him straight in the eyes and said, “Thank you.” But he didn’t see her eyes, he said he saw the most magnificent beautiful eyes you have ever seen, the eyes of Jesus. And he knew it was Jesus speaking to him through that young girl. It was as if the whole world stopped, and it was simply he and Jesus alone, and he went away from that experience forever changed.
In today’s Gospel, we see something similar happen. The Samaritan woman at the well has a personal encounter with Christ, just two of them, for the disciples were away, and it changes her life. So we can imagine what it was like for her as Jesus looked into her eyes. He does several things for her.
He looks her in the eyes and invites her to come to him and serve him. He invites her with a simple request, “Give me a drink.” He invites her to show a simple act of charity to a man wearied with his journey, to think not of herself, but to first give of herself.
He looks her in the eyes and challenges her with the truth about herself. “Go, call your husband, and come here.” He knew that she had had five husbands and was currently living with a man who was not her husband, yet he did not condemn her. Instead he gave her the opportunity to look at herself and admit the truth. She was a sinner, and acknowledging that is the first step to conversion.
He looks her in the eyes and teaches her how to truly worship God. Through the life-giving waters of baptism, we are made sons and daughters of the Father in heaven; by the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts, we can worship him in spirit and in truth; and through the Church Jesus founded, we can worship together in all parts of the world.
He looks her in the eyes and reveals himself as the Messiah, “I who speak to you am he.” “I am the one who can save you.” He was the one who was coming to show us all things, the one who was coming to save us from our sins. She discovered that he was the Christ, the Savior of the world, who had come to seek out those who were lost, and who had come to seek even here, an outcast among outcasts. No one escapes his notice, for all of his children are precious in his eyes.
For the woman at the well, she was transformed from that moment on. She goes out to share the great joy she has discovered. She went into the city to tell her people who she had met, “Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” She shares her newfound faith and invites others to experience it as well.
So, when Jesus looks us in the eyes, how can we do anything but respond?
He invites us to serve him in so many ways. He invites us to stop looking at ourselves and our own needs and turn to others to give and to serve.
He invites us to acknowledge the truth about ourselves. Acknowledge that we are sinners, in need of mercy, in need of guidance on the right path, and in need of a Savior. We do this especially through an examination of conscience followed by a good confession, which all Catholics should take advantage of, especially during Lent.
He invites us to true worship. in spirit and in truth, especially at the Mass and through our daily prayers and devotions. We also worship by seeking out and acting on the Lord’s will in our lives, by following the teaching of the Church, and by seeing Christ in others, even those who may be outcasts. Worship is like coming to the well for a drink, but if we fail to drink of that water, to nourish ourselves with worship daily, then we will be like a tree planted in the desert, parched and dry, scorched by the sun, withering away and dying. But when we drink of the water that Jesus gives, we will need never fear thirst.
He invites us to turn to him to save us and transform us. Most importantly, we need to get to know him as Messiah, Lord, and Savior. For an encounter with Jesus is an encounter with a real person – like the woman at the well, who discovered her Lord and Savior sitting beside a well one day. He is the source of our life, the living water that will lead us to eternal life. And once we know that, we need to make him known to those around us, for he is not only our Savior, but indeed the Savior of the whole world.
A priest friend of mine tells a story that I like: A fellow dies and goes to heaven, and there he meets our Lord who says “Welcome, my son, would you like to see the place I have prepared for you?” And so he shows him around and they see all the wonders of heaven – like Scripture says, the streets paved with gold, and so on. After a while, the fellow gets kind of curious because he sees no other people and he says, “Lord, where are all the other people. I see just you and I.” And our Lord looks him in the eyes and says, “My son, it was the same way on earth – just you and I.” The moral being that in with every person you meet, you have the opportunity to look Jesus in the eyes, to serve him, and to love him. And if we can do that now, then we will have begun our life in heaven.
