Looking Beyond the Material and Natural (The Upper Life)

When was the last time in your life you went through a strange or threatening situation that brought you to your knees? A situation that might have brought you to even doubt God and your faith? And you asked: Is God in our midst or not ?
 
I pulled up a few of the newspaper headlines as the pandemic was in its deadliest gear two years ago and these are some of them: ‘Life put on hold’, ‘Will this nightmare end?’, Stay at home. The pandemic for the most part did in fact force each one of us to ask, ‘Is the Lord in our midst or not? I know of parishioners in my former parish who completely decided not to come back to church because for them God was not fair allowing this!

Our first reading comes from the book of Exodus. We listen to the ‘desert stories’ of the Israelites. The Desert is a place of great test and desperation. They grumble to Moses, who is afraid they would kill him anytime. They are desperate for water and are dying of thirst. The emotions are high,
 

“Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst
with our children and our livestock?”

 
The mention of Egypt as better, is more than offensive to Moses and God. Egypt was a place of misery and slavery, and what of all the things that God had initiated for them, the crossing of the Red Sea, the plagues, the annihilation of Pharaoh’s army? Have they forgotten all this?
 
Yes, threatening situations can make us forget a lot of things.
 
God summons Moses to bring the staff used in the crossing of the sea, and commands him to hit that rock and water would flow. Let us pause for moment for there is lot in this seemingly passing act. Who does that? Hit a rock and have water flow? By what power is that done? God in this act reiterates that only Yahweh is the provider of his people.  He has a plan for each one, he will fulfill his promises, the people must in turn obey him, there must be no panic with God. To be a believer is to look beyond the material, the natural hurdles and wants, it is and trust that God knows our deepest thirst and longings and He alone can satisfy them. Faith in God / Christianity is on an ‘upper level’.
 
Saint Paul in the Second reading underlines the reason for the hope of Christians. The death of Christ was not an event to be sidelined. Jesus’ self-giving brings our faith in him to a new level. The Christian is on an upper level for one to die for those who he did not even know. There is something deeper about Jesus Christ.
The encounters with Jesus are always lifegiving. This one has two particular details of note. Jesus travels to Samaria and then at the well meets a woman.  Samaritans are the nemesis of Jews. They do not interact. Jesus breaks this boundary (looks beyond). The Samaritan woman comes to well seeking water on the natural level. She wanted it flowing from a well. But Jesus will now bring her to the next level, the deeper level of living water, that is he will reveal himself to her and his word/teaching. As the conversation gets deeper, she discovers her true self and who is before her, speaking with her.
 

The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.

 
The encounter with Jesus has brought her to a new level. And when she shares his word, it brings others to Faith.
 
This weekend we are challenged to allow the word of God to challenge us. We must allow the word of God to bring us to a deeper level. We must get beyond just the daily immediate needs and wants in our relationship with God. To find in God our deepest longings.
 
In our daily actions let us bring others to Jesus’ outlook on life. May we find opportunities to enrich others with a Jesus philosophy of life that looks beyond the mundane of life. We are called to adapt Jesus’ self-giving lifestyle as a means of bringing others to quench their deepest thirst and restlessness.
-Fr. Anthony Mpagi

‘Our hearts are restless until they rest in God’
-Saint Augustine