well about two weeks ago I had the great
privilege of going to Rome to be part of
a Jubilee celebration for priests as
part of the year of mercy and so I
addressed all the english-speaking
priests who were there and they were
from all over the world they're from
States and Canada from England Ireland
from Holland from Latvia from the
Cameroon Ghana met priests from all over
the place we gathered in this wonderful
church of san andreas la vallee which is
right in the heart of Rome and it was a
great experience to be with these
priests and to speak to them and what I
chose as my text was the woman the well
the great story from chapter 4 of the
Gospel of John and I drew four of kind
of insights out of that story about the
Divine Mercy here's the first one the
Divine Mercy is relentless it's very
important thing now the Divine Mercy is
after us I know I've said it a million
times in different forums but the Bible
is not the story of our quest for God
our quest for God is just not that
interesting it's true it's valid that's
not that interesting what's really
interesting is God's quite request for
us God's after us God's mercy is coming
after us
how do you see it the story well Jesus
going into Samaria right so he begins in
Judea in the south he's going up to
Galilee in the north most pious Jews
would have gone around Samaria cuz it
was unclean it was a land of the of the
half-breeds right so pious Jews went
around it Jesus goes into it that's the
first thing he's he's after the
marginalized the half-breeds the the the
forgotten the all that he's after us
he's going over the boundaries that we
set more to it he's a Jew talking with
Samaritan he's a man talking to a woman
that was also unheard of in the public
forum and then finally the woman who
comes at noon and alone to fetch water
that's weird
because you wouldn't come at the hottest
time of the day you come at the morning
or the end of the day and you'd come
with other people it was like a festive
public event
why is she coming at the worst time of
the day and alone well we find out of
course he's a public sinner Jesus
doesn't care he crosses that boundary
too and he reaches out to her there's
the first thing we need to know I told
the priest and this Pope Francis is all
over the scene God's mercy is relentless
go back to one of my spiritual heroes
Thomas Merton you know we said the
principal problem in religion is the
Promethean problem
all right so Prometheus in the great
myth steals fire from the gods and the
gods are angry and they have rest him
and they punish him eternally because
God and humanity on that reading
Arrivals right we have to steal things
from God because the God does want to
give them to us that's not the Bible
that's not the Bible God is no need of
the world God's not trying to protect
something from the world everything I
have is yours right says the father of
the of the older brother in the prodigal
son story look pale everything me
grabbing it from me you don't have to be
my slave to get it everything I have is
yours don't you get that yet
that's the relentlessness of God's mercy
which overcomes the Promethean problem
okay well the second theme I drew out of
the story is that divine mercy is given
izing sometimes we think the divine
mercy is merely a sanity by which I mean
that it heals us of what's wrong with us
you know it's it solves a problem sin
which indeed it does but see there's
more to it than that because the divine
mercy wants to draw us into the dynamics
of the divine life God wants to share
his life with us go back to the prophet
Isaiah who says something I think it's
breathtaking anymore you think about
your builder wants to marry you
Isaiah says well your builder means God
the one that's built you into existence
and what's he want to do now let me get
this straight it doesn't want to just
you know dominate you or give you the
law or have you obey Him or something
which all the religions would say no no
he wants to marry you
we'll see what's marriage but it's the
sort of necklace ultra metaphor for
intimacy if you're a poet you're in your
region what's the greatest kind of
intimacy intellectual physical sexual
psychological what would I reach for I'd
for marriage right it's a sharing of
life that's what God wants
God wants to marry us I think most even
biblical people don't think along those
lines that's what God finally wants to
accomplish when out watch watch watch in
the story the woman - well if you're
stopping by a well and you're a biblical
person you're automatically thinking
marriage and why well look where Abraham
sends people to find a wife for Isaac
and they stop by a well and that's where
they find his wife Jacob finds his wife
by a well Moses sits down by a well and
then Zipporah his wife comes and so
Israelite people when they said heard
well they're thinking oh this is a
marriage situation well here's a man
sitting down in a well with a woman well
san agustin said wonderfully at the
woman here the Samaritan woman
symbolizes the church
what's the church mind you it's the
Bride of Christ who's the bridegroom and
so this is a kind of trysting place this
well now what Jesus doing he says to her
give me a drink
she box your man and a Jew asking me a
Samaritan and a woman for a drink oh if
you knew who is asking you you'd ask him
and he give you living water see this is
spiritual physics right what john paul
ii call the law of a gift which is that
your being
increases in the measure that you give
it away it's the fundamental law of the
spiritual life we all think the opposite
my being increases the more I hang on to
things right give it to me let me hang
on to it but the divine life what I
really want to be filled with is God
right god is love
therefore to be filled with love is to
be filled with self gift as God gives me
I give that gift away and then I get
more on the divine life which I then
give away and I get more of the divine
life and in that great rhythm I become a
participant in the divine life that's
how my builder comes to marry me that's
the divin izing quality of the divine
mercy now
welcome to the sacraments and to the
mass
and to confession and to the Eucharist
all of it is meant to be a participation
in this divine life there's second point
third point I think very important today
by the way that the Divine Mercy is
demanding we fall very easily today into
a zero-sum game which is the more I
stress the divine mercy well then the
less I must rest the divine demand if I
see Mercy Mercy Mercy all day then I
should mute demand
no no that's silly that's a zero-sum non
biblical non-christian logic Chesterton
had it right right with the great both
and logic of Christianity Jesus is fully
divine and fully human and that logic
sort of invades the whole of our
thinking as he said we like red we like
white we have a healthy hatred of pink
we like both colors in there and their
integrity
so Mercy Mercy Mercy yes all the way you
can never say it too much you can never
say it too much but mercy and demand and
moral demand
now where do we see it here San Agustin
said wonderfully that the well to which
the woman comes every day symbolizes
concupiscent desire that just means
errant designer means spiritually
dysfunctional desire so the well I come
to fill myself up to be happy with
wealth and honor and privilege and power
and so on we all have a version of right
so everybody watching this video
everybody me included we all got a
version of us there's something we go to
and we drink and we get a little bit of
satisfaction but then we're thirsty
again and so we come back come back in
this desperate rhythm that gets us
nowhere finally
isn't that precisely what Jesus says the
woman's well you come every day to this
well don't you you drink and you get
thirsty again I want to give you water
bubbling up in you to eternal life see
there's the divin izing quality but the
demand he's making is you got to get rid
of this rhythm that you're in you got to
stop coming to this stupid well and you
got to come to the water I want to give
you and
he I love how he presses it and how
beautifully he he builds up to this
point he doesn't begin with this that it
be dysfunctional that's when he said
call your husband and she she's now at
home with him he's she's comfortable she
goes well I don't have a husband that's
right you've had five and the one you're
with now is not your husband
boy is he coming down hard on her boy is
he making a moral to me yes he is
precisely the one who said merci merci
merci
relentless non Promethean share the
divine life builder wants to marry you
all that remains true totally and and
therefore I'm making a demand on you
therefore you got to let go of things
that are blocking the flow of the divine
life in you and so everyone listening to
this video you know I can't overstate
the divine mercy I don't want to merci
merci merci all day and all night and
all the next day but that implies demand
it implies change so Jesus calls us to
metanoia right to conversion the
question is what's the well right what
is the well name it name it you've all
got one I've got one two three what are
they and get rid of them
you know respond to the Divine Mercy
that one final point the fourth point I
told the priests the Divine Mercy sends
us on mission and it's beautiful you
know in the Bible as I've said many
times nobody is ever given an experience
of God without being sent nobody does no
exception
Old Testament knew no one ever
experiences God without being sent and
so this woman we hear after speaking to
Jesus puts down the water jar and then
she goes into the city and she announces
Christ she becomes the first evangelist
right in the Gospel of John very
important position the water jar that
she puts down was that symbolized that's
the conversion she puts down this old
addictive pattern she puts it down I'm
through with that I'm not doing that
anymore unless we can identify what is
the water jar what's the well you keep
going back to unless you're willing and
able to put that thing down you're not
there yet but once you do what do you
become
automatically in evangelist she goes to
tell the the town what let me tell you
about this guy who's told me everything
I've ever done it's a very very
interesting thing not literally he
didn't tell her ever but he cracked the
code of her life didn't he he cracked
the code he did tell her everything
she's ever done because he uncovered the
dynamic you been running these stupid
Wells all your life that's your problem
and so she she understood that she was
transformed by him so she wants to tell
other people about him which leads me to
my favorite definition of evangelization
which is one beggar telling another
beggar where there's bread see if we get
that then we will evangelize if we're
simply doing a head trip you know let me
tell you about facts about Jesus let me
tell you truths about Jesus I mean fine
fine that's not real evangelization real
evangelization comes from people who
have put down the water jar under the
influence of the divinized mercy of
Christ and now want to tell the world
about their beggars too but they found
where the bread is and they want other
people to know so those are the four
things I told the priests in Rome and
they can I ask everyone watching this
video say a prayer for those guys I
think I can see them now the seven
hundred priests gathered there there
about five thousand priests came from
all over the world different you know
countries and languages say a prayer for
these priests that they might be
announcers and bearers of the Divine
Mercy