"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." As a Catholic, I have to say that this passage always reminds me how lucky we are to have the Blessed Sacrament. Any time I'm struggling with something, a dose of daily Mass can usually either clear my mind or calm my inner turmoil. What a perfect gift from the Father...His only Son!
What are your thoughts on this weekend's gospel?
That reading makes me extremely grateful for my Catholic heritage & curious as to the Catholic lineage amongst my ancestors.
ReplyDeleteIn the Eastern Catholic Churches, this 5th Sunday of Easter is the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman & deals with the woman of Samaria with whom Christ spoke at Jacob's Well from the Gospel of St. John. Again the theme is the "living water" & the recognition of Jesus as God's Messiah (John 4:10-11; 25-26). This is a reminder of new life in Christ, of drinking of the "living water," & of true worship of God in the Christian messianic age "in Spirit & in Truth" (John 4:23-24). Salvation is offered to all: Jews & Gentiles, men & women, saints & sinners.
Tradition relates the Apostles baptized the Samaritan woman with the name "Photine" meaning "enlightened one." She repented after a very gentle & wise conversation with Christ & went & told her townspeople that she had met the Christ. For this, she is sometimes claimed as the first to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. She converted her 5 sisters (Anatole, Photo, Photis, Paraskeve & Kyriake) & her 2 sons (Photinos, formerly known as Victor, & Joses). They all became tireless evangelists for Christ. After the Apostles Peter & Paul were martyred, Photine & her family left their homeland of Sychar, in Samaria, to travel to Carthage to proclaim the Gospel of Christ there. In 66 AD, under the persecutions of Emperor Nero, they all achieved the crown of martyrdom.
I like the lesson of Christ's gentle & wise conversation with the woman...loving but with firmness in the truth...in order to bring her to conversion.
I see the Trinitarian doctrine implied in this gospel, particularly the part when Jesus says "if you've seen me, you've seen the father". I too am grateful for being Catholic when I hear this reading. It's interesting how our Protestant brothers and sisters accept the Trinitarian doctrine even though it is implicit, rather than explicit, but reject so many other Catholic doctrines because they aren't explicit in scripture.
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