The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Third Sunday of Lent - A

March 10, 1996

Michael Corleone, the godfather of the Corleone crime family in the movie of the Godfather III is sitting with Cardinal Umberto in a small garden with a small well in the center of it. The water bubbles up into the well ever so gently. Michael Corleone begins to talk to the Cardinal about this business dealings with the Vatican.  The Cardinal is known as a compassionate man, a confessor of many.   As Michael Corleone speaks the Cardinal is very attentive, his face serene, concerned; his ears poised, eyes ever so accommodating. Michael begins to feel at ease, at ease enough to begin to rid himself of those demons he kept deep within himself for so long. He is sick in mind and body--during his conversation these sicknesses manifest themselves in his confession and the bodies suffering of a diabetic attack. He feels his life slipping away, and with it , his soul. When he recovers, he begins to make confession. He outlines for the Cardinal all of the things that have held him captive for so long.

" I had men Killed on my orders". " I ordered the death of my mother's son." With these admissions hr begins to experience his first taste of liberation, of freedom. His thirst for wholeness, for a chance to start again seems to be quenched through this Cardinal Umberto's compassionate presence. Just as he finishes, Cardinal Umberto takes a stone from the well, He smashes it on some stones to break it open.

He shows it to Michael. Then he says," You see this stone, it is like Western culture. The outside of this stone has been in the water for a long time but the water has not penetrated to the center."So it is with Western culture and Christ. Christ is the water that has not yet penetrated to the center.

Cardinal Umberto points out for us today the reality of Jesus as water and food to satisfy the deepest longings of human beings. So often this longing is for freedom; liberation from all that oppresses us.  Like the Samaritan woman at the well or M. Coeleone, we too often thirst for another chance; another chance to start over, to be released from our guilt, from destructive patterns of behavior. Some thirst for freedom to live in human dignity. We find these people in our nursing homes, the alcoholic, the drug addict, the lonely teen, those who are victims of repression and so many others. They long for freedom, they thirst for it!

God heard and knew of such thirst in Israel's ordeal in Egypt. God's liberating power that Moses brought to them lead them our of bondage! Yet as time went on, as their journey became more arduous, they grumbled against Moses and God--desiring to go back to place of slavery. To go back to the security of slavery, to a full belly and empty hearts. And herein lies the great temptation. It is one thing to desire freedom, it is another to accept hardship and responsibility for that freedom!

We've seen this ourselves, most recently in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The hardships of change, the sense of desperation felt by many, have replaced the euphoria the accompanied of the tearing down of the Berlin wall. Times are hard, the temptation to go back, can almost irresistible! Leaders like Lech Walesa, M. Gorbachev, V. Havel once view3d by many as their deliverers have either been cast aside or face serious opposition.

In Jesus our thirst for freedom, out thirst for God is not disappointed.  This is not the water of temporary euphoria. It is no the water that satisfies momentarily. It is the water that quenches our thirst. Like the woman at the well, our lives which are often messy and sometimes wrecked by ourselves and others can be restored! This St. Paul reminds us of today. Paul tells us that Christ died for us not because we are deserving of such a sacrifice, but despite what we done God tenders unlimited and irrevocable forgiveness to us, a chance for a new life, a new way!

Once the Samaritan woman at the well realizes this in Jesus she runs off to tell others. She becomes a missionary of Jesus to others. But there is something else as well ! Jesus was speaking to a woman in public! And a Samaritan woman to boot! At that time this was considered scandalous. So Christian witness to Jesus as God's anointed one carries with it a scandal ! It is the scandal that God wants all to be saved, no matter their class, race, skin color and so on!  God calls all to proclaim this good news. It is the good news that the Kingdom of God in Jesus has come. It has come as liberation from all forms of slavery--all forms of guilt and hatred, all forms of exploitation. If only we listen and respond.

Michael Corleone, tried to listen, but his slavery to power and violence was too much for him. He returned to his Egypt. In the process he remained a slave--even his daughter fell victim to the consequences of his slavery. He heard the good news, but did not listen.  The Samaritan woman heard and spread the message; the message that in Jesus our deepest longing to be whole have been met, at a well,  in an encounter, to satisfy our thirst.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000