DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Monday, August 27, 2018

Then Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s Well was there, and Jesus, tired out by His journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. – John 4:5-6

Here in this opening of the account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, I find a bit of theology, an aspect of what is termed Christology, the study of the nature of Christ.  It is but a detail, I assume to provide the reason why Jesus would sit by a well, but it reminds me of very human Christ was.  Jesus was tired, weary of His journey.

Yes, even Christ grew weary.  Even with all the Divine power at His disposal, His healing power, His transforming power, His miraculous … Christ grew weary like you and me grow weary.  Our humanity is graced with the image of God imprinted within with our souls and humanity is frustrated with the sinfulness to which we are so vulnerable; yet we are limited by our mortality … we can grow weak and weary.

Grant me a few moments of personal confession.  I grow weary.  I grow weary of growing physically weaker.  I grow weary of arthritic aches and pains.  I grow weary of my tremors.  I grow weary of injecting myself with medication throughout the day.  I grow weary of the nausea. But all that does not compare … with my weariness of the violence, greed, and vindictiveness in the world.  Yes, I grow weary of the gun violence.  I grow weary of the fearful and fear-provoking prejudice.  I grow weary of the oppressive exploitation of the poor.  I grow weary of wars and the romanticism of war.  I grow weary of this journey I make.

I grow weary of this journey I make … so more and more often, I must rest at the Well.  Here I catch my breath.  Here I quench the thirsting of my soul.  Here I wash away the dust on my feet.  Here I whisper the pray, “Lord, renew my strength.”  Here I pause … so that I might then continue on this journey that is mine to take.

Christ was very human in ways that we humans know.  He personally has experienced what it is like to struggle to live divinely with limits of human strength and endurance.  Christ was not “Superman”, but Christ was Divinely human, a way of life that by of His Spirit we also can be in our mortal and limited ways.  Christ did not come to earth to become Divine, He came to earth to become human to lead us to ways Divine.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz