Sacrament of New Life------Baptism!
Sacrament of New Life----Baptism!
We will be reading year A this Sunday and the coming two Sundays. These coming weeks, we pray and walk with all those preparing to receive Sacraments. The first reading, from Exodus 17, tells us that the Israelites complained about their thirst and gave them from the rock in Horeb. In Deuteronomy 32, in Moses’ song, he calls God the Rock. In First Corinthians (10:4), St. Paul says that the rock is Christ. The spiritual rock followed the Israelites and satisfied their thirst.
In the Gospel of John (4:5-42), Jesus was talking to a Samaritan woman at the well. This well was located on a piece of land that had been bought by Jacob (Genesis 33:18-19) and later given to Joseph (48:22). Samaritans were half Jews, ritually impure, and therefore Jews were forbidden to drink from any vessel used by Samaritans. They didn’t have anything in common. Jesus oversteps the boundaries of Jewish tradition by conversing with a Samaritan woman and asking the Samaritan woman for water.
In the Old Testament, we read stories of meeting future spouses at the well. Isaac meets Rebekah (Genesis 24: 10-67), Jacob meets Rachel at the well of Haran (Genesis 29:1-30), and Moses and Zipporah meet at a well in Midian (Exodus 2:15-21). In the Gospel, Jesus is the divine bridegroom searching for believers to be his covenant bride. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink.” His thirst was for her soul.
Usually, women would fetch water in the morning or evening when it was not too hot. But she came to fetch water at noon. She may be trying to avoid the crowd. Jesus came to her level to reach out, walk with her, and lead her to faith. Jesus reveals himself as the source of Living Water.
The liturgy uses the symbol of water to refer to our relationship with God. It represents God’s Spirit, which comes to us in Baptism. The water that Jesus promises is closely linked to conversion and the forgiveness of sin. In the second reading, Saint Paul asserts that, as the savior of mankind, Jesus poured the living water of the gift of his Holy Spirit into our hearts. In the Gospel, the Samaritan woman once embraced the faith, Jesus, the living water, becomes a missionary who brings others to Jesus. Once she had a life-changing experience, she couldn’t hold it back for herself.
The Mass: We looked at the Penitential Act, which has three forms: Confiteor (I Confess), brief dialogue or litany, and invocation, and the congregation responds the Lord have mercy, and Christ have mercy. Here we say to God we are sinners and recognize that God is infinite mercy. You might have noticed we didn’t have a penitential act on Ash Wednesday. The reception of ashes is a penitential act. When sprinkling rites occur, especially during Easter Time, it replaces the penitential act.
After acknowledging our sins and God’s infinite mercy, we sing/say, Gloria, the angel's song, and express our joy. We praise God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the gift of the Incarnation, for the mystery of the Christ who has come as the Son of David and as a Savior. In the Gospel of Luke 2:8-14, the account of announcing the birth of Jesus to the shepherd in the field. Gloria takes us to the song of angels at the birth of Jesus. It is the prayer of praise to God in so many ways for the wonderful things he has done in our lives. We say in this prayer that God is the “Holy One,” we call him Lord, and we ask him to “receive our prayer” and “have mercy on us.” When we sing Gloria, we are entering not only the mystery of Calvary but also the mystery of Christmas. We join with angels to sing and praise God like shepherds. Pope Telesphorus added the Gloria to the Roman liturgy in the 2nd century AD. But it was sung only on special occasions like Christmas. In the 5th century, Pope St. Symmachus decreed that Gloria would be sung on Sundays or other occasions. During Advent, Lent, and weekdays, we don’t say Gloria.
The introductory rite concludes with Collect. The word collect comes from Latin roots, meaning “to bring together.” It is an important prayer of the introductory rite. The purpose of this prayer is to bring our scattered thoughts and minds together to this sacred place/assembly. Priest offers them to the Father in a petition through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. This prayer will lead us to the core message of that day of Mass. The priest will say, “Let us pray.” At this point, all will join the priest for a moment of silence, then with extended hands. The priest says the collect, and everyone responds to this prayer by saying Amen. The extended hand is a visible gesture of offering a prayer to God.
Collect is ancient and is associated with Pope St. Leo the Great, who was the 5th-century Pope. Pope St. Paul VI restored some of the ancient prayers from the ancient Roman Collects after the Vatican Council II. In the Old Testament, we can see something similar to the collection in the Mass. King David was king and a priest at the same time. In the book of Psalm 141:1-2: “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice!” In 1 King chapter 8, Solomon says a prayer for the dedication of the Temple.