I hope all is going well for everyone this lent. Has everyone been keeping up on their Lenten obligations? There is still time to get back on track as we are just 2 weeks in.

When we are young we see things through a narrow perspective. This perspective revolves around how our needs are being met. Parents can relate to this aspect as they seem to go ahead and repeat themselves at least 100 times before the children listen. As we get older this repeating can become a source of confrontation since parents are still doing their best to teach what seems like a hard-headed stubborn alien. While it may seem like the kids are making certain choices that are bad it is assisting them in learning to think about someone other than themselves.

We all at one time or another begin a search for meaning in life, most of us begin while in high school or shortly after graduation, whether while working or going to college. We all feel a hopefulness that we try to discover where it comes from. Paul tells us today where that youthful hope comes from and it is from God who has imprinted each of us with the hope that life is not hopeless. There will be times when as we grow where this hope seems as if it has no real reason to be there. These are the times we begin to search for the meaning of life.

When we begin this search it can lead us down a number of different paths, some constructive and some destructive. The more we go down the destructive paths, whether it is drug or alcohol addiction or eating to cover the hurt, or pornography viewing, the more difficult it is to see the hope in life. This leads to us going further down this path of destruction because it seems to make us feel good for a time, then when we come out of it we feel worse about ourselves. It can become a never-ending circle and always leads to us being thirsty for more.

If we take a constructive path we will see that the way the truth and the life are found not in satisfying our own earthly desires, but in helping others satisfy their own needs. When we help others we see in them what we can be, regardless of where we are or we have been. The great reminder of this is the Samaritan woman at the well we hear about today. As a once popular song says she seems to have been searching for love in all the wrong places. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, Jesus decides to speak with her. This is out of the ordinary for a Jew and a Samaritan to speak with each other as they really don’t like one another.

When the conversation begins it seems as though they are talking about the physical need of thirst. This conversation goes about as expected, until the Samaritan woman, as the conversation continues, comes to the realization that Jesus is the Messiah. She hears about this living water that if she partakes of it she will thirst no more. We have access to this same living water that the Samaritan woman had. She admitted her transgressions and came to believe in Christ, not just with her mind but her heart as well. She found that living water and brought others to it due to her hope and belief.

The belief part was something the Jewish people in the desert we hear about today had a hard time with, which we can all struggle with at times. They were unbelieving because they were thirsty and could not find the water they needed. When it was produced from a rock they believed again. This is not what we who have faith are taught we need to do. This belief and hope are imprinted on our hearts in order that we will always believe.

While there will always be times when it is hard to believe in the Good News that Jesus speaks about we are all wired to believe just that. We can search for meaning in all kinds of ways, but we will only find the true way when we follow Christ. Pope Francis reminds of this frequently, by helping our family and those in need we are proclaiming the Good News. We were also reminded this past week that the elderly are just as important to us as all others. They have lived full lives that led to where they are and now may need some assistance. We should not be shunning the elderly, but helping and learning from them. Our hope can be rekindled by helping and learning from them.

We see this hope in children as they grow, as parents we tend to temper this as our children grow older, or this hope may be tempered by the world we see around us. Do we see hope and promise that our thirst will be quenched or are we heard hearted and believe there will be no water to satisfy our thirst? The answer to that question will help determine the outcome for our children as they grow older and pay attention more to the world around them. Yes parents of young children there will come a time when they will pay attention to what is happening around them and begin to listen to you.

Whether they look at that world in a positive or negative light will be determined by their following you. The world can be a scary place to grow up in today, we hear about all of the negative things that go on and wonder if there is any good that still happens today. There are plenty of good things that happen today and we will be partaking in one soon in the Eucharist. With this hope and the Eucharist we are called to go out and proclaim to the world that there is good to be done and it can begin with me. We can help others find the hope and the living water that all of humanity craves by showing that hope and living it, not keeping it hidden away.

Are we ready to help our friends and neighbors find this living water, by not only showing them the way to find it, but by being happy that we have found it as well?