17 May 2020
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Samaria was historically not on good terms with observant Jews such as the apostles. Though the Samaritans sought to fulfill the Torah’s orders for sacrifice, they did not do so in the Temple in Jerusalem, but in a place of worship in their own region. This was seen to be divisive of the people called to unity in observance of the covenant on Sinai, and so a mutual enmity developed between the Samaritans and their neighbors. This is why the story of a good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37) would be a shock to its first audience, and why the Samaritan woman in John 4 is doubly surprised by Jesus sitting by the well to converse with her. In that conversation Our Lord proclaimed, “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. […] the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.” (Jn 4:21, 23)
We hear of that hour in our first reading, which tells us of the worship in the Spirit finally happening in the region of Samaria following the ministry of Philip and the laying on of hands by Peter and John. Yet this does not contradict the words of Christ that worship would be “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” These words of our Lord broke open the limited imagination of the Samaritans to see Jesus bringing God to be worshipped in all places in the Spirit. “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy!” (Ps 66:2)
So, we may hear a little more clearly what our Lord speaks to the apostles in today’s Gospel: “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.” (Jn 14:19) These are words which prepare the disciples for Christ’s hiddenness in the Passion and how ‘the world’ will refuse to see Him in His Resurrection. These words also prepare us to contemplate the hiddenness of the Risen Christ from even the disciples in the Ascension (and we may also recall here His hiddenness in the Eucharist), and the deeper way of seeing Him which will be given with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This hiddenness prevents us from limiting Christ’s grace to one single place, “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” As we pray today and all this week, let us ask for the grace to see Jesus who loves us even as He hides from the sense of sight. Let us ask to be attentive to where His Life invites us to greater life.