Optional Commentary for the Curious

Originally, I intended to put together several homilies centered upon the source stories, but course requirements did not permit this. Each story needed to be renarrated in such a way that it could stand on its own merit and the word count requirements made it difficult to include the homilies. Thus, I consolidated the more important points into this commentary page. My hope is that this will help clarify my motivation in doing my storybook in this manner.

Commentary ~ Woman at the Well. ~ 370 words.

In today's Gospel reading, the Evangelist has pictured Jesus as departing Judea for Galilee by passing through the region of Samaria, though it was customary for Judeans to bypass this route. His disciples are sent into the city to do some business during the time in which the Samaritan woman comes to the well. They return and inquire about his conversation with her during the time in which she is said to have returned to the city to tell of her encounter. The Samaritans come to believe in Jesus while he engages his disciples in a conversation about the mysterious food of doing the will of the one who sent him. This is a theme that prevails throughout John's catechetical narrative.

Further, the woman is solely identified by her geographical location of Samaria. Scripture often speaks of the soul as being feminine with respect to the spirit and the body is feminine with respect to the soul. Geographical and personal names are often used to represent various conditions of mind, soul, or body. It can therefore be surmised that the woman from Samaria is a body or soul that is in a condition represented by this term. Sexual relations can establish a type of psychic and/or karmic bond between respective partners. The divine pattern of a consecrated marital union between husband and wife is therefore preferable when it comes to fully living out the spiritual life.

With respect to Samaritan woman, it's not helpful to focus on whatever her domestic situation may have been. It is better to follow the canonical and liturgical tradition of internalizing the narrative with respect to ourselves. If our bodies are healthy, then each of us should be experiencing our world through the five physical senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. At minimum, we are figuratively married to these given that the totality of our lives are defined and experienced through them. This conversation takes place at Jacob's well, thus his life portrait, from the book of Genesis, is important to be familiar with. The conversation later shifts to one of cult worship and its associated rituals. Salvation is of Judea, so we might ask ourselves about this condition as it relates to Samaria.

Commentary ~ Blind Bartimeaus ~ 400 words.

With today's Gospel reading, the evangelist has divided the Gospel of Mark into two distinctly different regions. The first is centered in and around Galilee whereas the second is centered in Jerusalem. Jesus is pictured as being on a journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, but it is important to remember that names often have liturgical meanings which may or may not have anything to do with our current knowledge of history. Galilee is the region where Jesus instructs his disciples while also ministering to the needs of the people whereas Jerusalem is the region where Jesus takes up his cross and suffers for the sins of his people. Thus, Jesus is on a journey from life to death to eternal life.

In the book of Genesis, a wonderful promise is given to a man who would become known as the Father of Faith. This promise (12: 2-3) of spiritual posterity gradually takes on a life of its own as the Lord continues to reaffirm it in greater detail as the Household of Faith begins to take form. Scripture (22: 16-18) even assures that this household would in fact be as numerous as the stars. This promise is later echoed (26: 4) and ratified (32: 29 & 35: 10) in the transformation of Jacob into Israel. Don't forget that names have liturgical meanings and that there is a reason why biblical authors continued to distinguish between Jacob and Israel in spite of this recorded transformation.

For our purposes, I primarily want to make a connection between the promised seed of Abraham and the liturgical life of ancient Israel. The Psalms develop a wide variety of themes ranging from the royal majesty of God to the various ways in which the righteous and wicked experience life upon the earth. Many Psalms admonish creation to worship the creator or else affirm that such worship is taking place. Several speak of the stars being both known and called by a new name. Psalm 147 specifically speaks of God restoring Jerusalem and gathering the dispersed of Israel. More observations could be made in this commentary, but I will leave it as an excercise for the reader to determine how all this fits into the liturgical drama depicted as the fall of Jericho's (Josh. 6) walls. It might be helpful to remember that Joshua/Jesus is the one who leads the children of Israel into the promised land of Canaan.

Commentary ~ Adulterous Woman ~ XXX words.


Commentary ~ Johanine Community ~ XXX words.


Classical & Patristic Wisdom for the Adventurous

Socrates: "Let us then, in the first place, be careful of allowing or of admitting into our souls the notion that there is no health or soundness in any arguments at all. Rather say that we have not yet attained to soundness in ourselves, and that we must struggle manfully and do our best to gain health of mind... For at this moment I am sensible that I have not the temper of a philosopher; like the vulgar, I am only a partisan. Now the partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions. And the difference between him and me at the present moment is merely this -- that whereas he seeks to convince his hearers that what he says is true, I am rather seeking to convince myself; to convince my hearers is a secondary matter with me..." The Dialogues of Plato [235]

St. Augustine: "This is the faith which in few words is given in the Creed to Christian novices, to be held by them. And these few words are known to the faithful, to the end that in believing they may be made subject to God; that being made subject, they may rightly live; that in rightly living, they may make the heart pure; that with the heart made pure, they may understand that which they believe." On Faith & The Creed [25]

"Call your faith to mind, look into yourself, let your Creed be as it were a mirror to you. Therein see yourself, whether you believe all which you profess to believe, and so rejoice day by day in your faith. Let it be your wealth, let it be in a sort the daily clothing of your soul... we shall be clothed by our faith: and this faith is at once a garment and a breastplate; a garment against shame, a breastplate against adversity. But when we shall have arrived at that place where we shall reign, no need will there be to say the Creed. We shall see God; God Himself will be our vision; the vision of God will be the reward of our present faith." Sermon 8 -- On The Lord's Prayer [13]

"When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, and, as the Apostle Paul also says, will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, that every man may have praise from God; then, in presence of such a day, lamps will not be needed: no prophet shall then be read to us, no book of an apostle shall be opened; we shall not require the witness of John, we shall not need the Gospel itself... I am about to lay aside this book, and you too are going to depart, every man to his own house. It has been good for us to have been in the common light, good to have been glad therein, good to have rejoiced therein; but when we part from one another, let us not depart from Him." Tractates on the Gospel of John [35:9]

Origen: "When Jesus then is with the multitudes, He is not in His house, for the multitudes are outside of the house, and it is an act which springs from His love of men to leave the house and to go away to those who are not able to come to Him. Now, having discoursed sufficiently to the multitudes in parables, He sends them away and goes to His own house, where His disciples, who did not abide with those whom He had sent away, come to Him. And as many as are more genuine hearers of Jesus first follow Him, then having inquired about His abode, are permitted to see it, and, having come, see and abide with Him, all for that day, and perhaps some of them even longer...

And if then, unlike the multitudes whom He sends away, we wish to hear Jesus and go to the house and receive something better than the multitudes, let us become friends of Jesus, so that as His disciples we may come to Him when He goes into the house, and having come may inquire about the explanation of the parable, whether of the tares of the field, or of any other. And in order that it may be more accurately understood what is represented by the house of Jesus, let some one collect from the Gospels whatsoever things are spoken about the house of Jesus, and what things were spoken or done by Him in it; for all the passages collected together will convince any one who applies himself to this reading that the letters of the Gospel are not absolutely simple as some suppose, but have become simple to the simple by a divine concession; but for those who have the will and the power to hear them more acutely there are concealed things wise and worthy of the Word of God." Commentary on Matthew [1]