ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,

            It is with great joy that I welcome you to our beautiful Cathedral for this annual Liturgy during which we recognize and honor you, our immigrant and Native American brothers and sisters in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  Each year we gather around the Eucharistic table and celebrate our unique cultural traditions and, at the same time, our unity in that we are all one in Jesus Christ.  It is our common belief in Jesus and the truly universal nature of the Catholic Church that allows us to gather at this Mass to celebrate the Eucharist in different languages but with one voice.

            We gather today on the third Sunday in the season of Lent.  It is at this special time of the liturgical year that we focus on the journey of Christ to the Cross.  So many of you in this Cathedral have also made difficult journeys to find a better life than the one left behind in your native land.  You are familiar with the Way of the Cross because you have traveled it yourselves.

            Our readings from Sacred Scripture today provide us with the powerful image of people thirsting.  We see in our first reading from the Book of Exodus that the Israelites are experiencing thirst in the desert.  As a result of this thirst they are growing angry at Moses and are questioning why they ever left Egypt.  In Egypt they were slaves but at least they had food to eat and water to drink.  It can become easy for us to lose sight of the greater goal when the journey becomes difficult and even painful.

            The thirst described in the reading from the Book of Exodus depicts a physical thirst. We all have had some experience of being thirsty so we can relate with what the people in the desert were feeling. Sadly, in the past weeks we have witnessed this same kind of physical thirst in the people of Haiti.  The news reports have shown us people who have lost the bare essentials of life including food and water due to the devastating earthquake.  It has been difficult to watch and the scenes there leave us with a sense of helplessness.  So, to our brothers and sisters from Haiti, we continue to stand with you in prayer, supporting you during this most difficult time.

            Aside from physical thirst there are other kinds of thirst that we experience as well.  For example, many of you in this Cathedral this afternoon had a thirst for a better life and so, like the Israelites, you journeyed through the desert to get to the United Sates of America.  You had a thirst to be free from political oppression.  You had a thirst to be free from religious persecution.  You had a thirst to be free from economic hardship.  You had a thirst for a better life for yourselves and your families.  And so you ventured into the desert of the unknown to come to a land that promises you a better life.

            Many of you have come to this country and have found success and prosperity.  Some of you are here and are struggling to survive.  Now, some of your old thirsts have been replaced by new ones. For example, now you thirst for jobs with fair pay.  You thirst to live without fear of deportation and separation from your family.  These are all very real concerns.

            Finally, in our Gospel passage from Saint John we see the familiar story of the Samaritan woman at the well. This is another story of thirst but it is not the thirst of the woman that we focus on.  It is here that we see Jesus is asking for a drink.  He is not asking for a drink simply because he is physically thirsty but He is thirsting for the Samaritan woman’s faith.  He thirsts for our faith as well and He wants us to thirst for Him.  Jesus told the woman at the well her sins and awakened in her a deep faith. She then shared that faith with others and led them to Jesus.  During this forty-day journey through the season of Lent may our faith be awakened and deepened as we walk the way of the Cross with Jesus.

            We ask the intercession of our Blessed Mother under the many and various titles through which she has revealed herself.  As she stood at the foot of the Cross of Jesus her Son, she heard Him say:  “I thirst.”  May we satisfy that thirst of Jesus with a strong and lasting faith and with generous love for all our brothers and sisters in need.

            And may you all be filled with the grace and strength, and joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.