Homily

The Sixth Hour

Sunday, February 24, 2008, Third Sunday of Lent, Year A
Assumption Grotto Parish, Detroit

In Samaria, the Lord revealed himself as the savior of the world, and he did so in power and mercy, and he did so to a humble, sinful woman. Praised be both the Holy Spirit and St. John, both of whom are true authors of the passage of the Samaritan woman, because in these verses those sinners who are attached to this world find the hope of the Savior in the Person of Christ.

The Lord offers a handful of proofs that he is, in fact, the savior of the world: the discussion about Jacob, the Lord’s reading of the woman’s soul, and his open assertion which none can deny, “I AM, who speak to you.” Notice his invocation of the name of Yahweh: I am. In all this I wish to focus on the woman’s husbands.

This lost woman seems to have had six husbands, “You say well that you have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and now, the one you have, is not your husband” (Jn 4:17-18). It could be argued that she had five or six, but with Origen and others I understand the passage to mean six. Notice also in verse six, John writes, “It was about the sixth hour.” The use of this number is incredibly important and significant, and a reflection upon it will bring great fruit to our spiritual lives.

St. Augustine wrote, in his magnificent book De Trinitate (On the Trinity), that we are in the sixth biblical age. He states, “We find the first age lasting from Adam to Noah, the second from him to Abraham, and from then on we follow the divisions of the evangelist Matthew, from Abraham to David [which is the third], [the fourth] from David to the deportation to Babylonia, and [the fifth] from there to the virgin’s child-bearing,” meaning Mary’s birthing of the Lord; “So the sixth [age of the world] began with the birth of the Lord, and still continues to the unknown end of time.”(1) So the appearance of Christ to the Samaritan woman was certainly in the sixth hour, meaning, the sixth biblical age of the world.

Six is, indeed, the number of the world. It is often considered the symbolic number of evil, but this is only because there is some exception in which the term the “world” may be seen as the “world in opposition to God.” We encounter the number six, again in St. John’s Book of Revelation, in the number of the beast: six hundred and sixty six, where he writes, “Let him who has reason calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of man, and his number is six hundred sixty six” (Ap. 13:18). The number six here is used three times. Using the same term repeatedly, in the ancient languages, added a nuance of meaning to the word. The use of a word twice indicated a higher quality, or the comparative; for example, Jesus says, “with desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you” (Lk 22:14). The use of a word three times in a row, as in “Holy, holy, holy” (Is 6:3) by the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision, raises something to maximum excellence or to the superlative degree.

It was on the sixth day when God had made man, and finished the work of creation. So the number “six” here is indicating something good; and I say this, because there are those who are superstitious about numbers, and we should understand the symbolism when it is intended, but disregard that association when it is not intended. Six is therefore the number of creation, the number of the creation of man, and therefore it indicates all that in this world is and is passing. Seven indicates God’s rest in heaven, for on the seventh day he rested; and eight indicates the new life in heaven, the “day after time,” explaining why, for example, baptistries or baptismal fonts often have eight walls or parts. The number of the beast then indicates this: that it is the supreme abomination of worldliness and secularism, of atheism and alienation from God.

Now, the Samaritan woman had had five husbands, plus the man with whom she was now living in sin; and we remind ourselves that true marriage cannot be repeated except after the death of the former spouse.

Marriage itself is indeed a sign and a symbol of union greater to come, and it is efficacious of that union, and this union is that of the soul with God. What human love can be greater than the love between a man and a woman bound in marriage? Yet love between God and the soul is greater, and marriage exists first and foremost for the union of the soul with God by grace. The Samaritan woman had entered into the union, but entered into the union with six, meaning, that her soul had become united with the passing corruption of this world.

There are six sins which, more than the others, pull the soul away from God and bind it, as a prisoner, to the corruption of the world, and they are these: avarice, lust, gluttony, atheism, despair and hatred.

So the Lord presents himself to this woman, full of greed and impurity, full of self-satisfaction and rationalism, full of hatred for men and consumed with despair, and meekly present himself to her as the savior of the world. For the Lord has come to save those who are sinners, and she most certainly qualified!

For her greed, Jesus was born poor in a stable, and had not rock upon which to rest his head. For her impurity, he was perfectly pure and celibate. For her gluttony and all indulgence of the flesh, he was tortured and crucified. For her atheism, he lived for the Father and taught her about the Holy Spirit. For her despair, he was mercy. And in response to her hatred, she looked into his eyes, suspecting him as an enemy, she found understanding and love.

How often souls are burdened by worldliness. This happens with the vanity of clothes and the greed for money, the gluttony of food and alcohol and drugs, the impurity which overwhelms today’s society, and every other form of bending our soul down towards the earth. Poor souls! Such worldliness rips their hearts apart, fills some with shame, and satisfies none!

Therefore: Go to Jesus. Decide once and for all to be a saint, but know that even if no one can make that decision except you, no one can make you holy except the Redeemer. Jesus brought God into a world full of darkness, and He himself became the light.

And so maybe today you look in your heart and you see that you are, to some degree, where the Samaritan woman was: enslaved to all six of these sins and doomed to the corruption to which these sins lead. If so, lift up your drooping hands, and strengthen your knees; raise your eyes, and I will tell you what you will see. For these six sins, in the sixth age of the world, while the beast numbered six and six and six prepares his manifestation, see another six, which will cure your ills: and at this six, you will find Mary praying for you. What I mean is that it was on the sixth day of the week when the Lord was crucified out of love for you. And do you know at what hour he was crucified? The scriptures say, in the very same Gospel of St. John, “It was about the sixth hour” (Jn 19:14).