Health experts advise that once a year, everyone must visit their PCP (Primary Care physician), for a thorough checkup. Why? What often seems to be going okay on the surface might be deceptive; looking at things at a deeper level can help one prevent un-welcome eventualities or health emergencies. How often does that happen? Something is brewing up that you did not know! Going and looking ‘beyond the surface’ is very wise and important. And this is true not only for our health and wellbeing.

The Gospel and the word of God is often an upfront and direct challenge to move and live beyond ‘superficial things' or 'on the surface level'. It is a challenge to find God at a deeper level. God who answers the deeper question and dilemmas of life. Christianity is an invitation to look deeper and find God’s way, meaning and purpose.

The first reading from Exodus ends with the question: ‘Is the Lord in our midst or not?’. How often do we find ourselves asking ourselves this question? The story of Exodus is the story of the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land. Part of the journey was through the wilderness of the desert. The desert is a place of test and trial. Often, we listen to the complaint stories like the one told today. The Israelites doubt God and his plan for them? They grumble that Egypt was much better.

Life’s challenges and dilemmas can lead to rushed reactions and even forgetting crucial convictions. The surface things can take over: "I need this right now!" God’s promises cannot be doubted and so, God asks Moses to strike the rock and from it will flow water.

There is a lot of symbolism in this text. ‘Thirst’ symbolizes who or what is it that satisfies our deepest hunger. The ‘Rock’ symbolizes strength and security. ‘Water’ symbolizes ‘life’.  All of these are found in God. God’s plan for us and the world is always in jeopardy. We tend not to trust that it works. We settle often for immediate or surface solutions, yet we must go deeper, with faith, and let nothing retract our loyalty to God.  We must learn to ‘dig into the deep’.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Responsorial Psalm).

What of recent makes you doubt God?


Saint Paul confronting the problems in the Roman Christian community points to one thing - the death of Jesus, meaning , the ‘self-giving of Jesus’. This is the turning point for the world. The death of Christ is the ‘pathos’ for all. Jesus dies not only for the perfect but also the godless. Hence, all might have a path to salvation. All therefore find reason for hope and peace only in Christ. So let not any other thing distract you from following Jesus. There is something deeper about one who lets his only son die for everyone! Find and follow God! It will require going beyond the surface, adapting Jesus’ self-giving lifestyle.

Any encounter with Jesus in the Gospels will never leave somebody the same, and so is the encounter with the Samaritan woman. The conversation with Jesus moves gradually beyond just the natural and material level, that is the need for water to satisfy human thirst. Jesus does offer something deeper beyond the surface.

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The Woman responds, ‘give me this water, that I may not be thirsty again or keep coming to draw water’. Might this be the response out of our hearts! Ask God and find God and in God the answer to our every thirst and hunger?

Jesus is a prophet, who knows even that which is hidden and unrevealed - ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have done! Might he be the messiah?

To all of us Jesus says, "I am he".


In conclusion, the challenge of the reading is to go deeper beyond the surface. To self-examine our lives, ‘to scrutinize’ (First Scrutiny). To take the daily events and occurrences of our lives to the deeper level of God.   How are my daily routines and cycle of life related to or associated with God?  The world needs Christian believers who see and live at the deeper level of God’s way and value. Your lives move others beyond just the material. Adapt a Jesus self-giving way of life.

To be a parent is more than simply providing food and shelter for one’s family. It is taught and offers the family Jesus' outlook on life. Do we see our work life and social life as an opportunity not just to earn money or be entertained but to enrich others about Jesus’ philosophy of life, to move beyond the surfaces. The needy and helpless are more than objects of pity. They are my brother and sister. Can we teach that by our way of life?

The Eucharist that we share and are nourished by is more than just ‘bread and wine’, it is a challenge to live life at the deeper level of God. It is sacrificed to live as Jesus did and bearing witness to our world. The Eucharist is an invitation to live beyond the routine, beyond the surface. It is about the firm and difficult choice of living a lifestyle of God.