VATICAN - Benedict XVI addresses the Roman Parish of Santa Maria Liberatrice: “Jesus wants to lead us, as He did the Samaritan woman, to profess our faith in Him with determination, so that we may also proclaim and testify to our brothers the joy of meeting Him”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On Sunday, February 24, at 9am, the Holy Father Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to the Parish of Santa Maria Liberatrice, in Rome’s Testaccio district, in commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the Church’s dedication. During the Mass, the Pope recalled that, “St. Pius X entrusted the parish to the spiritual sons of Don Bosco, and they, under the vigorous leadership of [...] Blessed Don Michele Rua, built the church where we now find ourselves,” although the Salesians had already been conducting social and apostolic work in this area of Rome.
“In the Bible passages of the Third Sunday of Lent, we find useful points for meditation, that are especially pertinent to this important event,” the Pope said in his homily, referring to the jubilee anniversary. “Through the symbol of water, that we find in the first reading and in the Gospel reading of the Samaritan woman, the Word of God offers a message that is always living and always relevant to our time: God thirsts for our faith and He wants us to find in Him the source of our true happiness. The risk for every believer is that of practicing and inauthentic religiosity, of looking in God for an answer to the deepest desires of the heart, indeed, of using God as if he were in the service of our wishes and plans.”
Citing the first reading, where the Hebrew people, suffering in the desert, feel self-pity and begin to rebel against Moses and almost against God Himself, the Holy Father pointed out that, “The people demand that God come to answer their longings and desires, instead of trustfully abandoning themselves into His Hands, and amidst the trial, they lose their trust in Him. There are so many times when we do not docilely conform our will to the divine will, but instead want God to accomplish our designs and meet our every expectation; so often our faith shows itself to be fragile, our trust weak, our religiosity contaminated by magical and merely worldly elements.” Later, the Pope recalled the Gospel passage of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in Sicar, at Jacob’s Well. “If there is a physical thirst for water that is indispensable for living on the earth, there is also in man a spiritual thirst that only God can quench [...] a thirst for the infinite that can only be satisfied by the water that Jesus offers, the living water of the Spirit.”
The Holy Father continued, “In the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, we see marked out a spiritual itinerary for each one of us, which every Christian community is called to rediscover and continually follow. In its proclamation within the time of Lent, this Gospel passage takes on a particularly important meaning for the catechumens as they approach Baptism...However, we too, as Baptized faithful, also find in this Gospel account an urge to rediscover the importance and meaning of our Christian life. Jesus wants to lead us, as He did the Samaritan woman, to profess our faith in Him with determination, so that we may also proclaim and testify to our brothers the joy of meeting Him and the marvels that his love accomplishes in our existence. Faith is born from the encounter with Jesus, recognized and received as the definitive Revealer and Savior.”
Concluding his homily, the Pope exhorted the faithful of Santa Maria Liberatrice to always open their hearts more and more, “to pastoral missionary action, which moves every Christian to meet people -- especially the youth and families -- there where they live, work, pass their free time, to proclaim God's merciful love.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 25/2/2008; righe 45, parole 612)