THROUGH UNTRUE

When two or more events occur simultaneously, seemingly by chance and for no particular reason, we call it a coincidence. For instance, when you are about to call a friend and he suddenly calls you, this unexpected convergence of events can be a coincidence.
Our gospel reading today narrates the chance meeting between Jesus and a gutsy Samaritan woman (John 4:5-42). Jesus happened to stop at Jacob's well when the Samaritan woman was fetching water there. At first, it seemed like a coincidence, but as we delve deeper into the story, we realize that the random encounter was more than a coincidence. It was a case of serendipity.
Serendipity happens when someone accidentally discovers a precious thing while looking for something else. That is precisely what happened to the Samaritan woman. Initially, she resented meeting Jesus at the well due to her tattered past which she preferred to remain a secret. She had five previous marriages and was currently cohabiting with a man who was not her husband. So she set up walls to prevent Jesus from reaching out to her.
When Jesus asked her for water, she raised the cultural divide between them. Jews did not typically speak to Samaritans, and men seldom spoke to women in public: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (John 5:9). When that did not work, she put up a barrier of ignorance and unbelief: "The well is deep, and you have nothing to draw water from it. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob?" (John 5:11).
Despite her impudence, Jesus persisted, even insinuating that her greatest need was not for water but for the grace of forgiveness that He was there to offer.  She rejected Jesus' offer, even denying that she was living in sin. "I have no husband" (John 5:17). At this point, Jesus delivered the clincher: "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband” (John 5:17-18).
The woman's resistance crumbled. She showed the first signs of conversion with what she did next: "Leaving her water jar, she ran back to town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did'" (John 5:29).
Her meeting with Jesus was not a coincidence. It was an experience of serendipity. The Samaritan woman came to draw water but found instead the most precious thing she had been looking for all her life—the grace of forgiveness and the peace of mind that comes from it.
Many people think serendipity is the result of fate or destiny. But it may also be the result of our openness to the promptings of God who knows what we need even before we ask Him. God always meets us where we are.
May this Lenten season help us experience serendipity. All of us are looking for ways to make peace, but may we instead discover that  peace is not something we make: as in make love, make money, or make believe. St. Augustine wrote: "Peace is the tranquility of order."
Peace, like happiness, results from putting our life in order. Peace begins when we realize that all the chaos and suffering we endure are mostly due to unrepented and unconfessed sins. Sin is basically a disorder, for it proceeds from wrong choices and decisions that distort our sense of values. Like the Samaritan woman, may we learn to recognize our brokenness and our need to kneel before God in humility and sincere repentance.