Third Sunday of Lent – Year A
Readings: Ex 17:3-7, Rom 5:1-2, 5-8, Jn 4:5-42
We are still in the Holy Season of Lent and today is the third Sunday. The dominant image in today’s Scripture Readings is ‘water’ and there is an obvious link with Baptism.
However, there is richness in the three readings that is much broader than theme for Baptism. In the First Reading from the Book of Exodus, the Israelites tormented by thirst in the wilderness are crying out for water. In the face of their mistrust, Moses believes in God’s power to save; in the face of their grumbling, he lifts his hands in prayer; in answer to their testing, he proves God’s presence by striking the rock to bring forth water.
In the Gospel Reading from St. John, we have the marvellous account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Jesus is tired and thirsty from his journey and asks her for a drink. But his real thirst is for this woman’s faith and salvation. He invites her to come to faith in him and she finally recognizes Him as the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.
St. Paul, in the Second Reading from his Letter to the Romans tells us that faith, hope and love are God’s gifts to us. We are all God’s chosen people called upon to live purified lives and God’s love was poured into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us through Christ. Thus today’s readings are directing us to take a good look into ourselves and experience the divine insight.
The story of the meeting of Jesus and the woman at the well started with a simple request from Jesus, “Give me a drink.” It was noontime. Jesus was thirsty. He came to a well near a Samaritan town and stopped to rest. Then a woman of that Samaritan town came to the well. She had come out in the middle of the day to get water to drink.
Now, the polite thing to do was to ignore one another. After all Jews and Samaritans were not supposed to mix and men were not supposed to address women in public, and one does not get more public than the village well. But Jesus spoke to the woman, in public! He was thirsty but had no means of reaching the water. The woman, however, had a bucket and a rope and could reach the water. So, Jesus asked her for a drink of water.
This was socially unacceptable and the Samaritan woman had to remind Jesus about this. But Jesus reached across the barriers of racial and religious prejudice. He reached across the barriers of sexism. He reached across the barriers of shame and guilt. He reached across the barriers between good and bad. And he asked her for a drink of water. He surely needed water for his parched throat. But Jesus had a deeper thirst – his real thirst was for this woman’s faith and salvation.
As they talked, Jesus revealed that He knew her thirst. Their dialogue progressed from a simple request for a drink to discussion about living water. Living water ordinarily meant water that flows from a spring rather than stagnant water from a well. However in their discussion it came to mean the water of eternal life.
The woman’s knowledge of Jesus also progressed, from a mere stranger who is a Jew, to a Prophet, to a Messiah and Saviour. She thirsted for a genuine relationship. Even among the outcast Samaritans she was an outsider. She was a woman with a bad reputation. Everyone knew her past. She had five husbands and was living with a man in sin. This was in a day when only men could divorce. She had been used and discarded again and again.
She also thirsted for God. Once she realized that Jesus was more than just another Jew she asked him a question. The question basically amounted to ‘Where do I find God?’ This is to be kept in mind that the Samaritans had descended from Jews who had abandoned worshiping in Jerusalem and would sacrifice in the hill shrines. The Jews however sacrificed only in Jerusalem.
She was thirsty, so she requested Jesus saying, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty again,” and Jesus offered her living water, the water of eternal life! She was thirsty for a real relationship and for God. Jesus had a never ending supply of what she needed.
So he offered her both. He let her know that he knew her and still cared. He was honest with her even when it was not pleasant. And he told her that, while the Jews had it right about where to sacrifice, in the long run what matters is not where you worship but where your heart is. What really matters is not the geography but that one worships in spirit and in truth.
The Israelites were thirsty. Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well were thirsty. There are a lot of thirsty people in our world. There are also a lot of people in our world who thirst for God. Like the Samaritan woman at the well they ask, ‘Where do I find God?’
Like the Samaritan woman, we need to look at our own lives and see what we have to do to move into the new life that Jesus has been talking about, the life of grace. We also have a thirst like the Israelites and the Samaritan woman. What is it that we are thirsting for?
By our Baptism we have been given the gift of faith and eternal life, but what steps do we have to take to live that life? Do we still thirst for material things, for bodily pleasures, for power or status? How can we let the waters that Jesus describes, quench that thirst in us? Jesus is the source of that water, and by going to Jesus we will find the help, the fullness, the refreshment we need.
In sum, my dear friends in Christ, despite our past failures, we all have a duty to reconcile ourselves with God. In order to do this, however, we must first seek Him. In His encounter with a Samaritan woman, Christ offers her – as he offers all of us – life-giving water.
During this Lenten Season then, let us come to the well and meet Jesus there. He will give us living water, which is water that does not run out because it grows from within, and it quenches our deepest thirst – the thirst for God – “My soul thirsts for God, the living God!”
As we near the Cross, where satisfying water and blood poured forth from the side of Christ, let us reflect on our thirst. In what areas of our lives are we still thirsty? Where will we choose to turn when we’re thirsty?
What sort of drinks have we been turning to? The answer is, and must be, Christ. So now, let us turn to the Eucharist, let us turn to Christ Himself, in His body, blood, soul, and divinity, and drink fully of the Lord’s satisfying water. May the Living Water, Christ our Saviour flow over our souls and in every situation that has troubled our minds, I pray the Holy Spirit take control of those situations to lead us to our true Living Water. Amen.
