Third Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 28
Reading I
In those days, in their thirst for water,
the people grumbled against Moses,
saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst
with our children and our livestock?”
So Moses cried out to the LORD,
“What shall I do with this people?
a little more and they will stone me!”
The LORD answered Moses,
“Go over there in front of the people,
along with some of the elders of Israel,
holding in your hand, as you go,
the staff with which you struck the river.
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it
for the people to drink.”
This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel.
The place was called Massah and Meribah,
because the Israelites quarreled there
and tested the LORD, saying,
“Is the LORD in our midst or not?”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8) If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.
And hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
Verse Before the Gospel
Lord, you are truly the Savior of the
world;
give me living water, that I may never thirst again.
Gospel
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called
Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“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 said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples
returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began
to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
OR:
John
4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“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 said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.
“I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began
to believe in him.
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Entering our third full week of our Lenten Journey, we are offered the Gospel Reading describing Jesus’ interaction with the Woman at the Well. Through it, we are invited into a deeper understanding of how we should perceive Jesus Christ in relation to our faith and what potential a relationship with Him could benefit us spiritually, mentally, and physically.
Water is a necessary part of life. 71% of the Earth’s surface is made up of water. About 60% of the human body is water. A person cannot live more than four days without water before experiencing major health issues. Water is a building block of life and it is impossible to live without it. In the time of Jesus, wells were a natural gathering place where people came to retrieve the water they needed for the day. This included for personal use or for the tending of whatever animals someone might have had. Women came to the well early in the morning or early in the evening, when it was cooler. The men would come throughout the day whenever it was required. For the women, this would be a natural time for socialization and conversation.
The Samaritan woman came to the well out noontime, the hottest part of the day, indicating that she was a social outcast and was alienated from the rest of the community. Not only was Jesus having a conversation with a Samaritan woman, one who He as a Jew should never be having, but one who was ostracized from the rest of her community because of her past behaviors. He chose her specifically because of her brokenness and need of healing. In the same way, we are invited to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ not because of any special that we have done, but specifically because we need Him. As Jesus said when dining with tax collectors and prostitutes,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.”
Just as Jesus invited Matthew to break bread with Him, Jesus invited the woman into having a conversation with Him by ordering her to give Him something to drink We too are invited into relationship with Jesus Christ just as we are. He is constantly calling to us and is patiently waiting for us to respond. It is through our response that we will be gradually healed and transformed into a new creation. Through their conversation, the woman’s eyes were slowly opened and she soon came to believe in Jesus. At first, she was apprehensive and on guard but eventually opened up This demonstrates a process and a gradual understanding. As she began to understand, she became more trusting and finally realized who Jesus was.
Jesus described what He had to offer as “living water,” emphasizing its importance in comparison to the body’s need for water: the human body needs it for survival while Living Water is necessary for salvation and eternal life. Jesus is the Living Water. It is through Him that we receive it. The knowledge of Him that we obtain from Sacred Scripture and from prayer, become a necessity if we are to recover from what can only be described as a spiritual sickness. Life without Jesus is exactly that: directionless, meaningless, and empty. Through Him, a connection between the mind, body, and spirit are formed and we are able to achieve fulfillment as we become joined together with our God.
Not only did Jesus freely offer this “living water” to the woman, but also to all those from the town whom she evangelized to. Jesus used her as an instrument to spread His message of salvation. She was an imperfect human being, being formed into a new creation through an interaction with Jesus Christ. This is the beauty of our faith: we are expected to spread the Good News of what we have obtained. then become propagators of the faith. It is expected from us to do so and, if we do not feel this naturally occurring, we must revisit our spiritual status through prayer, worship, and meditation.
Acknowledgement who Jesus is becomes only the first step in a much larger journey. We then have to take that awareness and delve deeper into who this Jesus Christ is. This can only be done through the pursuit of wisdom and a personal relationship. This leads to us being healed and formed into a new creation. The Woman at the well had no fear as she went back to her village to tell the people what she had heard and what she had seen. They saw her and believed her. Who was she but a sinner and one whom they rejected? Yet, her testimony and witness were enough for them to believe, for she was transformed through her interaction with Jesus before their very eyes. Jesus has a way of healing us in this way continuously. We don’t have to stay the same person we were before we came to know Jesus. It is through Him that we have the capability of change. It takes willingness on our part to achieve this. Not just a willingness once, but all the time. There must be a constant YES and a rejection of what we embraced before. Jesus made it a point to tell the woman everything about her, not so as to accuse her, but to let her know that it was okay that she was a sinner and yet He was still talking to her. Samaritan, woman, and sinner that she was, served as no impediments to her receiving the Living Water that Jesus was offering to her. We are only impediment to receiving the Living Water of Jesus for ourselves and for the salvation of the world.
Deacon Tom
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