Cycle A - Year II:  

15 March 2020: Third Sunday of Lent

(Liturgical Color: Violet)

Readings:

First Reading:        Exodus 17:3-7

Second Reading:   Romans 5:1-2, 5-8

Gospel:  Please Read  John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

"Lord, give us the Living Water!"

Are you a fan of science?  Well, maybe yes, maybe no. But all of us know that in the exploration of the universe scientists look for the presence of water element as indication of possible life outside our world.  For every living organism needs water to survive. And without water all life forms cannot exist or will cease to exist.

This Sunday's Gospel is from St. John.  We will hear about water and how our Lord Jesus Christ uses the image of water in the preaching of God's kingdom.  We know from our own experience how precious water is, especially when we are thirsty, there is nothing like a drink of fresh water to quench our thirst.

The Gospel narrates a lively encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman in Jacob's well.  Tired from His journey, Jesus asked for a drink from the woman He encountered in the well.  Their conversation revolves around drinking water. Jesus takes this opportunity to preach about eternal life that He is offering to those who want to follow Him.

Now, Jesus is a Jew and He meets a Samaritan woman.  Let us understand this "encounter" in the context of cultural realities in Jesus' time.

Jews never intermingled with Samaritans out of respect for Jewish ceremonial law.  Intermingling with those considered to be ritually impure Samaritans would defile a Jew, who would have to participate in ritual purification before entering the Temple to pray.  Also, a Jewish man would never interact with a woman alone, because contact of this kind was a violation of social morays at that time.

But our Lord Jesus transcends these social and ritual constructs in order to save a soul.

Now, going back to the "encounter" scene, Jesus is thirsty but His thirst extends far beyond a mere desire for drinking water.  Our Lord thirsts for the Samaritan woman's faith, just as He also thirsts today for our faith, to believe that He is indeed the Living Water that will quench our thirst for eternal life.

Interestingly, Jesus says to the woman that He will provide living water to her, although He was at first the one who asked her for a drink.  Well, this reminds us that even before we can reap the benefit of a life in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is Jesus Himself who nourishes us with the living water of baptism and the Eucharist.

The Samaritan woman in the Gospel narrative represents each one of us.  Our Lord's interaction with her reveals the manner in which He moves us to conversion.

The simple fact that Jesus goes into Samaritan territory and interacts with a foreign woman reveals to us that the Lord will stop at nothing to seek us out.

And so we believe that Jesus alone can satisfy our thirst for meaning in life, our thirst for the divine.  Because our Lord Jesus Christ is the Living Water that sustains us in our thirst for eternal life.

So then, all the good that we accomplish is merely a response to God's goodness.  He asks for our faith, hope and love, and yet it is the Lord Himself who first gives us the capacity to believe in Him, trust in Him; it is the capacity given to us when we were baptized.

Therefore, let us pray that our Lord Jesus Christ give us the Living Water of Himself in the Holy Eucharist at Mass to prepare us to participate in the banquet of eternal life in heaven.

A blessed Sunday to us all.  And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!