Third Sunday of Lent (A)

Ex 17:3-7
Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Rm 5:1-2, 5-8
Jn 4:5-42 or Jn 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

What are you thirsty for? Thirst is what happens when we lack something vital. Water is essential for our physical survival, and our bodies signal us when it's time to drink fluids to stay healthy.

Likewise, water is necessary for our spiritual survival, albeit a different sort of water – the LIVING water, the baptismal water that purifies us for eternal life, the holy water that enables us to have abundant life in Christ now.

The Holy Spirit is the Giver of Life. One of the biblical symbols that represents the presence of God's Spirit is life-giving water. Therefore, we can surmise that Jesus wanted to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritan woman. Why? It would still be a while before the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost.

She needed the truth; the Holy Spirit IS Truth, and Jesus wanted to give her whatever she needed to repent and receive salvation and then share this new life with the people around her.

We only get thirsty when we haven't had enough to drink. Spiritual thirst comes in many forms: loneliness, despair, frustration, self-indulgence – any feeling or behavior that's caused by lacking something we need or want.

And why would we lack anything spiritually? Because, like the woman at the well, we are sinners and need to healing from God as he pours his love into us in all sufficiency.

Reflect & Discuss:

1. In the first reading, why did a physical thirst turn into a sin? How does this still happen today?

2. In Romans 5, grace and hope are mentioned as gifts we receive when we have been “justified by faith” (i.e., when we've repented of our sins and sought forgiveness through Jesus). How do grace and hope quench our thirsts? How do they help us resist sin? How is this a result of God's love being poured into our hearts?

3. The woman at the well eagerly received what Jesus said. Even though he confronted her about her sins, she drank it all in and then, without shame, excitedly told others about her encounter with the Messiah. What need was filled by the truth? What does this teach about how we can help others hear the truth?

Question for the Journey:

What sin or unhealthy habit do you need to overcome so that he is free to quench your thirsts? What will you do this week to hand it over to Christ?

********************************************

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Third Sunday of Lent.

For my hometown of Cincinnati, the Ohio River is an ever-present reality: the river brings commerce, recreation, drinking water. It also brings destructive floods.

Water is a powerful sign; that's why it's used in Baptism, symbolizing our entry into the life and death of Jesus.

Our Lenten readings today relate to Baptism. We hear a story from Exodus, where the people complain because they have run out of water. God, through Moses, responds with a life-giving stream of water. From John's Gospel we have the drama of Jesus and the woman at the well. The early Church used this story in its Lenten liturgy.

The woman at the well represents a believer who reluctantly comes to faith. She needs Jesus, his insights into her life, and his promise of "living water," to slowly win her over.

But isn't that the way it is for most of us? We need time to be convinced; we face contradictions and faulty choices in our lives. Nevertheless we thirst for what God offers us. And, in the end, when we've tasted new life in Christ, we just have to tell others about it. Believers become apostles.

Our Lenten journey may find us thirsty for living water. Let's listen closely to the Lord's invitation.

Scripture:

•Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock? (Exodus 17:3b)
•Harden not your hearts (Psalm 95:8a)

•For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

•Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34)

Reflection:

•Does every person have a spiritual hunger/thirst that needs to be filled? Does everyone have a longing to know God’s love that must be satisfied?

•If thirst for God’s love is not filled, then is it possible to turn to sinful pursuits in an attempt to fill this hunger?

•Is the food that Jesus speaks of, the spiritual food of doing God’s will?

•Is dying on the cross for unbelievers the ultimate spiritual act?

•Is the spiritual search the need to give and receive eternal love?


It is love which must determine man’s actions, love which must give unity to what is divided. Love is the synthesis of contemplation and action, the meeting point between heaven and earth, between God and man. I have known the satisfaction of unrestrained action and the joy of the contemplative life in the desert, and I repeat again St. Augustine’s words: “Love and do as you will.” Do not worry what you ought to do. Worry about loving. Do not interrogate heaven repeatedly and uselessly saying, “What course of action should I pursue?” Concentrate on loving instead.