LENT III [A]: Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4: 5-42

  

Today's liturgy makes use of the symbol of water to refer to our relationship with God. Water represents God’s Spirit Who comes to us in Baptism. Baptism is the outward, symbolic sign of a deep reality, the coming of God as a Force penetrating every aspect of a person’s life. The Spirit quenches our spiritual thirst. Just as water in the desert was life-giving for the wandering Israelites, the water of a true, loving relationship with Jesus is life-giving for those who accept him as Lord and Savior.  The Holy Spirit of God, the Word of God and the Sacraments of God in the Church are the primary sources for the living water of Divine Grace. 

The first reading describes how God provided water to the ungrateful complainers of Israel, thus placing Jesus’ promise within the context of the Exodus account of water coming from the rock at Horeb.  

The Samaritan woman in this story was thirsty — a thirst caused by the absence of God in her life.  A meeting with Jesus gave her the living waters of friendship with Jesus and the anointing of the Spirit of God which restored her dignity and changed her life. 

 This woman belonged to a heritage rejected by the Jews.  In addition, she expected scorn simply because she was a woman, for in the ancient Middle East, men systematically degraded women.  Finally, this Samaritan woman seemed unwanted by her own people.  Since she had had five “husbands,” and was living with a sixth “lover,” she seems to have been considered by fellow villagers a social leper, and she seems to have been driven from the common well of the town by the decent women.  Perhaps she had not stopped wishing that somewhere, sometime, some way, God would touch His people — that He would touch her!  Jesus’ meeting the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well illustrates the principal role of Jesus as the Messiah: to reconcile all men and women to the Father.  Hence, Jesus deliberately placed himself face-to-face with this person whom, apparently, no one else wanted.  Jesus saw in this social outcast and moral wreck a person who mattered to God.  The Samaritan woman must have unburdened her soul to this stranger because she had found one Jew with kindness in his eyes instead of an air of critical superiority.  She was thirsting for love that would last, love that would fill her and give purpose to her life. Just as Jesus confronts the woman at the well with the reality of her own sinfulness and brokenness, we must confront our own sinfulness and, in doing so, realize our need for God. 

Jesus not only talked with the woman, but in a carefully orchestrated, seven-part dialogue he guided her progressively from ignorance to enlightenment, from misunderstanding to clearer understanding, thus making her the most carefully and intensely catechized person in this entire Gospel.  Jesus always has a way of coming into our personal lives.  When Jesus became personal with this woman and started asking embarrassing questions about her five husbands, she cleverly tried to change the subject and talk about religion.  She didn’t want Jesus to get personal.  But Jesus wanted to free her, forgive her, shape her life in a new direction, and change her.  He wanted to offer this woman living water.  At the end of the long heart-to-heart conversation Jesus revealed himself to her as the Messiah, which in turn led her to Faith in him.  This growth in understanding on the part of the woman moved through several stages: first, she called him a Jew, then Sir or Lord, then Prophet, and finally Messiah.  When the Samaritans came to hear Jesus because of her testimony, the affirmation of Faith reached its climax as they declared that Jesus was the Savior of the world.  Step-by-step Jesus was leading her in her Faith journey. 

Jesus wants to get personal with us, especially during this Lenten season.  Jesus wants to get into our “private” lives.  We have a “private” personal life which is contrary to the will of God.  Christ wishes to come into that “private” life, not to embarrass us, not to judge or condemn us, not to be unkind or malicious to us.  Rather, Christ comes into our “private” personal life to free us, to change us and to offer us what we really need: living water. And when we have the living water welling up in us we will bear witnesses to Jesus like the Samaritan woman. Let us have the courage to share our experience of Jesus with others. Let us also have the courage of our Christian convictions to stand for truth and justice in our day-to-day life.