Third Sunday of Lent

 

Sir, give me this water,

so that I may not be thirsty

 

Reading I Exodus 17:3-7

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 Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

(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

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.

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.

 

Reading II Romans 5:1-2, 5-8

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.

 

Gospel 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 our-selves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

 

WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO SAVOR FAITH

Maybe one of the greatest disgraces of contemporary Christianity is the lack of «religious experience». There are many who call themselves Christians and yet don’t know what it is to enjoy their faith, feel at home with God and go about savoring their adhesion to Jesus. How can they be a believer without ever enjoying God’s welcoming love?

The development of a theology that has a marked rational character and the importance that has been given in the West to conceptual formulation have frequently led us to understand and live our faith as a «doctrinal adhesion»” to Jesus Christ. All too many Christians «believe things» about Jesus, but don’t know how to joyfully com-municate themselves with him.

Something similar sometimes happens in the celebration of the liturgy. The ex-ternal rites are correctly observed and beautiful words are pronounced, but it all seems to happen «outside» of the people. They sing with their lips, but the heart is absent. They receive the Body of the Lord, but it doesn’t bring about any living communication with him.

It’s also significant what happens in the reading of the Bible. The advances in modern exegesis have permitted us to know better than ever the composition of the sacred books, the literary genre or the structure of the Gospels. Yet we haven’t learned to savor the Gospel of Jesus.

All this produces a strange sensation. You may say that we are moving about in the «outer skin of the faith». In the Church there is no lack of words or sacraments. There’s preaching every Sunday. The Eucharist is celebrated. There’s also Baptisms, First Communions and Confirmations. But «something» is missing, and it isn’t easy to say exactly what it is. This isn’t what the first believers were about.

We need a new experience of the Spirit that makes us live from within and teaches us to «feel and savor things internally», as Ignatius of Loyola said. We lack the enjoyment of what we say we believe; the taste within ourselves of the silent but real presence of God. We lack spontaneity with God, joyful trust in God’s love.

This experience of God isn’t the fruit of our efforts and works. For the Spirit you need to «make room» in our life and in our heart, in our celebrations and in the Chris-tian community. The Church of our days must also listen today to Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman: «If you would have known the gift of God…» Only when we’re open to the action of the Spirit does the believer discover the water promised by Jesus, that becomes within us a «spring of water welling up to eternal life».

José Antonio Pagola

Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf