3^rd SUNDAY OF LENT

 

Readings:  Exodus 17:3-7

          Romans 5:1-2, 5-8

          John 4:5-42

 

 

“…anyone who drinks the water that I shall give
will never be thirsty again.”

 

 

The quite lengthy gospel we have today has many lessons to teach. However, the gospel itself seems to invite us to focus more closely on this rare encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and learn from it the prevailing theme: Christ, the living water. As we are almost at the middle of our Lenten journey, journey, let us meditate on how Christ fills the Samaritan woman and us with his living water as we always thirst for real life and love.

 

1. Our first reading directly speaks of the literal importance of water. Without it, the Israelites together with their cattle would perish in the desert. Such is their complaint when God would show his mighty hand and let waters flow from the rock. We may put against this background the gospel scene where the Samaritan woman comes to the well of Jacob. Her intention is pure and simple. She comes to fetch water that literally quenches thirst. But her encounter with Christ totally changes herself that her life becomes never the same again.

 

At a closer look, this gradual conversion that takes place in the person of the Samaritan woman seems to be the significant message the gospel of John is trying to portray at this great encounter. Jesus is precisely the living water because he draws the woman to the fountain of truth, life and love.

 

a. Jesus is first and foremost the living water to the woman because of his indiscriminate love. Jesus opens the conversation by asking a favor: “Give me a drink.” The statement seems casual and ordinary. But to the woman it is something daring. Both culturally and religiously, it abhors for a Jew to talk to a Samaritan, and much more for a rabbi to a woman. This makes the poor woman exclaim: "What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?"

 

At this first stage of encounter, the Samaritan woman recognizes Jesus as a Jew. Yet, she immediately notices something different. Although highly respectable in many respects - both as a Jew and a rabbi – Jesus stoops down and converses with her. By his own initiative, Jesus breaks the wall that separates the Jew and the Samaritan. With his simple words he begins to lead this woman into a greater discovery. This Jew must be of much love.

 

b. Jesus is the living water because he has the spirit of life and the words of eternal life. "The water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life." --- That man lives not by bread alone but by God's word is a familiar passage of scripture. Jesus takes a parallel signification, but this time using not bread but water. Jesus is the living water because he not only has but also is the word of life.

 

Certainly, this becomes an eye-opener for the Samaritan woman that life is more than any drink that satisfies physical thirst. Jesus leads her to realize that we have our own wells that sustain us. But if these wells run dry, hardly can we by ourselves make them flow again. Not even the well of Jacob can. Only the living water coming from the one greater than Jacob can vanish every dryness and thirst. At this second stage of encounter, the woman recognizes Jesus not only as a Jew but also as someone greater than Jacob. She calls him “Sir!"

 

c. Jesus is the living water because he penetrates deep into the hearts of men. As water seeks its very level, Jesus knows even the most secret part of our private lives. Now Jesus tells the woman about her life. But he reveals this not to condemn her but to redirect her out of mercy and love. Jesus just knows so well how this woman must have been thirsting for real love. She craves for it not only as a discriminated Samaritan but also as a despised prostitute. The fact that five husbands or men just come and go of her life suggests how poor her love life must have been. And Jesus comes at a right time to fill her thirst. The woman, in turn, cannot help but wonder. He told me all I have ever done. Surely, this is not only greater than Jacob. At this third stage of encounter, she calls Jesus a prophet!

 

d. Jesus is the living water because he is the temple of true worship. Like any Samaritan, this woman must have also been thirsting for true worship. Their temple at Mt. Gerizim has in fact worsened the Samaritan’s religious tension with the Jews. Jesus maintains Jewish orthodoxy. But while pointing it out to the woman, Jesus subtly teaches her that he is the true temple through whom the Father shall be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

 

At this final stage of encounter, the woman discovers that Jesus is not only a prophet, but also the Messiah. Such discovery, however, is not complete. It still takes Jesus himself to unveil the complete truth of his person. “I who am speaking to you,” said Jesus "I am he.”

 

2. Starting from a very familiar thing - water at the well – Jesus leads the woman to the level of faith. From a Jew, to a man greater than Jacob, to a prophet and finally to the Messiah, the truth unfolds before her step by step. This becomes the woman's most unforgettable experience with Jesus. But the more wonderful thing of such an experience is the fact that as she gradually discovers the person of Jesus, she also sees the real picture of herself. She becomes aware of how sinful a life she has been leading into. But this doesn’t put her down. On the contrary, she sees a brighter horizon of hope She realizes that a great day has dawned upon her. This hope comes not from her own well. Not even from Jacob's well. But from the person right before her: Christ who offers himself as the living water.

 

This encounter, therefore, marks her conversion. From this day forward, for better or for worse, she is finally wedded to the right man. But this time, not to the man who enjoys her body but to him who is the savior of her soul, from the fountain of love and forgiveness, she learns for herself how to regret, forget and forgive her sinful past. She is now a new creation. She becomes an apostle of Christ.

 

3. The fruit of this conversion is evident: happiness. No amount of words can ever express the joy she experiences as she receives the Messiah direct to her heart. But since joy is no joy at all when not shared, she goes out to announce her great discovery. The tale she tells is the good news that happened to her. And she becomes that authentic preacher not only because the story she tells is her own, but more so because she wants others to experience and thus have their own stories too. At the end, she is not in vain. All who come hear for themselves and know that he is the savior of the world!