Vol. 35 No. 17                                                                                          (Cycle A) 3rd SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus – fountain of eternal life ENTRANCE ANTIPHON My eyes are ever fixed on the Lord, for he releases my feet from the snare. O look at me and be merciful, for I am wretched and alone (Ps 24:15-16). INTRODUCTION Jesus is the fountain of living water which gives life to those who believe in him. The Samaritan woman in the Gospel of today comes to the traditional well at Sychar, a town in Samaria, thirsting for water. Her encounter with Jesus leads her to believe in him and to find in him the fountain of living water. God comes in Jesus to meet us at this Eucharist and he comes to give us the living water of eternal life. PENITENTIAL RITE Dear Bothers and Sisters, God the Father sent his Son Jesus to the world to give us life. Let us thirst for Jesus, the fountain of love and mercy and ask him to cleanse and heal us. (Pause) Your mercy is never-ending fountain of forgiveness. Lord, have mercy. Your love has called us to the fountain of eternal life. Christ, have mercy. Your Spirit has enabled us to live a life of boundless love. Lord, have mercy. OPENING PRAYER Let us pray. Father, you have taught us to overcome our sins by prayer, fasting and works of mercy. When we are discouraged by our weakness, give us confidence in your love. Grant this... FIRST READING (In this reading, we note that God is willing to give his people water in the desert when they are thirsty though they murmur against him.) A reading from the Book of Exodus  (17:3-7) The people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the faultfinding of the children of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the proof by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” This is the Word of the Lord PSALM (94) Response :O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts. Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the rock who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks, with songs let us hail the Lord. Come in; let us bow and bend low; let us kneel before the God who made us for he is our God and we the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice! “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the desert when your fathers put me to the test; when they tried me, though they saw my work.” SECOND READING (Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans that through our faith in Jesus, God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.) A reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Romans (5:1-2, 5-8) Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man – though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. This is the Word of the Lord ACCLAMATION (Jn 4:42,15) Lord, you are really the Saviour of the world; give me the living water, so that I may never get thirsty. GOSPEL (Jesus promises the Samaritan woman life-giving water that will become for her the fountain of eternal life.) A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John (4:5-42) Jesus came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that 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 have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks 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 Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his Word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.” This is the Gospel of the Lord I believe in God, / the Father Almighty, / Creator of heaven and earth. / I believe in Jesus Christ, / his only Son, our Lord. / He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit / and born of the Virgin Mary. /He suffered under Pontius Pilate, /was crucified, died, and was buried. /He descended to the dead. / On the third day he rose again. / He ascended into Heaven, / and is seated at the right hand of the Father. / He will come again to judge the living and the dead. / I believe in the Holy Spirit, /the Holy Catholic Church, / the communion of saints, / the forgive-ness of sins, / the resurrection of the body, / and the life everlasting. / Amen. PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL Dear sisters and brothers, Jesus quenches our thirst by pouring out his Spirit into our hearts. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, let us ask our Father to know and believe in his Son, saying, Lord increase our faith. Response : Lord, increase our faith. 1. We pray that every Eucharistic celebration may be a time of knowing and experiencing Jesus personally, let us pray to the Lord. Let us... 2. We pray that the Church may become a community worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth, and a fountain of eternal truths for all. Let us… 3. We pray for all the sinners that they may come to experience the compassion and forgiveness of the Lord during this season of lent. Let us… 4. We pray that all of us who were healed by the living water of Christ may show mercy, forgiveness and compassion to the weak. Let us… (Pray for personal/local needs) Cel: Merciful God, you sent your only Son to us that we might receive the living water of salvation and eternal life. Grant us that we may be filled and satisfied at this Eucharist by fountains of living water flowing from the heart of Jesus. We ask this… PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS Lord, by the grace of this sacrifice may we who ask forgiveness be ready to forgive one another. We ask this… PREFACE (P 14) Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. When he asked the woman of Samaria for water to drink, Christ had already prepared for her the gift of faith. In his thirst to receive her faith he awaken in her heart the fire of your love. With thankful praise, in company with angels, we glorify the wonders of your power: All: Holy, holy, holy.... COMMUNION ANTIPHON Whoever drinks the water that I shall give him, says the Lord, will have a spring inside him, welling up for eternal life (Jn 4:13-14). PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION Lord, in sharing this sacrament may we receive your forgiveness and be brought together in unity and peace. We ask this… LITURGY AND LIFE The Samaritan woman is not a worthy person for Jesus to talk with. From the dialogue we know she’s five times married and is presently living with someone not her husband. But there’s something else in the story that calls her worthiness into question. In the Mediterranean world of Jesus’ time life was strictly divided up according to gender. Women had their place – the kitchen and home. Men had their place – the fields and the marketplace. But both had the village well in common. Both needed water. Yet they were not allowed to visit the well at the same time. Women could use the well only in the morning and in the evening. But here in the Gospel story the woman comes to the well at noon. She is coming to the well deliberately at a time when only men are there. She wants to be the only woman at the well when some men come along. Now Jesus should certainly not be talking with that kind of woman. But he does! And in doing so Jesus breaks through another barrier. He is telling us that the so-called unworthy people also have the living water within them. Eternal life is theirs. Who are the unworthy people for us? Surely we have them. What are the unworthy area in our own lives? We have them. Jesus is telling us God’s life, God’s Spirit gushes forth in those we think unworthy. It gushes forth in our unworthy lives. But are we listening? Are we listening to Jesus? For Jesus the words “unlikely” and “unworthy” simply do not apply when it comes to God’s presence. It is God’s delight to be with all and with everyone. How fortunate we are that God does not share our sense of propriety and moral correctness. God does not know where he’s not supposed to go. God is present in our homes and in the streets. God is present in our schools, in market places, in brothels and in abortion clinics. God is present in Kochi and in Karachi. It seems the God of Jesus is very careless – very careless with our rules and regulations. Lent is the season for our becoming careless. It’s the season for breaking through all the barriers we set up to God’s presence. Lent is the season for understanding that our worthiness is not God’s problem at all. It may be our problem. It may be an issue for certain Church people and leaders for discussion. But it is not God’s issue. Lent is the season for finding the living water within us and within other people. Then, like the people in the Samaritan village at the end of the Gospel story, we will know for sure that Jesus is truly the Saviour of the world. February – March 2008 READINGS OF THE WEEK (Psalter Week 3) 25 Mon (V) 2 Kgs 5:1-15b; Ps 41:2.3.42:3.4; Lk 4:24-30 26 Tue (V) Dn 3:25.34-43; Ps 24:4-5ab.6&7bc.8&9; Mt 18:21-35 27 Wed (V) Dt 4:1.5-9; Ps 147:12-13.15-16.19-20; Mt 5:17-19 28 Thu (V) Jer 7:23-28; Ps 94:1-2.6-7.8-9; Lk 11:14-23 29 Fri (V) Hos 14:2-10; Ps 80:6c-8a.8bc-9.10-11ab.14&17; Mk 12:28-34 1 Sat (V) Hos 6:1-6; Ps 50:3-4.18-19.20-21ab; Lk 18:9-14