3rd Sunday of Lent – March 12, 2023
Exodus 17: 3-7; Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8; John4: 5-42
Theme: The
Living Water and The Divine Identity of Jesus
We continue our forty-day Lenten journey. The liturgy of the First
Sunday taught us that the devil continues to tempt us today as he did with our
ancestors Eve and Adam, and with Jesus in the desert. He knows that sin separates
us from God and from our brothers and sisters; that is why he leads us to sin
and so damages our relationships with God and with one another. His objective
is to see us condemned as he is already condemned. The scripture readings of
the First Sunday invited us to resist all the temptations of the devil as Jesus
did in the desert. On the Second Sunday of Lent (last Sunday), the Bible
readings taught us that we are on our journey of faith, not only toward the Paschal
Mystery of Easter but also toward our heavenly “Promised Land” at the end of
time. The story of the transfiguration we heard in the Gospel showed us what
our bodies will look like in the kingdom of heaven. Unlike Peter who suggested building
three tents there, meaning that to stay there in that “glorious state”, Saint
Paul encouraged us to bear our share of hardship for the Gospel with the
strength that comes, not from human beings, but from God. So, our “journey of
faith” consists of bringing the Gospel to others so that they too share the glory
of the “Transfiguration” at the end of time.
Starting today, the Third Sunday of Lent, till the end of this
Lenten Season, we will be reading the Gospel of John because today catechumens
start an intensive preparation for initiation into the sacraments. The Gospel
texts that are chosen for the remainder of Lent are a kind of sacramental
catechesis. The liturgy of this Third Sunday of Lent invites us to meditate on
the theme of the “Living Water” and the “Divine Identity of Jesus”. The first reading speaks of God providing
drinking water to the thirsty Israelites. The Gospel speaks of Jesus who gives living
water and makes God known to the Samaritan woman and to each of us. We are
invited to accept the living water that Jesus offers us for us to have eternal
life. Here living water represents the water of Baptism with which the
catechumens will be baptized and all of us Christians will be sprinkled after
we renew our baptismal promises on Easter. “Living water” is the proof of love
that God has for us. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. This is what Saint
Paul teaches us in our second reading.
Today’s Gospel tells us the story of the conversation between
Jesus and a Samaritan woman. The topic of this conversation is “water”, and the
setting is the well of Jacob in the city of Sychar. We are already introduced
to this topic of water in the first reading that we heard. The author of Exodus
recounts the famous incident that happened in the desert in which God’s people
(on their trip from Egypt to the Promised Land) almost stoned Moses in their
demand for water. By the command of God, Moses struck the rock in Horeb, the
water flew from it, and the people drank.
Pay attention to the important words used here that connect us to
the text of our Gospel. The author of Exodus says that the people were in their
thirst for water. They grumbled against Moses in the following terms: “Was it
just to have us die here of thirst?” Their fear was that without water, they would
die. Of course, water is an essential element without which humans, animals,
and plants will not survive. All of us need water to live. On the First Sunday
of Lent, we heard Jesus replying to the devil, “One does not live on the bread
alone…” Here we can paraphrase it and say, one does not live on water alone. This
means that life is not defined by physical needs only; it is more than that.
The ultimate answer for the human condition is not the satisfaction of physical
thirst but of spiritual thirst. The physical thirst of the people of Israel in
this reading is a sign pointing to a greater thirst which is our thirst for God
alone. So, the way we are concerned about satisfying our physical thirst should
be the same way, or even more, we need to be concerned about taking our souls
to the Church to meet God who satisfies our spiritual thirst.
The Water that God gave to these thirsty Israelites alludes to the
“Living Water” that Jesus offers to the Samaritan woman of our Gospel passage
and to each of us today. The Samaritan woman of our Gospel story experienced the
same transition: from the need for physical water to the need for spiritual
water or “living water”. We need to keep in mind that the Gospel of John is
highly symbolic. To better understand it, we need to pay close attention to
each word he uses and interpret them within their contexts.
Indeed, the author tells us that the encounter between Jesus and
the Samaritan woman takes place at the well and it was at noon time which is
the brightest point of the day. The well represents the baptistery and font where
we are baptized. It also represents the Church where we meet Jesus and receive the
living water that he offers us in the celebration of the Eucharist. The noon
time here is not about the clock time. Rather, it means that the Woman came to
the well at the time of the full light of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus made two
commands to the woman in this conversation which guided the process of the
“journey of faith” of the woman. First, Jesus asks her, “Give me a drink” (v.
7), and second, Jesus commands her to “Go call your husband and come back.” (v,
16). Each command initiates a conversation.
Before we go through these two parts of the story, I think it is
important to know the literal sense and the spiritual sense of the conflict between
the Jews and Samaritans. Jesus is a Jew, and the woman is a Samaritan. Jews and
Samaritans did not get along. Understanding this conflict is the key to grasping
the meaning of the full story. In its literal sense, Jews and Samaritans share
the same patriarch Jacob, the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel. After
the death of Solomon, Israel split into two kingdoms. Ten tribes of Jacob
(Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and
Zebulun) formed the independent kingdom of Israel in the North with Samaria as
its capital. The two other tribes (Judah and Benjamin) formed their own kingdom
in the south called the kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem was the capital. The Assyrians
conquered the Northern kingdom in 722 BC. They deported the Israelites to
Assyria, and they brought five foreign nations in who intermarried with the
Israelites who were not deported. The descendants of these remaining Israelites
with these five foreign nations are identified as Samaritans. They worshipped
the gods of these five foreign nations. The Southern kingdom (Judah) was overturned
by the Babylonians in 587/586 B.C. The Judeans are also identified as Jews. They
returned from the Babylon exile to Jerusalem in the late 500s B.C. Since their
return, their relationship with the Samaritans was so bad because the Samaritans
worshipped foreign gods. Also, they accused the Samaritans of losing the right
of being “God’s chosen people” as they mixed their blood with the blood of foreign
nations. Bit by bit, the Northern Samaritans abandoned worshiping foreign gods
and returned to worshipping the God of Israel. But they were not going to
worship in Jerusalem which is considered the only place for worship according
to the covenant with David (see the comments of the Samaritan woman in our
Gospel passage in v. 20b). Rather, in the fourth century, they built their own
Temple on Mount Gerizim (that our Gospel refers to in v. 20a) to rival Mount
Zion in Jerusalem. In its spiritual sense, the woman represents all the
Samaritans. The five husbands married to the Samaritan woman that v. 18 mentions
in our Gospel passage allude to the five foreign nations that intermarried with
the Israelites and the five foreign gods that the people of Israel worshiped.
Let us now analyze our Gospel’s story. Verses 5 and 6 describe
Jesus as tired when he arrives at the well. By asking for a drink, surely Jesus
is thirsty. The woman also comes to the well because she needs water. Jesus is
thirsty for making God known to all nations, especially to the Samaritans, and
the woman needs living water which leads to the conversion. Jesus continues to
feel “thirsty” for the revelation of God to the people of our time. We too need
to continue to feel “thirsty” for the conversion that living water leads us to.
Our mission as Jesus’ followers is to satisfy these two “thirsts of water”. We are
called to make God known everywhere we live and invite people to receive the
grace of living water in Baptism and other Sacraments. This is the way we can
succeed to break the barrier between Jews and Samaritans and all barriers that
continue to separate us from our fellow humans and from God.
Jesus opens the conversation with a simple command: “Give me a
drink”. The woman tries to stop the conversation with a question that has a
nuance of mockery and that highlights the irregularity of the dialogue: “How
can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (v. 9). She reminds
Jesus that from their backgrounds, they cannot receive things from each other. Consequently,
this conversation that Jesus is trying to initiate has no sense. A good
relationship is defined by the quality of the conversation. We cannot be good
friends if we do not talk. Jesus always initiates conversation with each of us
but sometimes we just shut him off as the woman of our story does. Many
Christians avoid occasions that offer the opportunity to be in one-on-one
dialogue with God. This is prayer. Let us love the time we spend with our Lord
Jesus at Mass, Bible reading, and personal or family prayer.
Jesus does not really answer the woman’s question of v. 9. Instead, through his statement: “If you knew
the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give a drink,’ you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”, he initiates two shifts. First, he
shifts the topic: from regular water to spiritual water which is mentioned here
as “living water”. Second, he shifts the roles that he and the woman play in
this conversation: Jesus who before was the asker becomes now the giver, and
the woman who before was the giver becomes now the asker. For these two shifts
to become effective, the woman first needs to know two truths: the gift of God
and “who is speaking to you”. (v. 10). These two truths are the two elements
that serve as the basis for the entire conversation. The first part of the
discussion focuses on “the gift of God” which is the living water (vv. 10-15),
and the second one concentrates on “who is speaking to you”, the divine
identity of Jesus (vv. 16-30). So, Jesus wants us to know that conversion that living
water (water of Baptism) leads us to is the gift of God; and that he is the
giver of this grace and the revealer of God.
She does not see Jesus with a bucket, and she knows that the pool
is deep; so, she wonders how Jesus is going to get the living water that he
will give to her. Notice her question: “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and
the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? (v. 11). The woman
is moving slowly in her journey of faith. Though she is still in a level of
physical thirst her faith in Jesus changes a bit. Previously in v. 9, she
referred to Jesus as a “Jew” but here she calls him “Sir”. Next, she compares
Jesus to their patriarch Jacob. At this point, she cannot go behind their
tradition which considers Jacob as the greatest because he gave them this pool
that saves their lives. She says, “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who
gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”
(v. 12). If Jacob is recognized as a patriarch because of the pool that gives
them ordinary water which makes them thirst again, Jesus invites the woman and
each of us to recognize him as our Lord because of living water that he gives
us through the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Communion)
and all other sacraments become in us a spring of water welling up to eternal
life. (vv. 13-14). Sometimes our traditions and understanding of things prevent
us from moving from what is material to what is spiritual. The woman is still in
a level of ordinary water and physical thirst as her reply to Jesus attests it,
“Sir, give this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here
to draw water.” (v. 15). While Jesus is trying to bring the woman to a
spiritual level, she bases her relationship with Jesus on physical thirst and
ordinary water. Like this woman, many Christians focus on materials in their
relationships with Jesus. They consider Jesus a physician to whom they consult
just when they are sick or to do checkups once or twice a year or whenever it
is needed. Jesus is considered a lawyer whom they consult just when they are in
trouble with justice. The rest of the time when they are good, they do not call
Jesus because they do not need him. Here
Jesus is inviting us to a spiritual level. Our relationships with him must have
a spiritual foundation. We come to Mass, we help the poor, and we serve him,
not because we want him to pay us back by satisfying our physical needs, but
because he is our Lord, and he already satisfied our spiritual need which is eternal
life that he gave us through his blood on the cross. The starting point should
be “Who is Jesus for you?” Is he the Messiah who came to free us from sin and
lead us to eternal life, or the man who just satisfies our physical needs? This
is what the woman will deal with in the second part of our Gospel story.
The second command of Jesus to the woman, “Go call your husband
and come back” in v. 16 switches the topic of the conversation from living
water to the divine identity of Jesus. The woman answers that she does not have
a husband. Revealing to her the secret
of her personal life, Jesus tells her that what she said is true because she
had five husbands; and the man with whom she lives currently is not even her husband.
(vv. 16-18). With this revelation, the woman calls Jesus a “prophet”. “Sir, I
can see that you are a prophet.” V. 20). Her journey of faith is progressing. She
moved from referring to Jesus as a “Jew” in v. 9, and “Sir” in vv. 11 and 15, to
a “prophet”. The five husbands of this woman that Jesus mentions allude to the
five foreign nations who intermarried with the Israelites who were not deported
to Assyria, and the five foreign gods that they worshipped. Let us keep in mind
that this woman represents all the Israelites. At that time, they worshipped
the five foreign gods, and according to Jesus, the current god is not a true
God. Note that the Gospels present Jesus as the spouse of the Church. Here
Jesus teaches us that he is the groom, and the Church is the bride. We, Church
members are called to worship Jesus who loves us.
Then the woman brings out the question regarding where to worship.
For the Jews, the only place of worship is the temple, on Mount Zion in
Jerusalem but for the Samaritans, the place of worship is on Mount Gerizim to rival
Mount Zion. You and I live neither in Jerusalem nor in Samaria. So, where to
worship God then? Jesus’ answer is clear. “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.” (vv. 23-24). The mission of
Jesus is to extend the salvation of the chosen people to all humankind. All of
us are saved through Jesus. We are the “new chosen people” of God and wherever
we are, our local Churches are the “Jerusalem Temple” in spirit. Saint Paul
confirms it in our second reading when he says that we have been justified by
faith.
In response to Jesus’ interpretation of the place of worship, the
woman connects what Jesus said to the coming of the Messiah who will explain
everything. She is the first one to mention the name “Messiah”. Then Jesus
reveals himself to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.” (v. 26). The
journey of faith of this woman comes to its fullness: Jesus is no longer “a Jew”,
nor “a Sir”, nor “a Prophet”, but now the Messiah. This faith makes her a
missionary. She left her water jar and went to announce her experience to the
townspeople. These people believed in Jesus thanks to the mission work of this
woman. However, her mission was just to invite them to do their own experience
with Jesus. Pay attention to what the Samaritans tell the woman which ends our
story, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” Our faith in Jesus as the
Messiah should make us the missionaries who invite our family members and
friends to come to encounter Jesus and do their own experience. Each one of us
should build our faith, not only on what our parents and other people tell us
about God, rather, especially on our own experience with Jesus.
The Bible readings of this Mass prepare the catechumens who will
celebrate the sacraments of initiation on Easter Sunday, and all of us who will
renew our Baptismal Promises at the same Mass. The catechumens as well as each
one of us are called to mature and strengthen our faith in Jesus who is the
giver of living water and the Messiah who came to free us from sin and give us
eternal salvation. Let us be prepared to become missionaries in Easter when the
catechumens are Baptized, Confirmed, and receive Jesus in Communion for the
first time, and when the rest of us renew our Baptismal Promises. Our mission
will consist of sharing with others the experience of our personal relationship
with Jesus and so invite them to come to encounter Jesus in our local Church
St. Bartholomew/Saint Augustine so they can start their own personal
relationship. May the remaining time of Lent help us to experience Jesus more.
Amen.
Rev. Leon Ngandu, SVD
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