Third Sunday of Lent
Reading 1: Ex 17:3-7
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Reading 2: Rom 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel: Jn 4:5-42
On the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent we have three stories from the Gospel of John that were presented in the early church to catechumens who were preparing for baptism: The Samaritan woman at the well; the man born blind; the raising of Lazarus. These gospels were used in the early church to help catechumens recognize the obstacles to faith and the power of Jesus to overcome those obstacles. In the modern church in the RCIA, these three gospels are presented in the “Scrutinies” on those successive Sundays, not only to bring catechumens to faith, but also to make us aware of obstacles to our own faith that we deal with during Lent in preparation for the Resurrection of Christ that we celebrate at Easter.
On the surface, it appears that the golden thread that binds our reading from Exodus and our gospel from St. John is water. But, more specifically, it is thirst; and not thirst in a physical sense but our thirst for God, which is initiated by God’s thirst for us. Today, we are presented with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well and Jesus’ interaction with her. But let’s deal with the Old Testament reading from Exodus first.
When we read the scriptures, we should always be looking for a hidden meaning behind the words on the page. What we read in our passage from Exodus is an account of the Israelites and their livestock in desperate need of water to keep them alive and to satisfy their physical thirst. But what we should see is God testing the obedience and devotion of the people. If we read a few chapters before this passage, we will see that this is the third time God tested their obedience and there will be many more tests before they reach The Promised Land. They had already witnessed the ten plagues that God brought upon the Egyptians through Moses that caused the Pharaoh to let them leave Egypt. They saw God, working through Moses, part the Red Sea so they could escape the Egyptians. However, in chapter 15 they grumbled because the water they found was bitter; but God made it sweet. In chapter 16 they grumbled because they had no food, so God sent quail in the evening and Manna in the morning to feed them. At these times they had great faith in God and in Moses to deliver them from the Egyptians and from the perils of the desert. But when hard times came upon them again in their need for water, they forgot what God had already done for them and they lost faith and began to grumble and complain against Moses. Is there a lesson here for us? How often have we thought to ourselves: “God, what have you done for me lately?” We are told this place was appropriately called Massa and Meribah – meaning the place of testing and quarreling. Because of their constant grumbling they wandered for 40 years in the desert learning to trust in God as their only source of life.
But the real story here is God’s love for his chosen people and the plan that He had for them. If God didn’t love them and have a plan for their future, He would never have delivered them from the oppression of the Egyptians; and all God wants in return for his love is to be loved, and to be obeyed. Does this Old Testament story apply to us? Through baptism and faith, we have been delivered from the oppression of sin and the desert of a constantly changing world that does not always share the values that we are called upon by God to uphold. But, do we always recognize the deliverance and salvation that God has given us?
In order for God’s plan to be fulfilled, the people must have complete trust in God, so God led his people through the desert for 40 years to cause them to recognize they are totally dependent upon Him – without God there is no food or water in the desert. And God’s plan for those people was that they were to become a nation of people that recognized and worshiped the one true God. God did not call the ancient Israelites to evangelize by proclaiming their God to the nations, but if they followed God’s law, God’s plan was to make them more prosperous than all the neighboring nations. They would then be a sign to those nations that there is only one God. Then, hopefully, those nations would turn to the one true God as well. That was the plan; Israel was to manifest, throughout the world, the presence of the one true God by loving and obeying that God.
So, in our story from Exodus, what we should really see is God reaching out to His people to answer their question: “Is the LORD in our midst or not?” (17:7). God must first satisfy their physical needs in a desert environment, where only God can provide what they need, so they will realize that He is their source of life, and will turn to Him out of love rather than out of compulsion, so that God’s plan will come to fruition.
On the surface, it would seem that God’s plan failed as the Israelites have not been the instrument of manifestation God intended. But there is plenty of prophecy in the scriptures that indicate that God’s plan hasn’t failed, it just hasn’t been completed yet. One of my favorites is Romans chapter 11, particularly verse 25 and following: “God’s Irrevocable Call.” History is not yet complete; stay tuned!
In our second reading, St. Paul reminds us that we, as Christians, have been justified by God through our baptism. But that doesn’t mean that we are automatically saved; we must also have faith in God and in His promises to us. Faith comes to us as a gift of the Holy Spirit, but it is up to us to accept that gift and to live it out in our lives. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21).
Our gospel passage from chapter 4 of John carries on the theme of God’s thirst for his people and his desire for their love in return.
In our gospel passage, Jesus and the disciples find themselves in a Samaritan town; a place no Jew would ever visit. The Samaritans were considered unclean by the Jews as the Samaritans were the descendants of Jews that were left behind when the northern kingdom of Israel was overrun by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. When the Assyrians imported Gentiles to replace the Jews that had been deported from the land, many of the Jews left behind intermarried with the Gentiles and in the Jewish mind nothing could make a Jew more unclean than to have relations with a Gentile. The Samaritan woman in our passage was considered ritually impure, and no Jew would use anything she touched, so she was astonished when Jesus asked her for a drink. For the Samaritan woman, the animosity between Jew and Gentile is an obstacle to faith. But Jesus overcomes that obstacle and she comes to faith. That’s the message for our catechumens and for us.
Notice how the woman gradually overcomes the animosity between Jew and Gentile as an obstacle to her faith in Jesus. First, she simply refers to Jesus as a “Jew.” As her faith grows, she refers to Him as “Sir.” Still further along in her faith development, she refers to Him as “a Prophet.” And finally, she asks “Could he possibly be the Christ?”
Jesus may be thirsty for a cold drink of water, but we see that he thirsts even more for the love and devotion of his people – ALL PEOPLE – even the unclean Samaritans. And He offers “Living Water” – The Holy Spirit — that will cause His people to thirst for Him.
This woman would probably have been considered a harlot in her community with five husbands and a live-in but, because of her encounter with Jesus who revealed himself to her as the Messiah, she became a missionary to her own people: “Come and see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” (4:29). The Samaritans believed “because of His word.” (4:41).
Another important point for our consideration is verse 22: “Salvation is from the Jews.” God’s plan of salvation for all people is to be carried out through the Jews “when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.” The Spirit is the Holy Spirit – the Living Water, “and indeed, the Father seeks such people to worship Him,” even the unclean Samaritans and those of us who have turned away from God through sin.
When we seek the deeper meaning in our readings for this week, we see that they are meant for everyone, not just Jews in the desert or unclean Samaritans. “The fields are ripe for the harvest” (4:35) and the disciples are sent “to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.” (4:38). Our Christian faith came from the Jews, so we are sent to reap just as the disciples were. May we drink deeply of that “Living Water” that we may live our lives so as to allow us to reap what we did not plant and share in the harvest.
