III LENT SUNDAY - John 4:5-42
During Lent, the catechumens receive the final preparation for baptism, with the last Sundays dedicated to deepen the encounter with Jesus and to reflect upon the mystery of salvation in Jesus Christ. The gospel readings for the last three Sundays will come from John. In this third Sunday of Lent, we read about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, at the well.
It is interesting that the women play an important role in the Gospel of John. At the wedding of Cana (Jn 2:1-11), Jesus started his public ministry at the request of his mother. And she appears as well at the end, near the cross. In between, we have the Samaritan woman (Jn 4:5-42), the woman caught in adultery (Jn 8:3-11), the profession of faith of Martha (Jn 11:27), the anointing by Mary (Jn 12:1-8). After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene (Jn 20:11-18)
Like the woman who went to the well to fetch water, we may misunderstand the meaning of living water. Being pressed by our earthly needs, we may no pay attention to the deeper needs of our heart and our soul. We are thirsting for peace and love, and for life. Only Jesus can give us the water that quenches this thirst. The living water is not something that we can get on our own. It is a gift, God’s gift given to us by Jesus Christ. It is the gift of salvation, the gift of life, a boundless life received from God, which comes to us in the Spirit. This living water is the Spirit that creates us anew and makes us into children of God. This is a gift that we share, and the more we share, the more it becomes stronger in us. That’s why the woman rushed to her hometown, calling people to Jesus so that they could receive as well the water of life from him.
During the conversation, the woman put forward the division between Jews and Samaritans about the place of worship. Jesus answered back that God wants a worship done in spirit and truth, and that kind of worship can be done anywhere. We do not need a temple or a sacred place because we are the temple (1 Cor 3:16-17) and our lives must become a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God. True worship comes about when we allow God to be everything in us, so that God may manifest his presence and his action in us (Ro 12:1).
During his public ministry, Jesus concentrated his activity in Galilee and Judaea, but he showed that his message was open to all. That’s why he passed through Samaria, being ready to preach the Gospel to the Samaritans. He does not exclude anybody. In fact, it is to a Samaritan woman that Jesus reveals himself clearly as the Messiah. The woman, after recognising the Messiah, could not keep the secret for herself, but she felt the urge to share it. And the people of Sychar invited Jesus to stay with them and preach to them the Good News. In the end, they told the woman: “Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.” (Jn 4:42)
Like those Samaritans, we need to hear for ourselves, that is we must make our personal encounter with Jesus so that our faith is not from hearsay, but from an inner certainty that comes from welcoming Jesus into our lives.
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