3rd Sunday of Lent

1st reading: Exodus 17:3-7
2nd reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel: John 4: 5-42

In the first reading, we hear of one account of the Israelites as they are on the journey from Egypt, where they were slaves, to the Promised Land in which God was delivering them. The Israelites were thirsting so they grumbled against Moses asking "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?" Moses then went to God with this complaint and God said to strike the rock with his staff and water will flow from it. Thus God provided for the people.

The second reading we hear of the great promise of God to those who have faith in Christ Jesus: "Now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have gained access by faith to the grace in which we now stand, and we boast of our hope in the glory of God" The Apostle Paul proclaims that through Jesus, we have been given the gift of the love of God and we must have faith. This love of God is so great "that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" We were not cast off because of our sins, but rather God saw in us something of value worth saving.

The Gospel gives us the account of Jesus meeting the woman at the well and how he begins by asking her for water. Little did she realize that this request would change her life. She has appeared at the well at a time of day that historically most people would not go to draw water. Jesus tells her that he gives living water to those that seek him. Misunderstanding, she thinks that he is referring to the water that she was accustomed to that keeps her coming back to the well time and again" "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty: no the water I give shall become a fountain within him, leaping up to provide eternal life." After the woman's request for this water, he confronts her to "go, call your husband", but we find that she is living with a man who is not her husband after having five previous ones. Seeing that she is now cornered, she realizes he is a prophet so she brings up the division between where she and her people worship and where the Jews say to worship. Jesus tells her that "an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem...yet an hour is coming, and is already here, when authentic worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth." The woman then says she knows there is a Messiah who will come and "tell us everything". Jesus replied to her, "I who speak to you am he." She leaves her water jar, goes into the town, and proclaims Jesus to the residents. After an exchange about food, Jesus exclaims "Open your eyes and see! The fields are shining for harvest! The reaper already collects his wages and gathers a yield for eternal life, that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together." After coming out and seeing him, the townspeople come to believe also.

The first reading tells us of the grumbling and lack of faith of the Israelites. God has delivered them from slavery and possibly worse. However, they accused Moses of taking them out to die of thirst in the wilderness. Moses then takes the complaint to God who in return declares "I will be standing there in front of you on the rock of Horeb" and commands Moses to strike the rock. God was with the people, but they allowed their lack of faith to hide this from themselves. There was no gratitude and amazement for the wonders that God had done beforehand to bring them out of slavery. In a sense, they were still in slavery.
The Apostle Paul tells us of the grace that has come through Christ "while we were still sinners"...while we were grumbling in the desert because of the slavery of our hearts. Through this, God shows his love for us in that he still provides our needs even though we do not acknowledge it. This provision is Jesus! The woman at the well found that it is he who will set her free from the heartless "religion" that produced no change in her life. Her trips to the well at noon were to hide her sinful state from others, which in turn allowed her to continue in it, but enter the Prophet, the Savior. Jesus confronts her and his words convict her so she turns to the heart of the problem: how she worships. So far, she had not worshiped knowing the fullness of God's love, but Jesus now comes to her and reveals to her that he is what she has thirsted for all along. She leaves her old way of pointless worship, her bucket, after finding Jesus and proclaims him to the rest of her people.
Jesus is the water that we thirst for. He is always with us and we can trust in his faithfulness. He gives life to the way we are to worship and through this we can experience the the signs of grace of God that come through Christ.

"It is precisely in this that God proves his love for us: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!"