3rd Sunday of Lent
12th March 2023 (Sunday) Readings and Reflection
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Reading of the Day
First Reading: Genesis 12:1-4a
In those days: The people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock 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 staff 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, and the people will 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 quarrelling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (R. see 8)
R/. O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts.
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Brethren: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person- though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Gospel : John 4:5-42
At that time: Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came 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 for a drink from 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 water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will 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, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people 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 is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people 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 tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." Just then his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour." Many Samaritans from that town 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 what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world."
Daily Gospel Reflection
The Reflection by Fr. Thumma Mariadas Reddy MSFS{alertWarning}
Main Theme: Thirst for the Living water!
Indicative: The real value of life and faith is in travelling constantly from the natural and superficial thirst to crucial and spiritual thirst{alertSuccess}
1. There is an elaborate episode of a Samaritan woman in John chapter 04. It is a dramatic interplay and interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. It is a beautiful description and depiction of the encounter between the unquenchable natural "thirst for water" and the quenching supernatural "living water", Jesus.
2. Jesus takes the initiative to approach the woman and gradually and steadily leads and raises her from the level and realm of the natural to the spiritual: from Jacob's well To the Well of God's own grace, from the natural water To the water of the Holy Spirit
3. It is a transition from the natural thirst To the spiritual thirst, from worshipping God in some places like Jerusalem or elsewhere To worshipping Him in Spirit and truth, from a temporary satisfaction of quenching the thirst To the perpetual fulfillment of quenching the eternal thirst for salvation and eternal life.
4. It is a decisive leap from a simple respect toward Jesus as a man of God To the profound realisation and homage toward him as the Messiah and Son of God, from a humble openness through an honest acknowledgement of one's own sinful situation To a profound acceptance of the Saviour, from an ordinary struggle for the worldly needs and interests To the noble striving for God's will, which becomes the "food and drink".
5. Once again, in Jesus we witness God's unquenchable thirst to grace and uplift the fragile and low human condition. Jesus initiates the Samaritan woman on a progressive journey of realisation of self and God. This is a touching journey of harmony of self-discovery and self-realisation and God-discovery and God- realisation.
6. This encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is not merely an encounter between two individuals. Rather it is a constant encounter between the divine and the human, between the divine initiative and the human acceptance, between the divine gift and the human reception, and between the divine operation and human cooperation.
7. One who is humble and transparent to be with Jesus, to enter into dialogue with him, to listen to Him and to follow his direction, will surely be led to discover one's own sinfulness and thereby discover and adhere to God's holiness and goodness.
8. The woman who begins with a mere concern for water, climbs up to the deepest desire for living water. She is led to surrender her life to the Messiah and to become an earnest evangeliser bringing others as well to Jesus.
9. Docility to God, awareness of one's sinfulness, awareness of God's sanctity and might, bearing witness and mission to others - these are the essential ingredients of the journey of faith.
Imperative: Only an unquenchable thirst for God and for His grace can quench the deeper thirst of the human spirit{alertSuccess}