Third Sunday in Lent
Intro: Deep within ourselves, we all experience a hunger, a thirst for love. Life without love can seem like a desert. In the Gospel, Jesus changes the lonely, loveless existence of a Samaritan woman. Through today's Eucharist, may we also encounter God's life and love.
Readings: During their period of wandering in the desert, the Israelites' raging hunger and thirst caused them to become bitter and rebellious against God. 1n spite of that, He continued to provide for all their needs, and satisfied both their thirst and their doubts.
Writing to the Roman community, Paul summarises his thoughts on justification by faith: the proof of God's love is that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners.
Exodus 17: 3-7;
Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8;
John 4: 4-5, 15, 19-26, 39-42;
As Catholics, I think we were always taught to be a bit frightened of God - if it's enjoyable, it must be wrong; we’re sinners, and unless we get our lives sorted out then we'll go to hell for all eternity. We tend to see God as an avenger, or a strict lawgiver. But today's readings paint an entirely different portrait of God. When He's faced with the sins of humanity and the grumbling people of Israel because of a water shortage (something which exercises the mind of Jews and Arabs to this day - it's said that the next war in the Middle East won't be over territory but water) they might have expected retribution. '
Women play a central role in St. John's Gospel: Jesus' mother launches Him in His public life at Cana; Martha affirms Him as the Christ; Mary Magdalene is the first to see and greet Him after His resurrection.
When two people meet for the first time, they can very quickly be overwhelmed by the real diifferences between them. In today's dialogue, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well in the heat of the noonday sun. On several counts, that in itself is unusual, to say the least. Her role begins as an outsider, a foreigner, an outcast.
She's got through five husbands now living up with a sixth man; she comes to the well at midday, when no one else would be there because of the heat and also because it would be almost unheard of for any unaccompanied woman to engage in conversation with a man, much more so for a Samaritan, to engage in conversation with a Jew. Initially, she speaks mockingly to Jesus, expecting Him to belittle her, she certainly doesn't anticipate His courtesy and respect any more than she foresees His summary of her failed relationships before finally expressing her longing to never again have to brave the gaze of hypocritica1 townspeople in her search for water.
But then Jesus takes the conversation to a different level: He offers her living water; He goes beyond discussing where worshippers should worship before finally revealing Himself as the Messiah to this outsider! And so, through her conversation with Jesus, she becomes an insider as Jesus fills her heart with the courage to reach to the people around her. The woman rushes away to invite her neighbours to come and see the one who had touched her so deeply.
We all need to love and to be loved. Jesus never promised that woman that she would never have to come to draw water again. But He did offer her a new life, and the hope which could be born through making a fresh start.
As we journey through Lent, let's pray that we'll have the same enthusiasm and passion for sharing the Good News with our neighbours by showing through our acts of generous compassionate forgiving love, that God is very much present in our lives too. And when we can talk about a God Who knows everything we've everdone, and yet still insists on loving us, even when we feel undervalued or even worthless then we too must realise that God values us all.
We all need to love and to be loved. The Samaritan woman understood what that meant -to be wanted, to be cared for when no one not even herself, could see anything of value in her.
Intercessions
Jesus offers living water to those who are thirsty. Today, let's place before a loving God the hunger of our world, of our Church and of ourselves to become one again with Him:-
1. For the Church. Through a faithful proclamation of the Gospel and its values, may She continue to be the means of salvation for all people - Lord, hear us.
2. For those in the Third World who know only thirst and poverty of both body and spirit. May the rich nations of the earth listen to their cry for help and resolve to act in a concrete way to alleviate their misery - Lord, hear us.
3. For those still struggling with their faith because of their past. Strengthen them through the gifts of Your empowering Spirit - Lord, hear us.
4. For ourselves. Help us lose our preconceived notions of others so that we may walk together as insiders on the same journey of faith - Lord, hear us.
5. For Peter Smith and Josephine McCormack who have died recently, and for the anniversaries of Paddy Downey and Jack Ferguson. Satisfy their thirst for Your presence by welcoming them into Your Kingdom for all eternity - Lord, hear us.
Lord, we bring You our prayers as we bring You ourselves. Make us true witnesses of Your love.