The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to ponder Jesus' method of calling us from alienation to community through inviting us into a familial relationship with Him.The reading from the Book of Exodus describes God providing water from the Rock for the families of Israelites in the desert.
Family through time
* [17:7] Massah…Meribah: Hebrew words meaning, respectively, “the place of the test” and “the place of strife, of quarreling.”1
Psalm 95 is a call to worship and obedience.
* [Psalm 95] Twice the Psalm calls the people to praise and worship God (Ps 95:1–2, 6), the king of all creatures (Ps 95:3–5) and shepherd of the flock (Ps 95:7a, 7b). The last strophe warns the people to be more faithful than were their ancestors in the journey to the promised land (Ps 95:7c–11). This invitation to praise God regularly opens the Church’s official prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours.2
The passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans describes the results of our justification in Faith, Hope, and Love.
* [5:1–11] Popular piety frequently construed reverses and troubles as punishment for sin; cf. Jn 9:2. Paul therefore assures believers that God’s justifying action in Jesus Christ is a declaration of peace. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ displays God’s initiative in certifying humanity for unimpeded access into the divine presence. Reconciliation is God’s gift of pardon to the entire human race. Through faith one benefits personally from this pardon or, in Paul’s term, is justified. The ultimate aim of God is to liberate believers from the pre-Christian self as described in Rom 1–3. Since this liberation will first find completion in the believer’s resurrection, salvation is described as future in Rom 5:10. Because this fullness of salvation belongs to the future it is called the Christian hope. Paul’s Greek term for hope does not, however, suggest a note of uncertainty, to the effect: “I wonder whether God really means it.” Rather, God’s promise in the gospel fills believers with expectation and anticipation for the climactic gift of unalloyed commitment in the holy Spirit to the performance of the will of God. The persecutions that attend Christian commitment are to teach believers patience and to strengthen this hope, which will not disappoint them because the holy Spirit dwells in their hearts and imbues them with God’s love (Rom 5:5).3
In the Gospel of John, Jesus engages the Samaritan Woman at the well.
* [4:10] Living water: the water of life, i.e., the revelation that Jesus brings; the woman thinks of “flowing water,” so much more desirable than stagnant cistern water. On John’s device of such misunderstanding, cf. note on Jn 3:3.4
Edward Morse comments on the reaction of the Samaritan woman in today’s Gospel! She likely had a hard-knock life. She was getting her water alone rather than with friends, a sign of alienation within her community. This alienation led her to a unique encounter with Jesus. Jesus put some uncomfortable truths before her. Instead of making excuses or blaming others, she responded with openness. In doing so, she allowed the living water to enter and change her life.
Paul’s letter to the Romans further affirms the truth that we must hold: God’s love is poured out in our hearts to bring life to our thirsty souls. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When we forget God’s love, this sign reminds us. The Holy Spirit is at work within and among us to refresh this truth.
In this Lenten season, let us open our hearts to life-giving water. When uncomfortable truths emerge, let us respond with repentance, not excuses. And if we doubt God’s love, let us pause and recall the many signs that God has placed in our lives, the greatest of which is the gift of his Son to bring us life with Him forever. Thanks be to God.5
Don Schwager quotes “The Living Water of the Spirit,” by John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD.
Sometimes Scripture calls the grace of the Spirit "fire," other times it calls it "water." In this way, it shows that these names are not descriptive of its essence but of its operation. For the Spirit, which is invisible and simple, cannot be made up of different substances... In the same way that he calls the Spirit by the name of "fire," alluding to the rousing and warming property of grace and its power of destroying sins, he calls it "water" in order to highlight the cleansing it does and the great refreshment it provides those minds that receive it. For it makes the willing soul like a kind of garden, thick with all kinds of fruitful and productive trees, allowing it neither to feel despondency nor the plots of Satan. It quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one. (HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.1)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 4:5-42 asks why would Jesus desire the love of someone who was not only a Samaritan but who had a checkered past and was living with a man who wasn’t her husband?
Because that’s who Jesus is. Like the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus loves each one of us. No matter who we are or what our sins, he who is love cannot help but seek after our love. He thirsts for all of us.
So how do we quench Jesus’ thirst? By spending time with him. Don’t think of it as an obligation or duty, something you “owe” to God. Think of it instead as a time when you are letting Jesus get his fill of you. He loves you so much that he can’t get enough of your undivided attention. He loves you so much that he wants you to put aside all the other demands in your life for a time, go to a quiet place, and sit with him.7
Peter Edmonds SJ, a member of the Mount Street Jesuit Community, comments on the Third Sunday of Lent, we meet Jesus at a well in Samaria. He is on the mission given to him by his Father; his food was ‘to do the will of the one who sent him’.
At the well, Jesus meets a woman. We do not know her name. She came alone as if shunned by other women in her town. She refuses Jesus’s request for a drink. But Jesus insists that he has a gift for her, ‘living water’. In this Gospel of John, this signifies either the teaching that Jesus has to give, or the Holy Spirit, symbolised by the water that would pour out of his side once he had died (John 7:38; 19:34). Thanks to his patient conversation with this woman, she asks Jesus for this water. She also deepens her understanding of his person. He was indeed greater than ‘our ancestor Jacob’; he was a prophet and he was the Messiah whom she and her people were expecting. Convinced by Jesus, she rushed back into town and, now on a mission herself, she urged her people to come and meet Jesus for themselves.8
Suzanne Guthrie, at edge of the enclosure, offers a Meditation on the Well of Love, where the setting of a meeting at the well already implies a nuptial scene.
When John then puts the Samaritan woman and Jesus together at a well, the listener already “hears” Rebecca, Rachel, Zipporah, and the Shulamite “beloved” in the Song of Songs, as a gentle chorus behind the conversation. Some kind of irrevocable bonding will take place there.9
Friar Jude Winkler provides an extensive commentary on the connection of Moses punishment to the water from the rock and the symbolic role of the Samaritan woman representing half-Jews and pagans welcomed to Jesus community. Friar Jude reminds us that fields being white is connected to the white garments of the Samaritans.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments we have to remember that Jesus says nothing to us that he hasn’t somehow heard from God. Jesus is totally faithful to his relationship with God, whom he called “Abba.” It was because of the familial nature of their relationship that he was able to teach, heal, bless, and create the spiritual family we call the church. To be disciples of Jesus, we have to let ourselves be loved as he did. It is in receiving that love that we find our strength and power.
For Jesus, “discipleship” is about being in an intimate, loving, and challenging relationship, much like that between parent and child. There is a unique nature to the healthy parent-child relationship, and each person has a role to play. Ideally, the parent employs the gifts of experience and knowledge to care for, nurture, and protect the child. In turn, the child can depend on and trust the parent for sustenance, well-being, and guidance in a world of unknowing. Discipleship follows that sequence. First, we must learn how to be God’s children, allowing ourselves to receive love, to be loved, to be cared for, and believed in, so that we can be entrusted to go about our “Father’s business” as Jesus did (see Luke 2:49).10
The “living water” that springs from Jesus' invitation to meet Him in the intimacy of our family relationships refreshes our thirst as we model the Samaritan woman in announcing “Good News” to all.
References
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