Sunday 12th March 2023 Third Sunday of Lent

Exodus 17:3-7/ Psalm 94(95)/ Romans 5:1-2,5-8/ John 4:5-42

The readings today emphasise the importance of water. Not just the water we drink but the water of God’s grace poured out to us from the never emptying well of God’s love. Our physical bodies need water to drink to stay alive, our spiritual bodies need the spiritual water of God’s grace also to survive.

The question the people posed in the first reading was ‘Is the Lord with us, or not?’ We can be tempted to ask the same question especially when we look at the world around us or are going through trying times of our own. The answer to the question is yes, the Lord is with us. He is sitting at the well waiting for us to meet him there just as the Samaritan woman did.

The encounter between the Samaritan woman and Jesus is beautiful and should give us great hope in our own relationship with God. Jesus is present to us and ready to engage with us no matter who we are or what we might have done. Jesus meets us where we are in our lives just as he met the woman at the well.

Jesus broke accepted conventions in speaking to the woman at the well. It was not usual for a preacher to engage alone with a woman and, in this case, a Samaritan woman. The Jews did not associate with Samaritans who they considered to be heretics. Jesus was not concerned with protocols and pitiful human barriers, he is there for all no matter where they come from, what they look like or what they have done.

This encounter at the well can be likened to our encounter with Jesus in the sacrament of reconciliation. We come to confession seeking the cleansing water from the well of salvation. Jesus is sitting there waiting for us, willing to engage with us no matter how bad we have been. We are thirsty for the water of God’s grace to help us turn away from wrongdoing and start afresh. Jesus will give us the living water that he offered to the Samaritan woman. As it was for the Samaritan woman, every encounter we have with the Lord, from our Baptism, to Confirmation, each time we receive Holy Communion, or go to Confession, is a conversion moment. Every meeting with Jesus changes us and makes us ever more prepared to bring others towards him.

Jesus sees into our deepest being and, as with the woman at the well, he knows us through and through. Although we even hide things from ourselves Jesus sees all that is hidden. In Confession Jesus is with us as we examine our consciences, and he helps us see our own faults and failings. He knew very well that the woman had no husband because she had been in several relationships. It is for us to acknowledge our sins to ourselves so that we can face up to them and start to make efforts to address our weaknesses. God already knows where we fail but we have Jesus sitting at the well to give us the grace we need to try and sin no more.

During this Lenten time, we are called to seek the remedy for our sins through fasting, prayer and almsgiving. In going to confession, we join with the Samaritan woman who came to the well when, in her embarrassment, she thought no one else would be there. We encounter Jesus who is waiting to meet us and offer the cleansing water of mercy and forgiveness. Although bowed down by the weight of our consciences the living water of mercy offered by Jesus will lift us up.

Through the grace she received the Samaritan woman came to recognise Jesus as the Messiah. She then went into the town and proclaimed him to her friends and neighbours and many of them, ‘started walking towards him’. We are called to proclaim Jesus as our Saviour and through us people will start walking towards him. Some will come to believe through what we say and how we live but being drawn towards Jesus many will have their own encounter with him at the well hearing him for themselves and coming to believe in him through his words to them.

This is all summed up for us by Paul in the second reading extract from his letter to the church in Rome. Our hope in salvation, despite our failures, is not deceptive because ‘the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit’. This is the living water from the well given to us freely by the death of Jesus even though we don’t deserve it. As Paul writes, ‘what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners’. No matter how unworthy we might be or how weighed down in guilt we are Jesus is always there, waiting for us at the well.

God Bless

Brendan