Daily Reflection – Mar 19, 2017

Sunday 19 March 2017

First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7
Responsorial Psalm:
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel Reading: John 4:5-42

Today’s Note: Third Sunday of Lent

Gospel Reading:

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who 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 do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give 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 may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks 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 the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

Reflection:

Come see a man who told me everything I have done. (John 4:29)

Nobody likes admitting their sins. Whether you have broken a window or gotten a speeding ticket, you know how embarrassing it feels when someone points out what you have done wrong.

That’s why today’s Gospel reading is so striking. When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman about her sin, she didn’t respond in fear. She didn’t even seem ashamed. Quite the opposite, when Jesus told her that he knew she has had five husbands and was living in adultery with a sixth man, she was in awe. Their conversation then compelled her to run to her neighbors and tell them all about him.

Why did she respond this way? She was touched by the mercy of Jesus and transformed. Let’s look at how this happened.

First, Jesus reached out to her, and his love moved her heart. He knew everything about her, the bad as well as the good, and he welcomed her. He does the same for us. Before we even admit our sins, he knows them, but he never stops reaching out to us. He waits for us, just as he waited by that well.

Second, Jesus offered her living water. It’s quite possible that this woman had been living in guilt and shame. She likely came to the well at midday to avoid meeting everyone else, who would draw water at a cooler hour. But Jesus saw her as a child of God who needed to be set free. He offered her his love and presence, the water of life that would fill her and change her. And it did—she left her water jar behind because her encounter with Jesus gave her a new source of life.

Jesus is ready to fill you with the living water of the Holy Spirit today. He is reaching out to you with compassion. Ask him to fill your heart and change your life.

“Jesus, thank you for welcoming me. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, and change me.”