Mar 15 2020 Reflection

Sunday 15 March 2020

First Reading: EX 17:3-7
Responsorial Psalm:
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: ROM 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel Reading: JN 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

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.

“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 who is speaking with you.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him.
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:

Give me a drink. (John 4:7)

Jesus and his disciples had been walking all morning. Now the sun was high in the sky and burning down on them. They were hot, dusty, and thirsty. As Jesus sat down next to Jacob’s well, he was probably looking forward to a cool drink of water. 

But when he asked a Samaritan woman who had come to the well to give him a drink, more was going on than Jesus just looking to quench his physical thirst. As St. Thérèse of Lisieux wrote, “When he said, ‘Give me a drink,’ it was the love of his poor creature that the Creator of the universe was seeking. He was thirsty for love.”

We might wonder why. 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. 

So give Jesus the “drink” he asks for. Even if you feel no differently while you are praying, believe that you are delighting Jesus by your presence. Remember, he enjoys being with you! Believe too that as you sit with him, he is giving you the “living water” that will fulfill your deepest needs and desires, the water that is “welling up to eternal life” (John 4:10, 14).

“Jesus, may I thirst for you as you thirst for me.”