The Living Water (HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent Year A 

Exodus 17:3-7. Psalm 95:1-2,6-7abc,7d-9. Romans 5:1-2,5-8. John 4:5-42.

Theme: The Living Water

It has been said that 80% of the make-up of the human body is water. That probably explains why the greatest need of the human body, perhaps next to air, is water. People can go longer without food than they can without water. If we had to choose between having light and water, it is most certain that most people would choose water. Water is that important. People will go to any length to get it.

Our readings today, especially the first reading and the gospel, are about water. We have all experience thirst; we know what happens to our fields when there is no rain. In the first reading, the people of Israel needed water during their sojourn in the desert. They were even ready to stone Moses because they needed water. Moses pleaded with God on their behalf, and God made water available for them.

Like Moses, we must always turn to the Lord, especially in difficult situations. God never abandoned his people.

In today's Gospel, the Samaritan woman came to draw water, and she met Jesus. Starting from the need for natural water, Jesus spoke of living water. Seeing Jesus in a public place with a Samaritan woman was seen as an abomination. Firstly, Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Today, it would be like a Jew in Israel asking an Arab stranger for a favour. Secondly, for a rabbi to be seen speaking to a woman in public was the end of the rabbi's reputation, yet Jesus spoke with this woman. Not only was she a woman, but she was also a notorious character. No decent man, let alone a rabbi, would  have been seen in her company, not to talk of exchanging words with her. An indication that to our God, no one is a write-off. Jesus came to call sinners back to repentance.

During the cause of their discussion, Jesus told her of another kind of water. He called it "living water." The woman came for natural water to sustain physical life. But Jesus was speaking about another kind of water, the kind that sustains spiritual life. This kind of water does not come from any well. It is not to be found in any river or sea either. That water is a person, and the person is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Living Water, the true Water of Life.

The knowledge of Jesus of this woman's marital state enables her to see Jesus as a prophet. So, she asks a theological question that divides the Jews and the Samaritans: "Where was the proper place to worship?" The Jews said on Mount Zion in Jerusalem where their temple was located. The Samaritans claim Mount Gerazim, where they had built a temple to rival Jerusalem's. They wanted to replicate another Jerusalem, forgetting that there could never be two Jerusalems. Jesus replied that the hour is coming, meaning the hour of his death, when people shall recognise that he is the Son of God. Therefore, people will worship at either place but in and through the person of Jesus himself. From that time on, true worship will no longer be centred in a place, but in the person of Christ Jesus in the celebration of the Holy Mass.

St. Paul tells us in the second reading that hope does not disappoint us. Humankind hoped in God to save them from sin, and this hope was not dashed because at the appointed time, Christ Jesus died for the ungodly. Hence, we should trust and be joyful because no one will be deprived of Christ Jesus the "Living water."

Jesus is for the human soul, what physical water is for the body. The body needs natural water to stay alive. In the same way, the soul needs Jesus, the "Living Water," to stay alive spiritually. Or, to put it differently, the soul that has Jesus is truly alive.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that if she asked, he would give her living water. We, too, must ask for this living water, which is Jesus. We must ask Jesus in prayer, persistently for this living water, because "everyone who asks receives" (Luke 11:10). The Samaritan woman eventually asked, and she received. She became the apostle of the Samaritans, the first to announce the Gospel to them, notwithstanding the fact that she had had five husbands, and the one she then had was not her husband. God certainly does write straight on crooked lines.

May God give us Jesus the "Living Water" to quench our thirst and give us peace, tranquillity of mind and body through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Happy Lenten season to you all