March 15, 2020: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent; Year A

Readings: Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2,5-8; John 4:5-42

Jesus and the Woman at the Well.

“Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst!” This is a TV marketing campaign on Sprite. The ad calls us to drink to our fill, the sugared-up fizzy, lemon-lime beverage that, frankly speaking, is capable of killing us. Scientists warned in 2015, that fizzy drinks caused a death toll of 184,000 adults per year. Today’s readings speak of water and how important it is for life. The human adult body has up to 60% of water. According H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, the brain and heart are composed of 73% water; the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are 31% water. This explains why water is so important to us. The lack of it can cause death through dehydration. We need water for so many other things besides. The book of Exodus today relates how the children of Israel were disgruntled over their lack of water and how Yahweh heard their groaning and provided fresh water for them. Their ingratitude was met with God’s generosity in keeping to his promise. He chose them to be his own and he will always stand by them. As a reminder of their constant nagging and forgetfulness of God’s mercy and generosity, Yahweh called that place Massah, meaning testing place, and Meribah, meaning a place of quarrel.

In today’s Gospel from John, we see Jesus with a woman at the well in the heat of the afternoon. Jesus was tired and hungry from his journey. He sat at the well to rest and wait for his disciples who had gone shopping in the city. And there came the Samaritan woman. For obvious reasons, she went to the well in the afternoon to fetch water. Women usually go to the well in the morning and evening. She went in the afternoon, perhaps, to avoid meeting with other women; could be because of her life style. She may have been an object of gossip and ridicule in the city, as such, she tried to avoid other women as much as possible.

The Samaritan woman may have gone through a lot in her life and so was thirsty – not for water, but acceptance, love, meaning and happiness. She was lonely and tried to obey her thirst for anything. The men in her life did not satiate her thirst, she has had five already and the 6^th one was not her real husband. She tried to hide that fact from Jesus: “I do not have a husband.” She was a lost soul, but a very interesting one at that. She was suspicious of Jesus and his request for water, but she was prepared to engage Him all the same. She brought up issues of concern to her, even the racial and spiritual ones: “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” She challenged Jesus’ assumptions: “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?” She confronted Jesus’ claim and questioned his authority: “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flock?” She called Jesus’s bluff: “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” She stood up to Jesus on religious matters and put him on the defensive: “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.” At last, she capitulated after learning from Jesus; she showed that, though her moral life may not mean much, her religious knowledge was flawless, she was not without hope: “I know that they Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” When she heard that Jesus was the expected Messiah, she forgot what brought her to the well in the first place, she has now received the water of life: “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?”” She seemed to have said with the Psalmist: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My being thirsts for God, the living God.” (Ps. 42:2-3). She had a steady and progressive understanding of Jesus, from ‘Sir’, to ‘Prophet’ and finally to ‘Messiah’. she is now a disciple and ready to spread the good news of salvation. She is no more ashamed of being seen in public but was ready to face her future, knowing that the Messiah was on her side.

The encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well mirrors a process of coming to faith, underscored by the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The Samaritan woman was predisposed to receive the message of salvation; Jesus created enabling environment to bring that about. Today is first Scrutiny for those preparing to receive the Sacrament of initiation at Easter. The readings present us with the background that opens us to the Sacrament of Baptism. “Lent provides believers the opportunity to review their baptismal commitment. The Church community is making this Lenten pilgrimage alongside those preparing for reception into the faith. The waters used in their induction are the actual living waters Jesus shared with the now happy woman at the well.” (The Priest Magazine, pg. 51)  

Like the woman at the well, we are to be thirsty for the living water. May we come close to Jesus, listen to his words, receive him in the Eucharist and allow him to refresh us with the water of life in the sacrament of reconciliation. Though Moses struck the rock and water flowed for the children of Israel to drink, they were thirsty again. They failed to see the God who journeyed with them, every step of the way. They would soon find fault and grumble against God again and again.  May we not be quick to satisfy our thirst with anything and everything. It is not everything that will satisfy us. Like the woman at the well discovered, Jesus will always fill us with abundance, so that we will never be thirsty again. We must trust Jesus. Our thirst can only be satisfied by God. St. Augustine knew this when he said: “Our hearts are made for God, and they will not rest, until they rest in God.” Yes, our human hearts have spiritual thirst and we must satisfy them with spiritual food. The Samaritan woman was thirsty for love, understanding, peace, joy and community and she found all these in Jesus. “We are thirsty for joy, and happiness, and the greatest joy can only come from the freedom that Jesus gives us – freedom from fear, worry, anxiety.” (Ignite Your Spirit by Fr. John Pichappilly).  

Let us listen again to the words Jesus said to the woman at the well: “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.” Let me conclude with the prayer of the first scrutiny:

“All-merciful Father, through your Son you revealed your mercy to the woman of Samaria; and moved by that same care have offered salvation to all sinners. Free us from the slavery of sin, and for Satan’s crushing yoke exchange the gentle yoke of Jesus. Protect us in every danger, that we may serve you faithfully in peace and joy and render you thanks for ever. Amen.

Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP