Pastor's Message

3rd Sunday of Lent

“If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water.”   John 4:10

           “If you knew the Gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you the Living Water.”

            This Sunday, the Gospel reading reveal to us Jesus as the source of the living water. The reading is chosen to lure every disciple to thirst for Jesus, as it does the catechumens, celebrating the first scrutiny, as we implore God, for an abundance of his grace, on this final stage in preparation to celebrate the festivities of our salvation.

            Thirst is the starting point of today’s famous Gospel passage, narrating the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman.

            Human beings thirst! God thirst too! In the preface of the Mass today, the priest read, “So ardently did the Lord thirst for her Faith, that he kindled in her the Fire of Divine Love.”

            Jesus, tired from the journey, and thirsty, sits by the well of Jacob! The Samaritan woman, so tried by life, weighed down by the misery of her choices and terrified by the consequences of her sins, resolved to get to the well, at noon, when it was hot and therefore unlikely that anyone else would be there to see her!

            The Samaritan woman was desperate. She had been in six relationships and none of them fulfilled her. In Christ Jesus, she met the seventh man; Could she finally experience in him “the fulfillment” of her deepest longing?

            The Gospel reveals to us that her thirst for physical water turned to be a Journey of Faith, in which Her Messiah and Savior came to her and gradually revealed Himself to her.

           Jesus, is first described by the woman as just a man (sir), then as a Prophet, then as One who is to come and finally as the Messiah; “I who speak to you I Am He!”

           Notice that Jesus used the “I Am” revealed to Moses by God at the “Burning Bush.” - in Exodus 3:14! With this Revelation, the Samaritan woman was filled with Joy. Her fears and concerns disappeared and she turned a courageous proclaimer; “Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did!”

           The Samaritan Woman had completed her journey of Faith! She had journeyed from moments of no Faith, to moments of partial faith; To a moment of fullness of Faith!

           Her proclamation won her people to Christ, they too became believers; Listen to their Profession of Faith “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.”           

            Brothers and Sisters, we are illumined by the Spirit to know and acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and our Savior. He is the seventh man, who fulfills our soul’s desire. Jesus is the source of living water; our thirst is quenched at the awareness that we are the beloved of the Lord. Remember the words of St Paul in the 2^nd Reading “God’s Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” May we find joy and fulfillment in the realization that God our Father thirsts for us.    

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