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Homily for Third Sunday of Lent

READ: (Exo 17: 3-7; Rom 5: 1-2, 5-8; Jn 4: 5-15, 19-26, 40-42)

REFLECT: Thirst for the living water, Eat the food of God and draw people closer to God…

Dear friends, today we are in the third Sunday of Lent. We all of us feel thirsty or hungry. We like to quench our thirst by water and fill the hungry stomach with food. They give us life, promote life, sustain and strengthen life. But the readings of the day invite each one to work for water and food that can quench our thirst and satiate our hunger for ever. This is the water that purifies and renews, the food that fosters our unity with God, others and oneself. So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection;

1.     Thirst for the living water:

We know that thirst is a sensation or a feeling of dryness in the mouth and throat where we feel a need or desire to drink water. We feel satisfied and contented when we cool the mouth, tongue or throat with water otherwise we have a feeling of discomfort, restlessness and breathlessness; it can even lead to a disastrous end of life. Such is the importance of quenching our thirst for water.

Something similar we find in the first reading from the book of Genesis, where Israelites begin to complain and grumble against God and Moses whether God had brought them out of Egypt to destroy with thirst for water. But God quenches their thirst as Moses strikes at the rock. Something similar we find in the Gospel reading. The Samaritan woman came to fetch water to quench her thirst and Jesus too comes to quench his thirst. The Israelites had thirst for ordinary water and did understand that God is the source of living water who can quench their thirst forever. The Samaritan woman too had come to fetch ordinary water that could quench her thirst and had not recognized that Jesus is the source of living water who can quench her thirst forever.

Both Israelites and the Samaritan woman had thirst for ordinary water but failed to realize and recognize that God or Jesus has or is the source of living water. Perhaps the Samaritan woman thought that the living water is at the deeper level or at the deeper source of the well. That’s why she asks, “Where do you get that living water,” and says “our father Jacob gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

Here, the Samaritan woman does not only fail to realize that Jesus is and has the living water but she does not even understand the living water that Jesus speaks about. The living water that Jesus speaks here is not the ordinary water that quenches our physical thirst for the mouth or tongue or throat but the living water, the spirit of God that purifies and puts us on the right track of life, the spirit of God that refreshes, renews and revamps the life in entirety as whole.

We also have reference in Jn 7: 37-39 where Jesus speaks of the living water, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,” and quotes the scripture “out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water,” and the following words we see “Jesus was referring to the Spirit, which those who believe in him were to receive.”

Yes, those who thirst for the living water or the spirit of God they would obtain life eternal. Most of us tend to look for the physical thirst that can be satiated or the thirst of the world, which is only temporary. We lose sight of and taste for the living water, the spirit of God that wells up joy, the spirit of God that leads us to eternal life.

Very aptly, Pope Francis says, “Jesus initiates a dialogue in which He reveals the mystery of living water to this woman, of the Holy Spirit, God’s gift. The focus of this dialogue is water. On the one hand, water as an essential element that slakes the body’s thirst and sustains life. On the other, water as a symbol of divine grace which gives eternal life. Further he shares that in the biblical tradition, God is the source of living water, but distancing oneself from Him and His Law brought on the worst type of drought”.

Today what makes us deprive of the living water or lead to drought of life is our distancing and alienation from God, by our sheer thirst for the world, its pleasures and values. Today let us pray to Jesus for the living water which will make us never to thirst for the worldly views and values but to thirst for God and for an eternal life with God.

2.     Eat the everlasting food of God:

We all know that Food is one of the basic necessities of life. It contains nutrition that is essential for the growth, maintenance of body tissues and for the regulation of vital processes. So food is something basic to us and we eat food in order to satiate or satisfy the hungry stomach. It is the inner urge, without which ordinary human life cannot be sustained or strengthened. Jesus considers God’s will and God’s work as his food, a substance or nutrition that sustains and strengthens his entire life. That’s why Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to carry out his work.” So for Jesus doing the will of God and carrying out God’s work were a basic urge or primary task.

Jesus states so emphatically about God’s will and work that by God’s grace and power Jesus could cross any limits possible to fulfill the will of God and carry the work of God. There are no social, racial, cultural, regional boundaries for that matter; Jesus constantly works for his food. We all know that Jewish people hated Samaritans; both of them did not agree with each other of the worship places that they held - to Jews Jerusalem temple in Mount Zion and to the Samaritans Mount Gerizim near Shechem. The Jewish people as per their culture and custom disapproved anyone talking to a woman in public, but Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman and crosses these boundaries to fulfill the will of God and to carry out the work of God.

Jesus did not worry about what the Samaritan woman or the villagers or the disciples would think about him for having initiated a conversation with the Samaritan woman. Jesus’ only concern was how he could do the will of God and carry out God’s work. The will of God and the work of God were aimed at to bring everyone as one family of God. Jesus knew the gap that existed between Jews and Samaritan because of their difference in worship places, cultural differences or opinions. Yet Jesus initiates conversation so that they also receive God’s word, participate in his mission under an umbrella called the family of God.

Today if most of us could consider our passion or profession as our food that sustains and nourishes daily life, I am sure we will be able to experience the sustainability and success, profit and promotion in life. Mostly, we just do it for the sake of doing or don’t take interest in doing or there is no single minded devotion and focus in what we do. As a result, we end up in failure or frustration. Today, Jesus reminds us to have a single-minded devotion for a cause and for desired results we want to arrive at. Jesus never turned away from the focus, he always held the will of God and the work of God as primary and kept close to his heart. So let us also have a single-minded focus to do the will of God and work for the glory of God. Surely, we would find success and satisfaction in all that we do.

3.     Draw people closer to God;

We are in a world where we look for impacts and confidence; impact so that people are influenced and impressed by our good actions and so can look up to us; confidence so that people can rely on us and believe in our abilities and capacities that we can do. So bringing people on a particular platform or gather them for a cause, we need to create an impact and give them the confidence that we would fulfill their needs and wants, desires and dreams.

The Gospel reading manifests to us such acts of Jesus. Jesus creates an impact and confidence in the life of Samaritan woman and the entire town. Inherently, Jesus had in him the thirst for the living water and nourished himself the food of God’s will and work. The thirst and the food in Jesus made the Samaritan woman and the entire town to come closer to God. Similarly, when in like manner we have the real thirst for God and consider God’s will and work as food, people will automatically be drawn closer to God, because, our real thirst and real food will make a difference to people who encounter us or experience us.   

Perhaps, before Jesus could reveal to the Samaritan woman that he is the messiah, she perceives Jesus as a prophet, because Jesus promises her to give the living water and reveals to her the past episode of her life-history. All the more, the moment she perceives Jesus as a prophet or as one who holds prominence in the sight of God, she begins to clarify about true worship of God.  Jesus makes a clear point that for true worship place does not matter but true worship of God is done in spirit and truth, thus reveals to the Samaritan woman that he is the messiah, the saviour of the world.

Pope Francis very well says, “Like the Samaritan woman whoever personally encounters the living Jesus feels the need to talk about Him to other so that everyone might arrive at the point of professing that Jesus is truly the Savior of the world. We too are called to testify to the life and hope that are within us.” Yes, our personal encounter with Jesus brings in a personal responsibility to share or make known Jesus to others. But for the personal encounter with Jesus, we need to let go all that is personal or special to each one of us. It could be our selfish ambition, desire or dreams, so that we can selflessly commit to Christ and his work.

An interesting fact is that it is not only because that the Samaritan woman’s sharing of the message that changed the lives of the Samaritan town rather they themselves heard and believed what was said by Jesus. That’s what we hear them say, “We no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the saviour of the world.”

Yes, the living water i.e., the Holy Spirit that Jesus had and the eternal food i.e., God’s will and work that Jesus shared with people brought many in the Samaritan town to believe in Jesus and come closer to God.  We represent today the Samaritan woman and the entire villagers. They did not know the everlasting water and food but having known or learnt from Jesus, they believed in Jesus as the saviour of the world to come closer to God. Similarly, we need to have the thirst for the living water and have in us the food of God’s will and work, so that many more people can be brought closer to God. For such an experience we need to have thirst for living water and food.

Today what makes us stuck or stagnant in a particular place is our attitude of not letting go or leaving behind all that alienates us from Jesus. Pope Francis very beautifully shares that the Samaritan woman left behind her water jar to speak with fellow villagers about Jesus after encountering Him. We too can find the stimulus to ‘leave our water jar,’ the symbol of all that appears to be important, but that loses its value before ‘the love of God,’” Pope Francis said. “I ask you, and I ask myself: what is your water jar, the one that weighs you down and takes you far from God? Let’s leave it aside and with our hearts listen to the voice of Jesus who is offering us another kind of water, the water that brings us close to the Lord.”

Yes, let us let go of all that hinders us to come closer to God. Let us leave behind our personal jars of water so precious and peculiar and mover towards Jesus the eternal Jar who holds everlasting water that can quench our thirst and the everlasting food that can satiate our physical and spiritual hunger in doing God’s will and God’s work.

RESPOND:

Do we have thirst for God, the living water the Holy Spirit which we have received in baptism and thereafter in all the sacraments?

Do we eat the food of God - God’s will and God’s work or do I crave for one’s own will and work?

Can we leave behind the water jars (one’s personal agenda or motives) that hinder us to move closer to God and draw ourselves and others closer to God?

Let us thirst for the living water – the Holy Spirit, eat the food of God – God’s will and work, and draw ourselves and others closer to God. Amen.

God bless us all! Live Jesus! 

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com

9500930968