By Fr Francis Gonsalves, SJ –
Third Sunday of Lent – March 15, 2020
Readings: Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42
“Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty” (Jn 4:14)
Prologue:
Water is a rich biblical symbol: (a) cosmic waters in Genesis; (b) flood waters in Noah’s time; (c) miraculous parted waters of the Red Sea and from the rock in Moses’ time; (d) Jordan’s water at Jesus’ baptism, Jesus as Lord of the sea and his encounter with the Samaritan woman, (e) Water and Spirit, etc. Water can be used to connect the readings to stress human thirst and its ultimate satisfaction only in God.
Three Scriptural Signposts:
- There are three givers of water in today’s readings: Moses, the Samaritan woman, and Jesus. Each of them satisfies a thirst. However, while the former two can only quench human, natural thirst, Jesus leads those who are thirsty much deeper—to drink supernatural water from wells that will never ever run dry. He is obviously referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit and to life in the Spirit. Today’s first reading opens up with the complaints of the Israelites, murmuring against Moses at Massah and Meribah. After their eventful escape from Egypt, they begin their murmuring.
Earlier, they complained about food and got bread from heaven: manna (Ex 16). Today, they complain about drink and get water. At God’s instruction, Moses strikes the rock and out flows water! Etymologically, Massah means ‘temptation’ and Meribah, ‘strife’. Psalm 95 (vv.8-9) cautions believers about putting God to the test by quoting the experience of these two places. Through this episode, while Moses emerges as a God-fearing and faithful leader, the people’s faith proves to be fragile as echoed in their doubting: “Is the Lord among us or not?” (v.7).
- The gospel reading is a rich narrative of how Jesus ‘converts’ a Samaritan woman, so to say, from being a despised woman to an effective evangelist. This encounter is somewhat shocking because of the socio-religious overtones involved, which show us how far Jesus goes to break man-made socio-religious taboos and boundaries. In the Hebraic worldview, being a Samaritan was bad enough, being Samaritan-woman was worse; being a six-husband Samaritan woman was simply abominable!
Thus, since no sane Rabbi spoke to women in public, Jesus’ disciples were shocked to see their revered Rabbi befriending a Samaritan woman (v.27) in broad daylight—the sixth hour (midday), to be precise. However, Jesus does not alter his behaviour simply to please others; he rather strives to make people aware of their sins and shallowness in order to draw out their goodness and to take them deeper into life in the Spirit. Jesus’ dialogue with the Samaritan woman gives us a kind of ‘methodology’ to minister to people in need of God’s mercy.
- First, Jesus unsettles the woman by demolishing prevalent prejudices about Jew-Samaritan, man-woman, pure-impure. Second, starting with natural ‘well water’ Jesus takes the woman deeper by discussing supernatural ‘living water’. Water in the First Testament, especially ‘living’ (running) water, symbolizes either God’s saving gifts (Isa 12:3, 55:1; Jer 2:13; Ezek 47:1-12; Zech 14:8) or the Spirit of God (Isa 44:3). In John’s gospel, ‘living water’ specifically refers to God’s Spirit (Jn 7:37-39, 19:34) and this is repeated elsewhere in the Second Testament (Rev 7:17, 22:17; Heb 6:4). Thus, Jesus promises the woman nothing less than God’s Spirit. Third, sensing that Jesus has made a nonjudgmental surmise of her inner turmoil, the woman initially talks about temple-worship, questioning: should one worship in the temple built on Mount Gerizim when Samaria (the ten northern tribes) broke away from Judah around 931 BC? Or, rather, only in the temple at Jerusalem, which Jews believed was God’s truest dwelling place? Brushing aside unimportant questions, fourth, Jesus persists with his Spirit-discourse: “God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth” (v.24).
Jesus stresses the centrality of one’s disposition in worship, not the place; the internal, not the externals. Finally, fifth, Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah. Healed, happy and whole, like a river in spate, the water-bearer hurries to become a gospel-sharer. For John, the fourth evangelist, a Samaritan woman becomes the first evangelist—sharer of ‘good news’—since “Many Samaritans believed in Jesus on the strength of the woman’s testimony” (v.39). Interestingly, some biblical scholars also see Jesus of the Fourth Gospel as ‘The Bridegroom’ who lays to rest the restless heart of the woman who, having been married six times earlier, was looking for her 7th bridegroom— ‘Seven’ being the symbolic number of biblical perfection!
Linking the 2nd Reading to the Theme of Water and Life:
Paul—who confesses himself to be a sinner and a persecutor of the Church of Christ—has surely experienced the amazing grace of God, which made him move from being a tent-maker to a gospeltaker to the ends of the earth. He too uses a water-image to indicate the lavishness of God’s grace, given freely and generously. He describes the grace of salvation as a sharing in the glory of God, being: “God’s love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” This Spirit sustains, satisfies and sanctifies the world with Jesus as Saviour. The ‘pouring’ refers to the waters of baptism, too.
A Text from Catholic Tradition Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue called Jesus ‘The Bearer of the Water of Life’ in its 2004 document with the same title that teaches us that (n.5), “An invitation to meet Jesus Christ, the bearer of the water of life, will carry more weight if it is made by someone who has clearly been profoundly affected by his or her own encounter with Jesus, because it is made not by someone who has simply heard about him, but by someone who can be sure ‘that he really is the saviour of the world’. It is a matter of letting people react in their own way, at their own pace, and letting God do the rest.”
An Appropriate Anecdote:
Centuries ago, a waterman used to carry water from the river to the king’s palace in two earthen pots – one perfect, another cracked – and was paid according to the amount of water he brought. Unfortunately, the waterman was poorly paid since much water leaked through his cracked-pot. Dejected, the cracked-pot cried, “Master, I’m cracked and bring you less money. Discard me!” The waterman replied, “No! Watch carefully!” Then, he took the two pots back to the river, filled them, and told the cracked-pot to look at the pathway on its side. The cracked-pot was surprised to see beautiful flowers beneath it. “See that?” explained the waterman, “I knew you’re a crackedpot, so I sowed seeds along the way. You sprayed water on them and made the pathway beautiful!”
Remember: You are I, too, are ‘cracked pots’. Let’s hand ourselves over to Jesus, The Bearer of the Water of Life, and He will ensure that our lives become fruitful and flowerful.
Fr. Francis Gonsalves is a Gujarat Jesuit, former Principal of Vidyajyoti College, Delhi, and currently Dean of Theology at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. He is also the Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. He has authored many books and articles and is a columnist with The Asian Age and The Deccan Chronicle national dailies.