In today’s first reading from Exodus, we see the Israelites journeying in the wilderness and complaining to Moses about being thirsty and hungry. They fear for their children and are tired of the long and arduous journey. Their Lent is very different from our Lent. As God’s chosen people, they are nearly ready to stone Moses and cast aside their faith, despite having witnessed the power of the Father who freed them from captivity in Egypt. Moses, along with the elders, journeys to the place called Massah and Meribah and strikes the rock with the same staff he used at Horeb. Water flows from the rock so that the people may drink.
The Gospel reading from John tells of the Samaritan woman who stops at Jacob’s well to draw water. Jews and Samaritans were deeply divided and hostile toward one another, almost like rival tribes that refused to associate. Jesus, knowing the depths of this woman’s soul, asks her for a drink of water. In her humility she is astonished that a Jew, and especially a Jewish man, would ask her for a drink. Jesus reminds her that it is the Holy Spirit who gives the living water, and that he himself is the source and fountain of that eternal spring. The woman desires this living water. When Jesus asks her to call her husband, he already knows that she does not have one. She has had five husbands, and the man she now lives with is not her husband. This reveals not only the disorder in her life but also the deeper spiritual reality that she does not yet worship the one true God, Yahweh. Yet this encounter transforms her. The Samaritan woman runs back to her town and tells others about this great prophet and rabbi, Jesus, who is the living water come down from heaven.
In the second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter five, we are reminded that we are justified by faith. Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, God’s love is poured into our hearts through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The responsorial Psalm calls us to harden not our hearts but to listen to his voice.
Like the Samaritan woman and the Israelites, we are called to search for the living water and not grow weary. It is easy to complain and to close our hearts when the journey becomes difficult. Perhaps, our Lenten season has taken a different path, and we have fallen off course. It is not too late to turn back to the path that Jesus calls us to walk and to quench our thirst with the living water from heaven.
This living water is the same grace we received at our baptism through the Spirit of truth, which makes us new again. Now is the time to return to the Lord in prayer and quiet trust, opening our hearts to his gentle outstretched hand and invitation. From the deserts of our own lives, only Jesus can satisfy the deep and unquenchable thirst of our souls.
Lord Jesus, you are the living water. Nourish the deepest well of our souls and strengthen us for this Lenten journey. Help us cast aside the distractions and shortcomings that draw us away from your living stream. Walk with us on the road to Calvary so that we may share in the glory of Easter with you. Amen.
StreetEvangelist 