LIVING WATER
Happy 3rd Sunday of Lent. Hope that you are making good progress in your Lenten spiritual disciplines & you are drawing closer to the Lord Jesus.
For the next 3 weeks, the Elect preparing for baptism will be celebrating the 3 Scrutinies. Here, the whole community of God at the Sunday Eucharist will be praying for them to have a deeper spirit of repentance, to be delivered from the slavery to sin, to be healed of their infirmities & sickness, & to find the true peace that Christ alone can give. I’m thus prompted to base the reflections today (& the next 2 weekends) on the Year A Readings that are proclaimed during the Mass when the Scrutinies are celebrated. We are praying that you, too, our reader will allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to a deeper conversion to Jesus, & heal, strengthen & renew you as you read the Word.
Today’s readings speak to us about living water. In the Gospel of John Chapter 4:5-42, we read about Jesus and the Samaritan woman. She comes to the well at midday, the hottest time of the day, to draw water. Why at this odd time? Likely because she wants to avoid the other women of the town who dislike & shun her, disapprove of her & are critical of her lifestyle. (We can really see cancel-culture at work, even in those ancient times).
Jesus sees her hurt & the shame she is living under & reaches out to her. He recognizes the thirst in her heart for love, acceptance & peace. He promises to give her water so that she will never thirst again, the living water that will become a spring within her, welling up to eternal life (cf John 4:14). He leads her down the path to conversion & faith & finally reveals himself to her as the Messiah. She was so filled with hope & joy that she ‘put down her water jar’, signifying the break from her past wounded & sinful life, & went back to the town to tell others of Jesus. Through her conversion & testimony, many came to believe in Jesus.
What about you, my brother or sister in Christ? How do you feel when you hear today’s Gospel? What are you truly thirsting for? For Love? Acceptance & Understanding? Forgiveness? Peace? Kindness & Compassion? Healing? Restoration?
Go to Jesus – drink deeply of the living water that Jesus gives. He quenches the deepest thirst in your souls, as we see in today’s Gospel & also in a later chapter, John 7:37-38, where he says ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.”
The rivers of living water referred to in John 7 is the Holy Spirit (cf John 7:39). Today’s Second Reading from Romans 5:1-2,5-8 tells us that “the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.” (cf Romans 5:5) This life-giving water, the Holy Spirit, fills our hearts with God’s everlasting love for us. Let God’s love saturate our souls, quench our thirst, cleanse us from sin & lead to the heart of Jesus, where we can joyfully draw water from the wells of salvation (cf Isaiah 12:3).
Finally, are you willing, like the Samaritan woman, to ‘leave your water jar’ behind? To repent, be converted & change your life? To say ‘Never Again!’ to sin & instead to say ‘Jesus, I believe in You, I trust in You!’? And to share with others how Jesus has healed & saved you?
Here’s a great hymn called “Flow River Flow” for your use to pray, reflect & be immersed into the streams of living water.
https://youtu.be/BXDIPhtmSCE?si=wDvCAINwYWZjpiWl
Article by Damian Boon, HFC Blog Team Lead