The Third Sunday of Lent
Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2 & 5-8; Jn 4:5-42 (year a)
‘Tormented by thirst, the people complained to Moses: ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Was it so that I should die of thirst, me and my children too, and my cattle?’ ”
Hunger and thirst are the powerful biological imperatives that drive our physical survival. Without water, we die. Without God, our inner spirit withers and dies.
Throughout the Scriptures hunger and thirst have come to express a fundamental longing for God. Thus the Scriptures for the Third Sunday of Lent invite us to examine the longings that dominate our lives. What do we thirst for, and where is that thirst leading us?
The Exodus narrative describes a people tormented by thirst, complaining against the God who had led them to destruction. In their thirst they had forgotten the God who had delivered them from slavery and was leading them to freedom. They complained and rebelled. Theirs was a truly desperate plight. We, in our frailty, turn from God to satisfy more superficial longings.
The water, issuing from the rock revealed to Moses, was a reminder that God alone is the lasting satisfaction of every thirst and hunger. “The place was named Massah and Meribah because of the grumbling of the sons of Israel and because they put the Lord to the test by saying, ‘Is the Lord with us or not?’ ” Our Lenten repentance should not neglect to examine our petty grumbles, and the thirst that drives them.
The encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well revealed his longing to engage with our lives. For the woman, a Samaritan, there was every reason to shun Jesus, a Jew. For Jesus, there were no such barriers.
Let us never fear that past sin separates us from God. He longs to engage us as he engaged with the woman at the well. As he gently disarmed her reluctance, so he disarms our deepest fears. Revealing himself as the living spring of water welling up from within, Jesus identified himself as the only lasting satisfaction in this woman’s hitherto colourful life. “Anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again.”
Following their conversation, the Samaritan woman, and her townsfolk, begged Jesus to stay with them. During Lent let us pray for a thirst that begs the Lord to remain with us.
