Third Sunday of Lent

“We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves…” – John 4:42

        The Gospel today is one powerful conversion story of a sinner — a Samaritan woman turned evangelizer — all because she witnessed Jesus face to face. By the strength of her word, though she was a known adulteress, people believed in Jesus because of her witnessing. Then they themselves heard Jesus and became witnesses, too.

         We cannot comprehend whom God can and will use to proclaim His message of love. At times, it comes from the most unexpected messenger.

       I am a sinner. Yet, I too am a preacher. Thousands of people regularly listen to me, and by the strength of the words that come out of my mouth, people believe.

        But don’t let people just dwell on your words, on your experiences, or on your witnessing. They too have to encounter Jesus in a personal way. So that in the end, they will say, “Now we believe no longer because of what you told us; we have heard Him ourselves.” And that’s when you become a true witness for Jesus. Alvin Barcelona (apb_ayo@yahoo.com)

When was the last time you let others be a witness and listened to their own personal encounter with Him? Dear Lord, I pray for the courage to be Your witness, in spite of who I am. Allow others to be witnesses too of how You love them so much.

St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, principal patron of Canada and the universal Church, pray for us.

There are times when we are ungrateful. Part of our faith is recognizing that we are indebted to God for His goodness to us. The other part of our faith calls us to respond to His generosity. How do you respond to His love?

3 In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!” 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.” This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. 7 The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

R: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

1 Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us joyfully sing psalm to him. (R) 6 Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us. 7 For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. (R) Oh, that today you would hear his voice: 8 “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.” (R)

Christian hope is to hope in something that we know in faith is going to happen. Christian hope is sure in its inevitability; secular hope is not. This is the meaning of hope that the Church speaks of.

1 Brothers and sisters: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. 5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

The end of this Gospel reminds us that we have faith not only because others have told us about Jesus, but because we have experienced His presence in our life. We must be open to experience God at work in us but we cannot rely on experience alone to validate our faith. We must seek God, the Giver.

Lord, you are truly the Savior of the world; give me living water, that I may never thirst again.

5 Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” — For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans. — 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 17 The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ 18 For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.” 27 At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, 29 “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and came to him. 31  eanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.” 39 Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” 40 When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 42 and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

think: Is doing God’s will as important to you as eating food?

Read the Bible in one year Genesis 16-18

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

FAITH IS ABOUT DIALOGUE

A daring story, this Gospel we read today. Why? First of all, Jesus dares to travel through Samaria, which Jews avoided like the plague. And secondly, He talks to a woman, at a well, in public — something no Jewish man would dare to do. Not even a husband was allowed to talk to his wife in public. No wonder that the disciples were shocked when they returned from the village to the well.

        The woman is an interesting personality. She did not just listen — she teased Jesus, she challenged Him, asked questions, and so little by little came to realize who was sitting there at the well talking to her.

        She shows us that faith is about dialogue, about growth and change. It is not about having all the answers. If we think we have all the answers, if we are content with what we have memorized in our Catechism classes, if we believe more in our own convictions than the possibility of revelation, then we have closed all doors to new insights which God has prepared for us.

       Like the Samaritan woman, we wonder if we will feel confident enough, secure enough, and knowledgeable enough to invite others to “come and see.” We will be forced to admit how many times we have overlooked opportunities for testifying about Jesus, the Savior of the world and all humankind, satisfied that “my Jesus is for me.”

        The Samaritan woman at the well is an example for us, because she responds to Jesus in such a way that leads Him to reveal His true identity to her, and in doing so, her own identity evolves. We learn from the Samaritan woman that in our own encounter with Jesus, not only are we changed, but that which God will reveal to us will change as well. And this experience makes us go and tell others that Jesus is their Savior, too. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

----------- REFLECTION QUESTIONS ----------

Do you know enough about Jesus? Or are you still open to learn more about Him and share Him with others?

Lord, please give me the openness of the Samaritan woman to be ready to learn more about You and then have the enthusiasm to share You with others. Amen.