3rd Sunday of the Lent

Homily

"The Lord, is He in the midst of us" was the cry of the people. Each time we are tested, or in difficulty, we put the Lord and his providence into question. Since our memory is very short that we forget all the wonder that the Lord has done for us. Yet God in His mercy and generosity forgets the quarrel that we have with the Lord and brings peace and resolution to the people, a people He loves. The prophets and the elders constantly recalled this divine fidelity by placing before God their supplications in the name of this unfaithful people. God again and again demonstrates his love and faithfulness.

It is not the people who chose their God, but that God of mercy who has chosen this people and made them a great people, a great nation, as He promised to His servant Abraham. He continues to seek this people, the lost sheep. In today’s gospel we are given this divine encounter with a Samaritan woman next to a well, well of Jacob. Very often in the Old Testament, this meeting around a well ends with a plan of marriage, an alliance. What is this project that Jean proposes to us in this meeting?

If we look at the titles attributed to the Lord, we can easily recognize the divine plan in this encounter. John presents Jesus as a weary Jew, tiered of walking, so tired that he sends his disciple to buy something to eat. Jesus is presented as a Jew (of 9) becomes a Lord (11,15,19). This Lord gradually becomes a man, then Christ (25, 29) at the end Rabbi (31) and the saviour of the world (42). These titles show us the revelation of the person, a true Christology, in which man discovers little by little Christ, the Saviour of the world. The gospel reveals the identity of Jesus to this Samaritan women. The one who is thirst is the same person who will quench her inner thirst, not only personal liberation and peace, but also the thirst for the real God, real adoration, the true adoration that God likes.   

We must not forget the vocabularies or the verbs that are repeated several times. The word 'give, gift' repeats 7 times and the word 'water' repeats 7 times. The living water is given, to save the world. Jesus is the giver.  The girl who was thirsty for this Living Water is satisfied with a new life, a life of faith in Jesus Christ. Through this woman, and with her, a project of conversion, well prepared and executed by God, where Christ will make an alliance with this people in her, the people who believed in her, a sinful woman. She is someone special in the eyes of the Lord.  We see very clearly the revelation of the Lord, a very special revelation, "I am" which has never did to anyone, not even to his disciples. All the Christological revelations were done by the Holy Spirit and the Father. Here Jesus himself will affirm that He is the CHRIST that she searches internally.

The woman who represents all of Samaria will worship Christ in Jesus, in the Spirit and in the Truth. Christ, greater than others, (like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) will become the true Temple, which deserves adoration. By his presence He will overflow the water, the living water, by which the man who drinks this Living Water will never again be thirsty.

The hour has come to reap, a moment of joy. There is joy, for there is a leaven to reap. And the fruit of this meeting is the conversion of the people of Samaria. They say and proclaim clearly their profession of faith, "we believe." Thus we see a project emerging in this encounter, a project of marriage, an alliance that Jesus made with this people. It was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria, an obligation for the salvation of this people.

Jesus was 'thirsty', and still is thirsty for our conversion and reconciliation. This redemptive desire of Jesus who is "thirsty" is, today "thirsty" for our faith. May the Lord bless you, Amen.