THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
(Violet) Cycle A/Year II (March 15, 2020)
Ex 17:3-7/Rom 5:1-2, 5-8/Jn 4:5-42
GIVE ME SOMETHING TO DRINK!
Water is one of the most basic things here on earth. It is one of the four basic elements of the universe according to the pre-Christian philosophers. In fact, we see it in the biblical story of creation as one of the things from which the whole creation emerged and was formed. In human being, water comprises the major part of the body. Most probably, it is the reason why from time to time we definitely need water to quench our thirst. Certainly, deprived of water for some days, we will never live.
In the first reading for this Sunday, we see the need for water in an extreme way. The Israelites, who have been liberated by God through Moses from the yoke of the Egyptians, complain to Moses in the dessert for the lack of water, saying: “Give us something to drink! (Ex 17:2)” For fear that the angry people will kill him, Moses asks the help of God who commands him to strike the stone with his staff in order to create fresh water to drink.
In the gospel, Jesus meets and talks to a Samaritan woman in a well at noontime. This event reminds us of the past events in the Bible wherein a man encountered a woman in a well and then the man or the person he represented married the woman. This was what happened to Isaac and Rebekah (Gen 24), Jacob and Rachel (Gen 29), and Moses and Zipporah (Ex 2). Their love and marriage were born and developed in their meeting at the well.
Jesus says to the Samaritan woman: “Give me something to drink” (Jn 4:7b). This plea of Jesus, seen in a superficial way, is a plea of a person tired of the whole morning missionary activities and thirsty due to the scorching heat of the sun. But seen in its profound meaning, the plea of Jesus is not a plea for Himself but a plea for the Samaritan woman and the people in general. With those words, Jesus voices out the necessity of the whole humanity: the need for water.
“Give me something to drink.” Each of us thirsts for something and actually for things of higher values. We thirst for justice, understanding, love, peace, fraternity, and joy. Yet we wrongly address our problem with thirst because we fill our lives with material things and we focus on material success. That is why, the problem continues and we still long for the said spiritual values in life.
Jesus Christ offers us the Living Water when He says: “Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life” (Jn 4:13-14). Only Jesus can satiate whatever thirst we may have. Only He has the capacity to give us the spiritual values that we desire deep within our hearts. Only He can give us the true and eternal life because only He is the Living Water that is the source of life.
