SUNDAY OF SAMARITAN WOMAN

3rd Sunday of Lent A : (Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42)
Theme: Journey from the Rock of hardness of heart to the Fountain of life (water), the Holy Spirit.
Reflection:
First Reading:
- The episode of the water from the rock in the desert teach us at least two things:
o To have perfect faith, from the part of the people, in the one who calls and guides
 It demands the adherence of the people to the word of God which calls them for complete trust and obedience till the end of their journey towards the Promised Land. Putting the Lord to the test with the grumbling and blaming is only ‘the loosing of asked faith in the moment of difficulties. Keeping oneself away from these external challenges and sustain the proper trust in the providence of God is the primary test of faith.
 It demands the adherence of the people to the presence of the chosen leader because God speaks always through the mediation (mediation may be of many modes). To murmur against the leader is to be against the will and purpose of the Lord. Keeping oneself away from these external forces and sustaining the proper mind and tongue in tune with the pleasure of the God is the second test of faith.
o God’s Doing is always marvelous and above the human understanding
 It is manifested in the rock which produces water by the command of the Lord, its creator.
 It is shown in the desert that has become the fountain, that is, the desert of life has become the fountain of life; the murmur of thirst of the people is turned into the joy of quenching.
 It is revealed from the fear and the worry of the people ‘from anywhere can we get something to drink?’ to the joy and tranquility of the people ‘from everywhere we can get water to drink only if we have faith in their God’.
- The episode of water from the rock reveals the principle truth that God himself is the ROCK on which people have to hold on, have to found their life, have to turn to for their energy and power.
o God himself is sitting on the rock: If we read carefully the test we will find the same words of God telling to Moses “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike on the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.”
o Few observations will help us to know the truth well:
 God himself is standing (so, not just the promise of presence but the real action of being present: standing)
 In front of you (so, not just the word/voice of God from somewhere unseen reality but the a reality being a real Guide. Here we can still develop the idea of ‘in front’ from various dimension of the Scriptures)
 On the Rock (so, not just presence on the rock but becoming the Rock itself/himself)
 At Horeb (so, not just the word/promise in the air or in the myth but in history: history of Israel).
 Strike on the rock (so, striking actually God himself who has become the Rock of Water, which means, seek on the Lord; lean on to the Lord for the help; touch the real, not the illusionary, rock or fountain. Rock becomes the fountain.
 People may drink – may not drink also - (so, water coming from the rock is sure, that is, grace gushing from the Lord is sure; it is up to the people to drink it or take from it; it depends on the personal choice of the one who is thirsty whether to accept the water or to reject it.
God is present in all the situation of the human life. He is present in various forms. He is the Rock of life for man. Only man has to accept him with total confidence and trust with careful observance of the mediation He provides with. That is the task of lent we need to take up for this week.

Gospel:
- Discourse of Jesus with the Samaritan woman:
o Manifests Jesus as the Fountain of Living Water
o Thirst of Jesus, not just for the water, but for the people who are in the desert of ignorance and non-acceptance of God and especially for the people who are away from God’s ways: in this context, the Samaritans (who are considered as the strangers and cursed by God). For, He says towards the end of the discourse, that his food (drink also) is doing the will of his Father (calling people into the fountain of truth).
o Jesus stands ‘in front’ (as God stands in front of Moses in the first reading) of the Samaritan woman as ‘the mirror’ in whose Image (of the Invisible God) she has seen her own life and its fall and hope to rise up.
o Jesus sits on the well (in the original terminology it shows Jesus sits on the fountain) which means He become the Fountain Himself; that’s the reason why, he then says following “the water He gives would become the fountain of living water”.
o From the ordinary needs of the food and water (the disciples went to buy the food; the Samaritan woman came to fetch the water) Jesus leads the woman (who stands for the man lost by sin and ignorance) to the Only Need of Living Water (only one thing is needed, that, Martha has chosen).
o It was in the afternoon:
 the time in which Jesus will one day pour out living water from the his side on the cross.
 Fullness of the day is the afternoon where the sun shines to the full and now the Sun of Justice shines fully in front of the Samaritan woman so that she could see her life in that powerful reflection (like the sun that rises).
o The passage from “Not-Knowing” to the “Full Acknowledgment and Acceptance” on the part of the people of Samaria.

Conclusion: we need to have the “stick of faith” (as in the hands of Moses to touch the Rock of Life) and the “bucket of hope” (as in the hands of Samaritan woman to fetch the Living water of life). In this lent we make the journey from the Hardness of our Hearts (testing God) to the Fountain of Life (Acceptance of the Truth and adoring God in Truth and in love).