Lent Week 3 Sunday - A spring of water welling up to eternal life

Readings: Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42

As human beings we all want to find happiness and to rejoice in it. This might mean for some to have a nice house, for others to own an expensive car or to go on exciting holidays. But whatever we have or achieve we can often feel that it is never enough. There is always something better, something more desirable. We can be happy having achieved one thing but then quickly grow disillusioned and feel that we have to achieve something more, something else.

In today’s gospel, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman: Trust me, come to me! What I have to give, nobody can give you. He does not use these exact words instead he talks about water, about the mysterious “living water” and makes clear that everyone who drinks of it will never thirst. This is perhaps a good image for our lives for we are always thirsting but we are often misguided in our choices and so it does not take too long before the thirst is back, sometimes even stronger than before. But Christ tells us that if we attain our goal in him we will not have to keep on searching for new waters all the time. The Samaritan woman, like us, would be fully satisfied if she had this water, she would not have to go out to the well every day.

What are our wellsprings to which we go again and again? For many people it is simply the material things in life. For many others the source is a beloved person, somebody whom they can absolutely trust, a partner or a good friend. This is good and important; we need such relationships and they can truly be our oases in the desert. At the same time, however, we must realise that no human relationship is inexhaustible. There are limitations and failures to be endured. As sinners we tend to be self-serving, to take more care of ourselves than of others. Indeed, we might have been one of the “others” and experienced a bitter disappointment from somebody close, somebody in whom we trusted.

But more than any human friendship, we can trust in the friendship which Jesus offers us. We can trust in him without any reservation, for we know what his love for us is. As Christians we know that he lived his life for us and died for us. And we know that he rose from the dead and lives, so that we can, like the Samaritans, confess: “We know that this is indeed the saviour of the world”.

Let us in this season of Lent try to cultivate a living friendship with him. He is the wellspring of our life, of our love and of our happiness. We should not settle for the waters that do not quench our inner thirst, but embrace the water which he offers us, the water of his love. When we drink this water, it will become in us a living spring. We will flow over with love towards God and towards our neighbour.

This reflection is on the alternative Year A readings for the Third Sunday of Lent. For reflections on the readings of Year B see here and here.