Water of Eternal Life
Third Sunday of Lent (A)
For a shorter option of today’s Gospel reading, please visit: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings
Read this Gospel passage aloud to the family
John 4:5-42 - Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 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.— 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.” 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? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 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.” 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.”
Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 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.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” 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.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”
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?” The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. 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. The reaper is already receiving payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 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.”
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.” When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 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.”
(Parent) Reread this part a few times aloud
“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”
(Parent) Read this meditation aloud to the family
There are two very thirsty people in the Gospel passage today…but their deepest thirst is not for water. One of these people is a Samaritan woman. The other is Christ. The Samaritan woman is not presented very positively in this story. Samaritans were half-Jews who had mixed with and married people from other nations. Because of this, the faith of Samaritans was considered to be weakened. This woman’s faith is, perhaps, especially weak: she is all alone, and she seems to have lived a questionable moral life with many different husbands and men.
When Jesus says “give me a drink,” He is really thirsting for this woman’s soul. His desire, his thirst, is to fill her deepest needs, to quench her thirst. Looking at her life, we can assume that she is desperately thirsty: she is a part of a strange religion, all alone, possibly repeating the same pathetic sins over and again, feeling all the while completely unsatisfied. She is just like so many people today. She is just like us. Are we unsatisfied because, like her, we fill our lives with distractions and earthly loves? We will never be satisfied with anything—anything—but God. When the woman says, “Sir, give me this water” (John 4:15), she is asking for what we all search for: true satisfaction. In prayer, consider the ever-fitting words of St. Augustine: “You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions 1.1.1). Are we thirsty for true satisfaction? Jesus tells us that He Himself will satisfy us.
As a family, pray a portion of the Rosary together (very short if children are young) reflecting on the Scripture passage above. (Optional: allow a brief time for discussion or questions from children concerning their thoughts and prayer.)
Reminder for Parents: Pier is just meant to be a jumping off point. The real goal is that you pray & eventually use the fruits of your personal prayer as the content of your family’s prayer. Duc in altum.
Like Pier? Share it with others (via links below) / Subscribe to it (below) / Support (the mission)
