March 23, 2014
Third Sunday of Lent
Thirst for Living Water
Jesus
has spoken to us today, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me
and to complete His work." Not only was the food of Jesus to do the
Divine Will of our Heavenly Father, but it was also to complete His work
and to persevere to the very end. The Words of Jesus echo our present
short-term perseverance. Entering the third week in Lenten Season, we
are making every effort to persevere in our effort to do the will of God
preparing ourselves through our fasting, penances and prayers. By the
grace of God thereby we shall achieve the fullness of our discipleship
so that we may be one with Jesus as He is one with the Father.
Today may be termed as the Sunday of readings on water. First
Reading from the Book of Exodus was a prophetic picture of what was to
come through Jesus Christ. It consists of one of the three events found
in the Old Testament that speak of people thirsting for water. The first
event took place in Mirah where Moses turned bitter water into sweet
water. The second event, the one that was read today, took place at
Rephidim. Being without water, Moses was commanded by God to take the
elders with him and to strike the rock with the staff bringing water out
of the rock. The third event took place at Kadesh in the Book of
Numbers where once more Moses was commanded by God to assemble the
congregation and to command the rock before their eyes to yield its
water. As biblical history tells us, Moses struck the rock twice and
disobeyed the Lord and he was punished by not allowing him to enter the
Promised Land.
Today's
Second Reading informs us that God's love was poured into our hearts by
the power of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us through Christ.
The Divine love of God assures salvation to those who are justified.
Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Through peace with God, our reconciliation replaces our
alienation that was caused by the disobedience of Adam. We obtained our
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ alone because "there is
only one Mediator between God and humankind" in the Divine Plan of
Salvation.
Today's Gospel Reading echoes the First Reading. Jesus
thirsts and asks a woman of Samaria for water. After much questioning
and arguments, the woman undergoes the process of conversion enabling
her to carry home the living water instead of water from the well. What followed was a conversion after Jesus revealed her the hidden secrets of her sinful life.
Jesus further revealed to her a great mystery: "Woman, believe
me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem… But the hour is coming, and is now here, when
the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for
the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those
who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Since God is Spirit
the believers must worship God in "spirit and truth," that is, in the
truth as taught by the Spirit who guides and teaches.
The
woman returned to the city, leaving behind her water jar. For she had
no more need for it because she had come to the source of living water.
Once in the city, the woman invited the people to come and see Jesus who
told her everything that she had done. Her words echoed the words of
Philip to Nathanael, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and
also the prophets wrote." In the meantime, the disciples were urging
Jesus to eat some food. To this Jesus answered, "I have food to eat that
you do not know about.” It is obvious that the disciples did not
understand the full meaning of what Jesus was saying. The words of Jesus
summed up His entire career. He came to do the will of His Father who
sent Him, even to death on the Cross. In Jesus was found perfect
obedience, to the last drop of blood.
From
today's readings, we are reminded that as children of God, as members
of the Body of Christ, we too have been called to do the Divine Will of
He who has called us to share in the life-giving Spirit through faith in
Jesus and the Sacraments. As Jesus was called to complete His work, we
too are called to complete our calling through our perseverance in the
living faith. To persevere necessitates our ongoing reception of the
Sacraments of Confession after due conversion of heart and the Holy
Eucharist as the means of maintaining our righteousness before the Lord
God and our intimacy and communion with Him and the entire community.
Our
relationship with the Lord is the water of our lives which is essential
for our well being and the source of our joy and the strength to do His
Will. Without the Lord we would wither away like dried leaves in the
desert and with Him we have life in abundance as the water gushing out
even from the hard rock. Today’s reading gives us the messages of
insufficiency of material things, implacability of human desire and the
need for authentic love expressed in doing the will of God through our
daily lives. The need of water is quite natural and common to everyone
signifying that our role is very simple as compared to the abundance of
grace we are going to receive from the Lord. Meeting Jesus and
discovering him as our Savior is a gift of God. He thirsts for each and
every one of us and always in search of us. Even if we fail to recognize
him, he understands us and demands from us only simple things like
water since his yoke is easy and burden is light. However, he opens to
us the fountains of grace and vitality coming from God that wells up to
life eternal.
Dr. John Ollukaran CMI
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