A Spring of Water Gushing Up — Liturgical Conference

15 March 2020 –– Third Sunday in Lent

John 4:5-42

Jesus [tells the woman] that the water he gives will overcome thirst and become “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

The Christian reader understands these words as descriptive of baptism, but when the woman continues to interpret Jesus’ language on a natural level, he offers her a sign of his superhuman knowledge of her sinful past. This moves the woman to recognize Jesus as a prophet, and she proceeds to question him on . . . the proper locale for worship.

Jesus replies that an hour is coming when authentic worship of the Father will not depend on locality but will be done “in Spirit and truth,” a reference to the gift of God’s love through the Son. With this revelation, the woman realizes that God’s Messiah may be standing before her, and with Jesus’ proclamation “I am he” ringing in her ears, she leaves her now useless water jar to invite the townspeople to see the man “who told me everything I have done.”

At the conclusion the Samaritan woman has become a believer and a self- effacing apostle. Many Samaritans begin to believe in Jesus on the basis of her testimony, but others come to believe on the basis of his word. –– Hilary Hayden

Exodus 17:1-7

This passage views Israel’s journey from Egypt through the wilderness to Mount Sinai as an archetypal time of danger and testing. . . [They are] fearful and complaining, unprepared for the challenge of faith in the wilderness and longing for a return to the security of slavery in Egypt. . . They grumble against Moses, saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” Their whole demeanor can be summed up in the words spoken at Massah and Meribah as they quarreled and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

The communal sins of grumbling Israelites are met with divine grace. The Lord provides sustenance for the people amid the dangers of the wilderness. The Lord dispels the Israelites’ doubts by using Moses to make the bitter water sweet, to give them manna and quail to eat, to bring forth water from the rock and to enable them to defeat the Amalekites. –– Hilary Hayden

Romans 5:1-11

Paul exhorts the Christians at Rome to live out joyfully the consequences of Christ’s saving death and resurrection. Paul uses several metaphors to express the salvation available in Christ: “justified by faith,” “at peace with God,” “access to . . . grace.” Though in one sense salvation has been achieved in Christ, Paul is also aware that it is not complete; the kingdom of God has not yet been fully established. Christ’s death has made salvation accessible, but the Christian community must endure in faith and hope until Christ’s return. The source of Christian hope in this time of suffering and testing is what God has already done for humanity through the death of Christ. –– Hilary Hayden

Hilary Hayden, O.S.B. (1929-2016), was a monk of St. Anselm’s Abbey, Washington, D.C., a student of classical languages, teacher of Latin and Greek, chaplain to Benedictine sisters in Bristow, associate editor of Homily Service of the Liturgical Conference, and a spiritual advisor.

Homily Service 38, no. 3 (2005): 41-50.