Third Sunday of Lent
Intention: For all who live in fear of violence, exploitation or abandonment, that people’s commitment to peace and justice will grow and help to end their suffering.
Today’s Gospel | John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
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.
“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 who is speaking with you.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him. 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.”
A Lenten Reflection
Throughout his ministry, Jesus spent a significant amount of his time on the question of repentance. As part of a faith tradition that centered on human salvation rooted in personal and communal morality, it is not surprising that he did. What did surprise, if not outrage, many was how Jesus challenged the established notions of how and why people should repent. It still can come as a surprise today.
For Jesus, what mattered was not so much what people did or neglected to do as from where those actions came. This is because morality is not so much a set of standards of behavior as it is a definition of what makes for authentic human behavior. Simply, what we do expresses who we are. When we behave badly, the moral issue is not simply the consequence of the action, but also its origin. True repentance must involve both atonement and change. To make amends for wrongdoing without accepting personal responsibility for being a wrongdoer is not repentance, just appeasement. The sin is bargained away while the sinfulness remains. Ultimately, there can be no repentance without conversion.
Author Shannon Alder wrote, “A kind word will never replace the conversation that God has prompted you to repeatedly have.” It is one thing to say the right thing in order to atone for our transgressions. It is another to admit to whatever darkness in us is their source and then do the hard work of emptying ourselves of it. We must have the courage to allow God to make us uncomfortable about who we have allowed ourselves to become. The season of Lent is a time for true repentance, for changing ourselves so that those parts of our heart and soul that have died can live once again.
Prayer
Eternal Father, you created us to strive for holiness and to serve others. During this Lent, may we grow in our awareness of the opportunities you give us each day to open us to your presence. Be in all of our thoughts, so that we may be inspired to live humbly and justly. May we live each day for you alone, seeking less for ourselves and giving more to others. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.