Third Sunday of Lent

March 3, 2024

On their way through the desert of life, every person yearns for living water. When Jesus asks a Samaritan woman to drink in the heat of the day, she is amazed. Not Jesus, but the woman thirsts for the living water, which He offers her and becomes in her a well that bubbles up to eternal life. Jesus invites the woman to believe: to step into the dark and worship God in spirit and truth. Who gives me to drink? From whom can I draw life and gain strength? Whoever has discovered this source will be able to experience the deep source of life within himself. From the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ 5 Jesus had to pass through Samaria and in this way came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, close to the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 There was Jacob's well, and Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down at this well.

It was around noon. 7 When a woman from Samaria came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 For the disciples had gone into the city to buy provisions. 9 The Samaritan woman said to Him, "How can you as a Jew ask me a Samaritan for a drink?" The Jews have no relations with the Samaritans. - 10 Jesus answered, "If you had any understanding of the gift of God, and if you knew who it is that says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. " 11 Then the woman said to him, "Lord, you have not even a bucket, and the well is deep: where then do you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered her, "Whoever drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; on the contrary, the water that I will give him will become a fountain of water, bubbling up to Eternal Life." 15 And the woman said to him, "Lord, give me of this water, that I may thirst no more, and come here no more to draw. 19b I see that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on that mountain there. and ye Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship." 21 "Believe me, woman," Jesus told her, "the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on that mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation comes from the Jews is coming. But the hour will come, yes, it has already come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father seeks those who so worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 25 The woman said to Him, "I know that the Messiah, that is, the Anointed One, is coming, and when He comes He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "It is I who speak to you." 39a Many Samaritans from the city believed in Him. 40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they bade Him abide with them. 41 So he stayed there two days, and through his word many more believed. 42 To the woman they said, "We believe no longer because of what you have said, for we ourselves have heard Him, and we know that He is indeed the Savior of the world." John 4, 5-15.19b-26.39a.40-42