3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A, March 15, 2020)

May we, through this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, be granted the grace to renew our relationship with Christ through whom the love of God has been poured into our hearts that we may be able to worship God in spirit and truth.

Happy Sunday!


DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Exodus 17,3-7; Rom 5,1-2.5-8; John 4,5-42; 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A, March 15, 2020)



The main point of this Sunday’s liturgy is water. The entrance antiphon talks about water that is to be sprinkled. I sprinkle you with pure water. The first reading and the Gospel also refer to water. The modern world - even the wealthiest nations - has realised the importance of water for life. Today in many countries, especially in our own Nigeria, some millions of people lack this basic natural necessity and there is the realisation that even the water resources we have are at the risk of running out, and the lack of rain often has drastic consequences for agriculture. Water is, truly, the basis of our life. One can resist eating for several days, even for weeks, but not without drinking. The first reading reminds us that in the desert the Jewish people suffered from thirst for lack of water. Their reaction was violent. It was a protest reaction: The people murmured against Moses and said: Why did you bring us out of Egypt to make us, our children and our livestock die of thirst? Moses is in distress, and thinks: What will I do for this people? A little more and they will

stone me! The Lord comes to his aid and says to him: Take the stick in your hand with which you struck the Nile and go! Behold, I stand before you on the rock, on the mount Horeb. You will strike on the rock and water will come out and the people will drink. Moses did as the Lord told him, and the problem is solved. The doubt and anger of the people was targeted beyond Moses. It was directed to God. Is the Lord among us, yes or no? This is the typical question of the challenge: Yes or no?, an insolent ultimatum. It is the refusal to trust God: the denial of the covenant! The episode has become particularly famous in Israel. In the Pentateuch and in some psalms (94; 105) it was above all the symbols of the hardening of the heart of Israel, which irritated Yahweh and so, costed the death of Moses and Aaron on the edge of the promised land. In the psalms of praise inspired by the history of Israel (77 and 104), it is the call to the power of God that makes water flow from the rock. In Wisdom (11), it is the sign of the presence of wisdom in the holy prophet (Moses). Isaiah sees the announcement of the future benefits that will raise the praise of the chosen people (15,43). In the New Testament, Paul recalls the episode (1 Cor 10) and, based on a tradition that imagined that the rock accompanied the people on their way, sees Christ in it, who quenches the thirst of the people with a spiritual drink.



Psalm 94 combines the two interpretations of the episode of the rock: acclaiming the Lord as the rock of our salvation and warning against the hardening of the heart, as in the day ... where your fathers tempted me: they put me to the test, or rather as on the day of Massa and Meriba. In fact, it is a matter of remembering this anecdote reported in Exodus 17 and also in Numbers 20,13, without forgetting that the names of this place have symbolic meaning of trial and challenge. Beyond all the interpretations of the past, this psalm is, above all, an invitation to answer the call today; today is the key word; it is the secret of every living liturgy: the mysteries of salvation reach us today.

In the Gospel, we contemplate Jesus who, tired by long journey, sits near a well - Jacob's well - near the city of Sicar, not far from the ancient city of Samaria. A woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her: Give me to drink. It seems a very trivial thing. In reality, here Jesus is taking a very important and, at the same time, delicate step. In fact, this woman was a Samaritan woman, and the Jews were not on good terms with the Samaritans. In the Bible, the Samaritans were despised, Sirach says that they are not even a nation, but a mixture of people, and do not have a pure religion. For this reason, there were no relationship between the Jews and Samaritans. But Jesus establishes a relationship with this Samaritan woman, in the most delicate way possible, in that he presents himself as one who is in need. To enter into relationship with a person, without having any attitude of pride or superiority, it is necessary to do just like this: to present oneself as someone who needs the help of the other. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman: Give me a drink. In this expression we can admire his mild and humble heart. He establishes a relationship with a woman, and this is already a first point that could arouse wonder; and not only with a woman, but with a Samaritan woman and, moreover - as will appear later -, with a woman with an un-exemplary conduct. Thus, Jesus appears extremely mild; he eliminates a barrier and establishes a relationship, puts communion where there was separation. The Samaritan naturally marvels at this request, and says to him: How come you, a Jew, ask me a Samaritan woman for a drink? Then Jesus continues: If you knew the gift of God and who is he who says to you: Give me a drink!, You yourself would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Here Jesus begins to reveal his profound intention: he became a beggar, in reality he has an intense desire to give, to communicate the divine gift. But to communicate this gift, one must have established a relationship, which Jesus did with such humility and gentleness. Obviously, the woman does not understand these symbolic words of Jesus, and says to him: Lord, you have no means of drawing and the well is deep; from where do you have then this living water? Jesus then specifies: Whoever drinks this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks the water which I will give him will never be thirsty again; on the contrary, the water that I will give him will become in him a source of water that spurts for eternal life. Here we see clearly that Jesus does not speak of an ordinary, natural water, but of a much more important gift, a gift capable of satisfying the deepest desires of the human soul. This gift can satisfy them not only passively, but also actively: this water, in fact, becomes in the person who receives it a source of water that spurts into eternal life. The woman does not understand and makes a request: Lord, give me this water, so that I will no longer be thirsty and do not continue to come here to draw water. But Jesus says to her, Go and call your husband and then come back here. This is the decisive point of the meeting. The woman replies: I have no husband. At this point Jesus could interrupt the conversation with the woman; instead he speaks to her, like a prophet who penetrates the secrets of hearts: You said well, I have no husband; in fact you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband; in this, you have told the truth. Now it is the woman who could end the conversation, feeling offended. She may refuse to speak to this man again who has the audacity to reveal her private life. Instead she accepts the light projected on her life, and says: Lord, I see that you are a prophet. These words are like a confession. The woman admits that what Jesus said was true: she was a woman who has had five husbands and who lives in concubinage with the sixth man. Now she confesses this more or less criticisable state of her life. And it also expresses her deep religious unease/discontent, which is the cause of her wrong behaviour. This irregular marriage situation and instability of hers comes from an unfulfilled religious restlessness. The woman says: Our fathers worshiped God on this mountain [Mount Garizim, near Jacob's well] and you say that Jerusalem is the place where you have to worship. The religious situation of this woman is confused: how to find God when there is a disagreement on the place where one must worship him? And if you cannot find God with certainty, how can you be confident and determined in your personal life? Then Jesus makes a revelation to her: Believe me, woman, and the moment has come when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. It is a revelation of an extraordinary novelty, because Jesus is not satisfied with eliminating, as a place of worship of God, Mount Garizim, but also eliminates Jerusalem. This is an unprecedented novelty. Then he specifies: The time has come, and this is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; because the Father looks for such worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Jesus speaks here of a profound relationship with God, which does not depend on the place or the temple, but which can be established at any moment and in any place. This profound relationship with God is based on two realities: spirit and truth. Jesus declares in the Gospel: I am the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14, 6). It is he then who makes this adoration of God possible in spirit and truth, because, through his passion, he will communicate the Spirit and fully reveal the divine truth, which is summed up in one sentence: God is love. Here the woman received a revelation from Jesus that he had not even made to his disciples. The woman then said to Jesus: I know that the Messiah, (that is, the Christ) must come: when he comes, he will tell us everything. These words of the woman gave Jesus the opportunity to reveal his identity: It is I who speak to you. This encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman was a truly lofty scene, a profound revelation, on which we can reflect at length. The story then continues. When the disciples returned, Jesus explained to them why he behaved in this surprising way. When they offer him something to eat, he says, I have food to eat that you do not know about. And he explains: My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to do his work. For Jesus the essential thing is to be docile to the will of the Father. If Jesus established a relationship with this Samaritan woman with a questionable conduct, and because she understood that this was the will of the Father, that the Father wanted this relationship, this conversion and this revelation. Actually, to make conversions, Jesus could not be satisfied with a conversation or some explanations.

In the second reading Paul makes us understand that, in order to carry out the conversions and change our situation, Jesus went to the extreme of love: While we were still sinners, Christ died for the wicked in the established time. Jesus' words are extremely effective, precisely, because the power of the cross is already exercised in them. That is, the efficacy of Christ's love, manifested in his passion, gives his words a power that otherwise they could not have.

Thus the second reading completes the Gospel, and at the same time pushes us to give thanks and trust. Thanksgiving, because we see how Jesus, meek and humble of heart, accomplished our redemption. Trust, because, thanks to the passion of Jesus, the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Because of this - says Paul - hope does not disappoint. The presence of God's love in our hearts gives our hope unshakable firmness. May we, therefore, through the celebration of today’s Eucharistic liturgy be granted the grace to renew our relationship with Christ, through whom the love of God has been poured into our hearts, so that we will be able to worship God in spirit and truth. + John I. Okoye