Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Daily Missal March-April 2023

3rd Sunday of Lent (A)
3rd week, Psalter II

FIRST READING

From the Book of Exodus (Ex 17:3-7)
In those days, the people thirsted for lack of water; the people grumbled against Moses and said: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to make us, our children, and our livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!” The Lord said to Moses: “Go on ahead of the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go! Behold, I will be standing before you there on the rock at Horeb; you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. He named the place Massah and Meribah, because of the Israelites’ quarrel and because they tested the Lord by saying: “Is the Lord among us or not?” – The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the First Reading

On their exodus toward the promised land, the people repeatedly suffer hunger and thirst. Hunger and thirst are two constants of the journey through the desert, a land of testing and purification, where one can advance only by faith. The episode of Massah and Meribah is emblematic. First of all, the names have an eloquent meaning: one means temptation and the other grumbling. After the first stretch of the journey, the people, exhausted by thirst, distrust God and fear that Moses is not the man sent by him to save them; hence the question that expresses the skepticism of the chosen people and of people in every age who face difficulty: “Is the Lord among us or not?” Moses does not allow himself to become discouraged and again calls upon the Lord, who does not withhold his help: water will spring from the rock struck by Moses’ staff. This makes God’s continuing presence evident to the unbelieving people; in the fullness of time, he will reveal himself precisely as Emmanuel, God-with-us. This, however, can happen because Moses has faith and obeys what the Lord asks of him. Let us remember this.

SECOND READING

From the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Romans  (Rom 5:1-2, 5-8)
Brothers and sisters, since we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a just person—though perhaps for a good person someone might even dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. – The Word of the Lord. 

Commentary on the Second Reading

The apostle Paul describes the condition of Christians in the present age: they are conformed to God’s plan through the trust they place in the content of the “proclamation of salvation” (kerygma). This enables them to experience peace with God, because they are certain of Christ’s love. He alone, who through his death is the mediator of our justification/reconciliation, can already grant us access to grace, to communion of life with God. This gives rise to a new joy, a pledge of future glory. Tribulations will only root hope more deeply within us. It does not disappoint, because the Spirit of God has been poured into our hearts as divine power for a new and generous life, the guarantee of our inheritance. The Spirit bears witness to our spirit to the boundless love God has for us in Christ: he has brought us salvation that makes us righteous by coming to meet us in the farthest reaches of sin and enmity; who, then, could separate us, in time or eternity, from his love?

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John (Jn 4:5-42)
At that time, Jesus came to a city 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 by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her: “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him: “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says 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 have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself with his children and his livestock?” Jesus answered her: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water that I will give will never thirst. Rather, the water that I will 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.” He said to her: “Go, call your husband and come back here.” The woman answered him: “I do not have a husband.” Jesus said to her: “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him: “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet! Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must 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 worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, 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; for 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, called Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her: “I am he, the one speaking with you.” At that moment his disciples returned, and they were amazed that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said: “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman left her water jar, went into the city, and said to the people: “Come and see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he be the Christ?” They left the city and went toward him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him: “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them: “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another: “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then comes the harvest’? I tell you, look up and see the fields, for they are already ripe for harvest. The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have worked, and you have entered into their labor.” Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony: “He told me everything I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word, and they said to the woman: “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” – The Gospel of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the Day

The meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is one of the most beautiful and symbolic encounters of all time. It is no coincidence that it takes place at the same hour as the Passion—the sixth hour—and that their dialogue begins with words recalling Jesus’ final words on the cross. On the one hand, it is extraordinary to think that, with our weaknesses, we are the water Jesus desires. On the other hand, Jesus waits for us—when we least expect it—ready to give us the water we need, which will quench our thirst forever; water that will give us the strength to continue the journey; water that will never run dry. The Spirit is the gift Jesus gives the Samaritan woman: in him, the woman found her true spouse, her reason for living. Like the Samaritan woman, after recognizing the great gift Jesus has given us, let us abandon our jars, symbols of the slavery of always having something to fill that promptly empties. Let us allow Jesus to meet us beside the well of our mistakes, in the depths of our hearts, where the desire for happiness lies stagnant. May he stir the waters so that everything may once again have meaning within us, so that his water may restore life to us.