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27 Mar 2011 - Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

AN INTERESTING CONTRAST presents itself in our two big Bible stories this week. On the one hand we’ve got the grumbling nation behind Moses: reasonably thirsty, yet decidedly unpleasant about it. These are the same folks who’ve been recently delivered from a generation of slavery, miraculously led across a divided sea, and granted the unlikely gifts of quail and manna from heaven, right there in the Sinai wilderness. You’d expect a little show of faith from these people, an air of courtesy mixed into their request for water. But all we see is an ugly, snarling mob of ingrates. On the other hand we meet the woman from Samaria, obviously thirsty, too, or she wouldn’t be visiting the well at this difficult, sun-drenched midday hour. She also has reasons to be unpleasant: It’s hot, there’s a strange man hovering over her destination, and what’s worse he’s a traditional enemy to her community. Yet this woman chooses to keep the dialogue civil, calling the stranger “sir” and demonstrating, once more, a delightful spunk that is the signature characteristic of a biblical hero. Whereas the nasty mob around Moses repels us—we don’t want to be in the midst of these people more than necessary and are grateful they remain an anonymous sea of hostility—we find ourselves befriending the woman of Samaria. We want to know her name. We’d like to follow her home and find out what happens to her after her privileged encounter with Jesus. We know in general terms that the fates of the participants in these two stories couldn’t be more distinct. The nation behind Moses, ever wielding a blade of mistrust that could wind up in their leader’s back, gets their spring of water and miraculous rescue once more. But does it change anything? Won’t they be just as angry, aggrieved, and thirsty again tomorrow? The rock at Horeb provides them with water for a day, or a week. Still the place remains defined by the spirit of the people: Massah and Meribah, quarreling and testing. In the deepest and most real sense, the community remains parched and unsatisfied. By contrast watch what happens to our heroine of Samaria. She leaves her bucket unfilled by the well, no longer in need of the kind of water that lasts a day. She leaves her grievances by the well, too, running back to the community that has judged her behavior in the past with news too good to withhold. Living water has changed her, turning a notorious woman into a reliable witness. Once defined by a wearyingly eminent marriageability, she’s redefined in a sterling new relationship as the first apostle to the Samaritans. Thirst is not a bad thing, we realize. It can lead straight to our heart’s desire. Related scripture links God as El Shaddai, "The One of the Mountain": Gen. 17:1, 28:3, 35:11, 43:14, 48:3; Exod. 6:3; Num. 24:4, 16; Pss. 68:15, 91:1; Ezek. 1:24, 10:5 Places associated with God: Bethel: Gen. 12:8, 13:3, 28:10-11, 35:1-13; Horeb/Sinai: Exod. 3; Deut. 4:10, 15, 5:2, 9:8, 28:69; 1 Kings 8:9, 19:8; Shiloh: Josh. 18:1, 8-10, 19:51, 21:2, 22:9, 12; Judg. 18:31, 21:19-21; 1 Sam.1-4 Samaritans elsewhere in the Bible: 2 Kings 17; Ezra 4:1-24; Neh. 4, 6:1-13; 1 Macc. 3:10, 10:30, 38, 11:28, 34; Luke 9:52-56, 10:33-37, 17:16; Matt. 10:5-6 Catechism links Woman at the well: CCC 439; 544; 586; 606; 728; 1137; 1179; 2560; 2652 Waters of Meribah: CCC 694; 2119 Resurrection: CCC 988-101

Authors Alice Camille

living water Moses samaritan woman

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Homily stories

27 Mar 2011 - Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Jesus must have been very thirsty; he had been traveling and it was the heat of the day. His encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well, though, hinges on a much deeper yearning: her recognition of the difference between ordinary water and the Living Water Christ offers. While the Samaritan woman's search for earthly water led her to the water of eternal life, the reverse can also be true: Wells of the spirit can lead to earthly wells. When Bishop Walter Thomas, a Baptist pastor from Baltimore, went on a trip of church leaders to Kenya, he visited a community called Mbagathi, where everyone cooked, washed their clothes, bathed, and drank from the same stream. "We learned how polluting a stream can destroy whole communities," he said, "their ability to harvest crops, to stay alive. We saw the hope that something as small as a well could bring." When he returned he got his congregation involved in providing educational and hygiene kits to African students and in the global effort to curb water pollution and shortages and raise awareness of water and hygiene issues among religious groups. Without everyday water the body withers. Without Living Water so does the spirit. The slaking of both thirsts can begin at some pretty important wells.

Authors Joel Schorn

samaritan woman living water walter thomas kenya

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27 Mar 2011 - Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Jesus came to a town of Samaria . . . . Jacob's well was there. After his meeting with his brother Esau, Jacob set up an altar to "El, the God of Israel" at the site of the well, and Mt. Gerizim in Samaria came to be a place of prayer. When the Assyrians invaded northern Israel in 722 B.C.E., however, they sent the population into exile and repopulated the area with foreigners who took on parts of Israelite religion. The Jews of the time saw the Samaritans as hated practitioners of a bastardized form of their religion and would have nothing to do with them. Jesus reached out to associate with these despised people (though he acknowledges the gulf between them in verse 22) by traveling to Samaria as well as by talking with a woman who was probably an outcast, who nonetheless becomes the evangelizer of her people. At Jacob's well, Jesus offers new living water and a new worship of God, through him as Messiah and Savior, that will go beyond both the holy mountain of Gerizim and the temple in Jerusalem. As the church, tired and thirsty, walks through the desert of Lent, it heads for Easter and the living water, real food, and true worship Christ brings. Homily points The Israelites feel abandoned by God on a regular basis. How could they, when God is right there? The culprit, for the Israelites as for us, is that they do not believe what they say. The woman at the well encounters Jesus with an open heart and open ears. She gets him better than the disciples do. Our Lenten practice will be more fruitful if we practice acknowledging the presence of God in our midst.

woman at the well Lent Samaritan living water

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17 Feb 2019 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

I stood atop a mesa in New Mexico from where I could see for miles. I was struck by the contrast between the vast stretches of barren desert and the narrow band of abundant life skirting the bank of a dry river bed. These stretches of life, like ribbons of green and gold glistening in the sun, were the cottonwoods, oaks, and pines that grew where fresh water flowed. Much of modern life can seem, spiritually, like stretches of wasteland. Yet in even the bleakest surroundings, some people’s spirits flourish and thrive. They stay connected to the sources of life. What can you do to “plant yourself” where living water flows? Here are a few ideas: Receive the sacraments regularly. That means frequent Mass and Communion and regular participation in the sacrament of Reconciliation. Practice forgiveness both in the giving and receiving. Lose yourself serving others. Pray daily, early and often. Offer hospitality to others. Share your faith with others whose faith is alive. Open your heart to grace throughout your day. It will keep you green and growing.

Authors Tom McGrath

living water

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09 Jun 2019 - Solemnity of Pentecost, Cycle C

“Mommy, Daddy, I’m thirsty.” At one time when our girls were young, this plea for water was a strategy they used to put off going to sleep. They knew this ploy was good for another visit from Mom or Dad, another flipping on of the lights, another few minutes of chatting and connection. They were thirsty, but not necessarily for water. It’s no surprise that receiving the Holy Spirit is described by Saint Paul as taking long drinks of living water. Jesus promised to send the Spirit who would satisfy the longing of our hearts. That longing can be expressed a number of ways, but the notion of calling out for another drink of water in the night registers with me as a parent, because I know that what my daughters wanted was not the water, but the water-bearer. That is, they wanted more of me or my wife bending down, tucking them in, planting yet another kiss on their foreheads, answering questions, and soothing their fears as night fell. We all carry longings in our heart that only God can satisfy. And so in prayer, recognize and honor those deeper longings. Don’t be ashamed to pray, “God, I’m thirsty.”

Authors Tom McGrath

thirst living water longings

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15 Mar 2020 - Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

He thought he’d lost everything. He’d lost his job. He’d lost his car. He’d lost his self-respect. And now he was losing his family. The one thing he couldn’t seem to lose was his thirst. Emily had told him if he came home drunk and ornery one more time she’d take the kids and leave. Now she and the kids were living at her sister’s. What he didn’t realize was that we’re all thirsty, all longing for a long drink of something that will satisfy. It’s just that he kept trying to slake his thirst at the wrong wells. Jesus recognized that the Samaritan woman at the well had a strong thirst for male attention. He didn’t shame her for it. He greeted her by acknowledging his own thirst. “Give me a drink,” he said to her. Then after helping her to acknowledge how her thirst had led her down dead-ends, he offered her the one refreshment that would last—the living waters of faith, freely given without end. Everybody thirsts. Our physical thirst echoes our inner longing for grace. Happy are those who learn in time which wells contain living water and which ones are poison. Sometimes it takes losing everything before the message soaks in: If we drink of the water that Jesus gives we will never thirst like that again.

Authors Tom McGrath

thirst samaritan woman living water wells

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