This liturgical year, which began with Advent, is “Cycle A,” in which Matthew’s Gospel is often the Gospel reading. But on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent, we hear three passages from the Gospel of John. On these Sundays, throughout the world Church, candidates for Easter sacraments are present for special ceremonies at Mass. These three Gospels are meant to prepare them and us for the coming feast of the Resurrection because all of them reveal Jesus of Nazareth as also “the Christ.”
John the Evangelist always writes on two levels — there is the literal story of what happened, and the metaphorical level: how something in the story points toward our discipleship life in the risen Christ. Today’s story is about a woman at a well whom Jesus encounters. He asks her for a drink, and in the conversation that follows, she begins a relationship with the Lord. Immediately afterward, she begins to tell her townspeople about this Lord she has encountered. John the Evangelist is teaching that personal encounter and evangelical fervor is the pattern of every discipleship life. Even though many of us were baptized as children, at some point we made a personal commitment to be a disciple of Christ, like the woman did. And our commitment is also meant to be evangelical: We are meant to share with others the value we place on this relationship, and the hope and purpose it gives to our lives. We don’t keep this good news of the living water “under a bushel” by keeping our relationship with Christ to ourselves. We’ve all been that woman at the well, living in a fog about life and its meaning, thirsting for something we need in order to make sense of it all. I remember times when someone spoke words that were living water for me, words that helped me have hope and strengthened my faith life. I remember Scripture passages that have meant much to me. This week I am going to find little ways to share a bit of my faith with at least one other person.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post Third Sunday of Lent, March 8, Living Water: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.