Reading I: Exodus 27: 3-7,
Psalm 94:1-2,6-9, Romans 5:2-2, 5-8,
Gospel: John 4:5-16,19-26,39-46 (shorter Version) Full Readings
A spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Brethren, we all know the importance of water in our lives, without it we are dead. Water as commonly said is life, but precisely water is the source of life, that's why we see in the first Reading the Israelites are complaining too much again Moses and God even putting God to test by(is the God in our midst or not, Why did u bring us here to die in wilderness) for they were to die because of lack of water. God in his Mercy and goodness gave them water from the rock. The rock is always cool and so gives cool water which quenches the thirst faster and provides a new life.
The Lord is always generous in giving but it requires our trust and our faithfulness in him not to put him to test as Israelites did.
The meaning of Massa and Meriba is that the Israelites were quarreling God, they lost trust in him, and put him to test to see if he is amidst them. Brethren, let us not put God to the test, but have faith that God is among us and always ready to answer us. When we ask without faith and trust or with wavering faith, then we are putting God to test as we Know the one with wavering faith or no faith would probably get nothing from God. Why then blame God for not giving us? But due to the faith of Moses in God they had water to drink, it's also like that with us, with faith we get water for eternal life which Jesus gives in the Gospel.
There are several aspects we learn from the gospel today.
Jesus speaks to a Samaritan. During those days Jews and Samaritans did not have something in common, even talking to each other for Samaritans were considered Gentiles, Jesus however, shows that there is no Jew, no gentile concerning the love of God. The love of God is for all, no segregation, no race, no colour, it's for all the people. This was one revolutionaries brought about by Jesus in addition to eating with sinners and breaking the tradition.
St Augustine in today's Spiritual Reading says that the woman is a symbol of the church not yet made righteous ( the church was to come from the Gentiles not Jews) and it's the conversation with Jesus which converted the woman to the truth, therefore the church experiences conversion when it enters in conversation with her bride, Jesus. This also should touch us that as a Samaritan woman was converted to the truth with the encounter with Jesus, we should also be converted through our encountering him in his word and Eucharist today and all of our lives.
Jesus asks for a drink. We might say that Jesus was thirsty but at the end we don't see him even drinking the water, not even eating the food the disciples had brought. What then was the meaning of this action. He is in need of a drink yet he is Rich to quench the thirst of others. Jesus was initiating the conversation so that he can make known the gift of God. If Jesus had not started the conversation, the woman would not have greeted him either. God always takes the first initiative to invite us to be in communion with him, and this demands our attention and response, he then slowly makes us enter the mysteries and gifts of God as it was for a woman. Let us be ready to respond to him.
If only you knew the gift of God and who is asking for a drink, you would ask him to give you the water of eternal life. The gift of God is the Spirit which God gives and leads us to recognize Jesus as the one who quenches our thirst eternally. Jesus gives promises water which when one drinks will never get thirsty. Our fathers drank the water from the rock but got thirst again and even died, but Jesus gives the water for eternal life. What's that water, it's Jesus himself who is the way, the truth and the life, he is the fountain of life for us and when he quenches our thirst we have eternal life.
This is an invitation for us to thirst for Jesus, to long for him in our lives and come to him, for he says come to me all of you who are burdened and I'll give you rest. Recognising that all that we need is Jesus is very important and the work of the Holy Spirit, and that is why Jesus says, time will come, and in fact it's now, when we will worship God in spirit and truth.
What does it mean to worship in spirit and truth? Worship in spirit means with all our lives we worship God, led by the Holy Spirit who is the source of life and who sustains life in us. It's through this worship that we gain eternal life.
God is to be worshiped with our clean spirits but for where we have gone wrong, let us in this Lent come to him with contrite spirit so that he will receive us. In this way we have to be truthful in our worship, avoiding dual life and practicing what we preach.
In this way we can be able to boast about looking forward to God's glory and eternal life, because God's love has been poured to us in the spirit as St Paul tells us in second reading and so we are children of God and of the kingdom. The spirit makes righteous and at peace with God, with neighbors and all the world.
Basil the Great (330-379 AD), a great early Christian teacher and Greek bishop of Caesarea, speaks in a similar manner:
"The Spirit restores paradise to us and the way to heaven and adoption as children of God; he instills confidence that we may call God truly Father and grants us the grace of Christ to be children of the light and to enjoy eternal glory. In a word, he bestows the fullness of blessings in this world and the next; for we may contemplate now in the mirror of faith the promised things we shall someday enjoy. If this is the foretaste, what must the reality be? If these are the first fruits, what must be the harvest?" (From the treatise, The Holy Spirit). Therefore, let us ask for that spirit that we may always be in the presence of God.
"Lord Jesus, my soul thirsts for you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may always find joy in your presence and take delight in doing your will."
Have a wonderful Sunday and stay blessed
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