The Third Sunday of Lent 2023
A heart filled with love has no room for hate.
On the Third Sunday of Lent, the Gospel tells us much about the person of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Jews did not associate with Samaritans, and the disciples, on their return from the village, were surprised to see Jesus talking to a woman’.
In their conversation Jesus accepts the Samaritan woman just as she is. This is rather a long encounter in which Jesus offers her the Water of Life. Jesus said to her: ‘anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring within, welling up to eternal life.’
Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit who nourishes us, quenches our thirst, heals and gives us the fullness of life. Jesus said: ‘the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside you welling up to eternal life.’
May we open our hearts to receive the water of eternal Life.
We placed water into our sacred space.
Reflection
The Samaritan Woman
It was unusual for a Jew to speak
To me – a Samaritan woman
I met him sitting at the well
He was tired –
He asked me for a drink
Little did I know
he would change
my life
He healed my hurt
Soothed my anger
Truth stirred within me
The waters of life
Flowed through my being
And my spirit soared ….
Now I stand among the crowd ….
A Samaritan woman
Knowing the Son of God hangs upon a cross
He cries ‘I am thirsty ….
A centurion reaches Jesus before me
Offering a sponge soaked in vinegar
And I remembered ….
his thirst
Was for living water
And his longing was for his Father…
Water flowed from his side that day
living water
which would quench the thirst of generations
And I knew
he was
indeed
The Son of God
