Living Water

On the First Sunday of Lent we heard about Jesus fasting in the desert and not surprisingly becoming hungry.  In the Gospel reading today we hear about Jesus being thirsty and asking a Samaritan woman to draw water from the well for him, so that he can drink.  Jesus is the King of the Universe and someone who worked miracles and rose from the dead, but in his humanity he experienced ordinary hunger and thirst like us.

However, in his conversation with the woman, she expresses surprise that he is asking her because, we learn, Jews did not associate with Samaritans.  Jesus then says to her quite remarkably, “Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again; but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again.”

This leads him to reveal that, in his divinity, he knows all about her and the string of husbands she has had in her quest to satisfy her thirst for love and affection.  Note that Jesus does not condemn her at all and that in fact in this story, there is no repentance or forgiveness.  It is about Jesus fulfilling the greatest thirst of her life.

We read, “The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people.”  In other words, she has no interest now in the actual water she had come to draw from the well, because she is captivated by and convinced by the spiritual water or grace that Jesus has been talking about.

In Lent, the practices we undertake will hopefully lead us away from our ordinary hungers and thirsts and help us to recognise the great thirst for God that can only be satisfied in relationship with the Lord.  We go in search of the living water that Jesus offers us.  We find it in the food and drink of his Body and Blood that we receive in Holy Communion.  

God bless, Fr Kevin.