The Gift of Living Water

Homily for the Third Sunday in Lent

Water figures quite prominently in both the first reading from the Book of Exodus and the Gospel reading from the Gospel of St. John. All of us are aware of the fact that water is necessary to preserve life, but it also can be the cause of death and destruction as well.

The reading from the Book of Exodus as well as the Gospel story have something else in common. The text from the Book of Exodus tells us that because of their thirst, the children of Israel are grumbling against Moses. Although he isn’t grumbling, the Gospel story features a thirsty Jesus. His thirst prompts him to ask the Samaritan woman for a drink. If you have made a pilgrimage to Israel, you may have visited the very well where Jesus met this woman. It is surrounded by desert, the same setting as we find in the Book of Exodus. As Jesus converses with the woman, he reveals that he knows of another kind of water for which we all thirst; namely, the living water of grace.

In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul reminds us that we have all gained access to the grace in which we stand. He also tells us that God has poured out the Holy Spirit into our hearts. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the new form of absolution that is used in the Sacrament of Penance includes these very words. “God, the Father of mercies,. . . has poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.” It is, in fact, the Holy Spirit who is the source of the living water of which Jesus speaks. It is through the Holy Spirit, poured out in the Sacrament of Baptism, that we are given the gift of this grace.

Grace is, by definition, a free gift from God. This gift presents us with a spiritual paradox. While we can receive the gift, we cannot take it. If we reach out to grasp it, it is no longer a gift. In fact, the only way that we can receive and keep this grace is by giving it away. The entire conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well begins with the simple request made by Jesus: “Give me a drink.” In other words, the woman can only receive the gift of God’s love by giving Jesus some of the water which she has drawn from the well. By giving Jesus some water to quench his thirst, the woman opens herself to the possibility of being forgiven all her sins. As we all should know, by confessing our sins and asking for God’s pardon in the Sacrament of Penance, we are restored to a state of grace. The same is true for this woman with one interesting difference. Jesus tells her what she has done.

Grace – water – God’s love, they are all one and the same thing. Grace, which we first received when the water was poured over us in Baptism, is restored and renewed through the Sacrament of Penance. It is this free gift of God which gives us life – spiritual life through the gift of living water. Just as God satisfied the thirst of the children of Israel as they made their way toward the Promised Land, God satisfies our spiritual thirst as we make our way to life with God in heaven.

Today, all the candidates for the Sacrament of Baptism, which will be conferred during the solemn Easter Vigil, will be subject to the first of three scrutinies or tests. These rituals are used by the Church on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent to prepare the catechumens for baptism. When they are baptized, all their sins will be washed away just as the sins of the Samaritan woman are washed away through her conversation with Jesus and her gift of a drink to satisfy his thirst. Those of us who are already baptized will be asked to renew our baptismal promises and to renew our profession of faith, the faith of which St. Paul speaks in his Letter to the Romans. That faith, which justifies us in the sight of God and which is poured into us at our baptism, is in constant need of renewal, for we are all sinners. Just as Jesus reaches out to the Samaritan woman, he reaches out to us as well, asking us to follow him more closely as we make this Lenten journey which will lead us to the celebration of the Paschal Mystery. Through the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have been washed clean. God has poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins and given us the precious gift of God’s life and the love.