March 3, 2024 / 12:01 AM
Today, March 3, the Catholic Church celebrates the Third Sunday of Lent. Today’s Gospel reading is taken from John, chapter 4, verses 5 to 42 (Jn 4, 5-42). The story corresponds to the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, with whom a dialogue takes place at the foot of Jacob’s well.
Jesus is passing through the region of Samaria and is heading towards an ancient water well. There he meets a woman whom he asks to give him a drink, since he was tired. The Samaritan woman is surprised, because Jews and Samaritans do not treat each other. Jesus told him: “If you knew the gift of God and who it was that asked you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you living water” (Jn 4:9-10). And he adds: “Whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never thirst again” (Jn 4:14). Then the woman asks for that water. But, in order to drink it, Jesus shows her that she must break the bonds that subject her to sin. And that is why the Messiah has come: to free us from death and give us eternal life.
More than a decade ago, Pope Benedict XVI noted: “In particular, in the encounter with the Samaritan woman, at the well, the theme of Christ’s “thirst” arises, which culminates in the cry on the cross: “I thirst.” » (Jn 19, 28). Certainly this thirst, like fatigue, has a physical basis. But Jesus, as Augustine also says, “thirsted for that woman’s faith,” just as he thirsted for the faith of all of us. God the Father sent him to quench our thirst for eternal life, giving us his love, but to give us this gift Jesus asks for our faith. The omnipotence of Love always respects the freedom of man; He calls to his heart and waits patiently for his response” (Angelus, March 27, 2011).