Living water and Saving bread

Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Lent Year A 2014

Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2,5-8  John 4:5-42

Introduction

When Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well: “Give me a drink” he is doing something that people, especially those who live in warm areas have done for centuries and continue to do today.

As some of you know, I come from Uganda, a country in the Tropics where the weather is usually warm.  But two weeks ago, during Mardi Gras, when I visited there, being the dry season, it was extra dry and extra hot.  Unfortunately, clean drinking water is always scarce in Uganda; but especially during the dry season, a drink of cold water is hard to come by.

And so anybody travelling from one place to another in that weather, like I was doing, has to learn at least one phrase: “May I have some water to drink,” even if they cannot speak the local language.

Scripture and Tradition

That is why the Samaritan woman should not have been surprised that this traveller at the well was asking her: “Give me a drink.”  But she was surprised because Samaritans and Jews did not share utensils, since Jews considered Samaritans ritually unclean.  The request of Jesus, however, only sets the stage for the conversation between Jesus and the woman.  When Jesus tells her that he can offer living water that quenches thirst forever, she asks “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

She is asking for ordinary water; but that is not what Jesus has to offer her.  He is using water as a metaphor for his life-giving message.  The living water of Jesus is the love of God the Father which Jesus has brought to the world.  He is a prophet, the promised Messiah, the Christ.  And that is why Jesus gives her, not the ordinary water she wants, but another kind of water.

·        First, in him she meets the Messiah himself, “the one called the Christ; [who] when he comes, he will tell us everything.” In fact, after meeting Jesus she tells the townsfolk: “He told me everything I have done.”

·        Second, not only does she meet the Saviour, but he also brings her to conversion, when he brings up the subject of her marriages, helping to reflect on her commitment to marriage

·        Thirdly, as a result this meeting Jesus, even her relationship with the townspeople is been repaired.  For once her own thirst has been quenched, she runs back to the city, to share her new found living water with her neighbours.  They come and hear Jesus himself speak they tell her: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”  Her days of being an outcast are gone; she does not have to go to the well by herself anymore, or go at noon when nobody else is around.  She has been restored to the community.

This woman’s simple request for water to drink, has given her much more.

Christian Application

In the Lord’s Prayer, we also make a similar request when we say: “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Is this not another way of saying like the Samaritan woman, “give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty?”

We have seen that the Lord seems to ignore both requests: he does not give her any actual water and he does not give us any physical bread.  It is because the Lord knows that these material things we can probably get on our own, and especially when we work together as human beings.

·        The drinking water she was asking for, the Samaritan woman could easily get by dropping a bucket down into the well and hauling it up with a rope.  Moses provided such water for the grumbling Israelites in the desert as we heard in the first reading.

·        Similarly, we today can provide clean drinking water for even the people in poor countries, with a little effort and generosity.

o   Did you know that a few hundred dollars can provide a family in Africa with a small hand-dug well?

o   Did you know that a few thousand dollars can provide a school with gutters and cisterns for collecting rain water from the roof?

o   Did you know that a deep well and hand-pump costing about 10,000 dollars can supply water for a whole village?

·        And when it comes to daily bread, we human beings can work together to make sure nobody goes hungry.  We meet this need by sharing our food with others as we are doing, for example in the Lenten Rice Bowl program.  But an even better way is to provide poor farmers with the skills, seed, fertilizers and water that they need to grow more food.

Yes, Jesus knows that we can easily quench our physical thirst and satisfy our physical hunger in these ways.  But what we cannot do except with his help, is quench our spiritual thirst and our spiritual hunger.

·        That is why when the woman asks for water, he does indeed give her water – the living water of salvation.

·        That is why when we ask for daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord gives us the bread of life, the Eucharist and the other sacraments.

If we recall from our catechism classes, sacraments are those signs that give us grace or what is called the divine life or God’s blessings if you like.  The seven sacraments are Jesus’ answer to our cry for water and for bread.

1.    In baptism, using the sign of water, the Lord forgives our sins and gives us a new life with God.

2.    In confirmation, using the sign of chrism oil, the Lord gives us the Holy Spirit, which comes down on us and guides us in our lives.

3.    In the Eucharist, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord gives us himself; he is the bread of life, the cup of salvation.

4.    And then when the new life received in baptism is damaged, nicked a little or much by sin, in the fourth sacrament of confession, the Lord once again forgives our sins and gives us again new life in God.

5.    When the new life received in baptism is threatened by the burden of illness, in the fifth sacrament of anointing of the sick, the Lord gives us healing – spiritual and physical healing.

6.    And although marriage is a natural institution, for Christians the Lord has raised it to the level of a sacrament, by giving the married couple, the grace of commitment and love for each other.

7.    Finally, the Lord left his Church in the hands of the apostles and their successors.  But he did not leave them without help.  In the sacrament of Holy Orders, he gives bishops, priests and deacons the spiritual strength they need to carry out their particular ministries in his name.

Conclusion

As we continue with our Lenten observance, of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, let us remember that we are not alone; the Lord is ready to help us; all we have to do is ask, “Give me a drink for my thirst – give me bread for my hunger.”

And as we receive spiritual water and spiritual bread from him, let us be inspired to give to others what we have received.

·        We give them physical water and physical food, which makes their lives here on earth a little better.

·        But we must also give them the living water and bread of life, the Good News of Salvation, which gives opens to them the doors of heaven.