Beloved in Christ,
“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ' Give me a drink” (John 4:7). This verse within the pericope of this Sunday’s gospel captures a fundamental aspect of our spiritual life- the desire for union of love with Christ. We are made with a need for water, not just natural water but spiritual water that sustains our need for eternal life and union with Jesus. The spiritual water here symbolizes the Holy Spirit, love, and faith. In our journey to faith, we will be tested by dryness, emptiness, neediness, and a general human lack. In this state of spiritual dryness, we, like the people of Israel, “In their thirst for water” (Ex 17:3), may find ourselves questioning God. In the Exodus account, God instructed Moses to strike the rock at Horeb and water “flow from it for the people to drink” (Ex 17:6). But the water Moses provided was not satisfying; it was not the living water that sustains continually without end. Only Christ, the new Moses, the Rock of our salvation, can provide that life-giving water of faith and love.
It is to Jesus we must go to drink of the living water of grace and faith. The thirst for true love and faith represented in the Samaritan woman (who has married five times to false lovers) will be satisfied only by Jesus when we approach him at the well. Like the Samaritan woman, we have at different times in our lives looked for the thirst quenching water in the wrong places of the secular world, but now we know it is in our coming to Christ that “we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand” (Rom 5:2). The love we have and in which we live now is because we have asked and have received from Christ. Paul affirms this when he writes, “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). It is Christ who generously poured his love and faith into our hearts, that is hearts that have softened, not the hardened hearts of the Israelites at Meriba and Massa (Ps. 95:8).
We must never stop going to the well to meet Jesus, the Rock, who provides the living water that satisfies, to ask him to assuage our thirst for him. The words of the Samaritan must come forth frequently from our lips: “Give me living water, that I may never thirst again” (Jn 4:15). The question is: do we accept our need for Christ’s living water to nourish and sustain our spiritual life? Do we understand that our faith and relationship with Jesus can only grow profoundly when we ask Jesus for his gift of living water? “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). In this Lenten season, a time of grace, let us approach Jesus, the Rock of our salvation, and ask of him to fill our repentant heart of flesh with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Living water. Let us ask him to strengthen our faith in him to the point of sharing that gift of faith with others, so that they, too, like the Samaritans, may come to believe and know that Jesus is “truly the savior of the world” (John 4: 42).
As we continue to open our hearts to Jesus during this season of Lent, may our hearts be converted to thirst for Jesus, who also thirsts for our faith (see John 19:28), and may he kindle in us the fire of divine love (from the Third Sunday of Lent preface). In conclusion, I invite you to praise and thanksgiving using the words of the Psalmist: “Come let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation (Ps 95:1). Let's approach the well that is Jesus and draw water. The Lenten season is a profitable time to pursue this noble and holy act devoutly.
In Christ, the Rock,
Fr. Alayode, OP
“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ' Give me a drink” (John 4:7). This verse within the pericope of this Sunday’s gospel captures a fundamental aspect of our spiritual life- the desire for union of love with Christ. We are made with a need for water, not just natural water but spiritual water that sustains our need for eternal life and union with Jesus. The spiritual water here symbolizes the Holy Spirit, love, and faith. In our journey to faith, we will be tested by dryness, emptiness, neediness, and a general human lack. In this state of spiritual dryness, we, like the people of Israel, “In their thirst for water” (Ex 17:3), may find ourselves questioning God. In the Exodus account, God instructed Moses to strike the rock at Horeb and water “flow from it for the people to drink” (Ex 17:6). But the water Moses provided was not satisfying; it was not the living water that sustains continually without end. Only Christ, the new Moses, the Rock of our salvation, can provide that life-giving water of faith and love.
It is to Jesus we must go to drink of the living water of grace and faith. The thirst for true love and faith represented in the Samaritan woman (who has married five times to false lovers) will be satisfied only by Jesus when we approach him at the well. Like the Samaritan woman, we have at different times in our lives looked for the thirst quenching water in the wrong places of the secular world, but now we know it is in our coming to Christ that “we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand” (Rom 5:2). The love we have and in which we live now is because we have asked and have received from Christ. Paul affirms this when he writes, “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). It is Christ who generously poured his love and faith into our hearts, that is hearts that have softened, not the hardened hearts of the Israelites at Meriba and Massa (Ps. 95:8).
We must never stop going to the well to meet Jesus, the Rock, who provides the living water that satisfies, to ask him to assuage our thirst for him. The words of the Samaritan must come forth frequently from our lips: “Give me living water, that I may never thirst again” (Jn 4:15). The question is: do we accept our need for Christ’s living water to nourish and sustain our spiritual life? Do we understand that our faith and relationship with Jesus can only grow profoundly when we ask Jesus for his gift of living water? “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). In this Lenten season, a time of grace, let us approach Jesus, the Rock of our salvation, and ask of him to fill our repentant heart of flesh with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Living water. Let us ask him to strengthen our faith in him to the point of sharing that gift of faith with others, so that they, too, like the Samaritans, may come to believe and know that Jesus is “truly the savior of the world” (John 4: 42).
As we continue to open our hearts to Jesus during this season of Lent, may our hearts be converted to thirst for Jesus, who also thirsts for our faith (see John 19:28), and may he kindle in us the fire of divine love (from the Third Sunday of Lent preface). In conclusion, I invite you to praise and thanksgiving using the words of the Psalmist: “Come let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation (Ps 95:1). Let's approach the well that is Jesus and draw water. The Lenten season is a profitable time to pursue this noble and holy act devoutly.
In Christ, the Rock,
Fr. Alayode, OP
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