The Gospel for the Sunday of the Third Week in Lent is from John 4:5-42. Jesus, sitting at a well, asks a Samaritan woman for water, and has a conversation with her about water and eternal life: Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him,” Jesus said, “will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (Jn 4:14).
Pope Benedict XVI, in his Angelus talk of March 27, 2011 spoke on this Gospel passage:
Pope Benedict XVI, in his Angelus talk of March 27, 2011 spoke on this Gospel passage:
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well
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 human freedom; it knocks at the door of man’s heart and waits patiently for his answer....
This water represents the Holy Spirit, the “gift” par excellence that Jesus came to bring on the part of God the Father. Whoever is reborn by water and by the Holy Spirit, that is, in Baptism, enters into a real relationship with God, a filial relationship, and can worship him “in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:23, 24), as Jesus went on to reveal to the Samaritan woman. Thanks to the meeting with Jesus Christ and to the gift of the Holy Spirit, the human being’s faith attains fulfilment, as a response to the fullness of God’s revelation.
Each one of us can identify himself with the Samaritan woman: Jesus is waiting for us, especially in this Season of Lent, to speak to our hearts, to my heart. Let us pause a moment in silence, in our room or in a church or in a separate place. Let us listen to his voice which tells us “If you knew the gift of God…”.
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