Living Water Changes Everything
March 23, 2025
The Church offers parishes two options for the readings on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent. Parishes that are doing the Scrutinies on those Sundays are permitted to use the readings from Year A, rather than Year C. We will be using the Year A readings this year.
The Gospel for the Third Sunday of Lent for Year A is the story of the woman at the well and her dialogue with Jesus concerning the water in the well and the living water that He will give. The corresponding first reading is from the Book of Exodus, about the thirst of the Hebrews in the desert and how God gives them water from the rock. As Lent is about Easter, and Easter is about baptism, so these readings are about water and the graces that water represents.
Jesus and His disciples are traveling through Samaria and come to a town. Outside the town is a well. They stop there, and the Apostles go into town to get food and supplies. Jesus remains at the well. A woman comes to the well, and Jesus asks her to give Him a drink of water. He has no way of dipping water from the well, and she has a bucket. She is shocked that He has asked her, for she and her bucket are considered unclean, and if Jesus drinks from the bucket, He too becomes unclean. Jesus tells her that if she realized who He was, she would ask Him for a drink and He would give her water that would spring up from within, and she would never thirst again. Believing that He is talking about regular water, she asks for this water, so she did not have to keep coming to the well.
Jesus is using the image of living water as a metaphor for grace that He wants to give her if she becomes His disciple. This is the same grace that you and I received at baptism, the sacrament of salvation, and the grace our Elect will receive when they are baptized. The pouring of the water symbolizes the pouring out of God’s grace into our souls, filling us with divine life, and making us children of God, disciples of Jesus Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit. At the Easter Masses we will all be sprinkled with holy water, as we renew our baptismal promises, recalling those graces that have changed our lives.
The woman goes back into town and tells everyone about Jesus and this New Life that she has received from Him. They come out to Him, invite Him to stay with them for a while, so that they can come to follow Him as well.
Are we as excited about our salvation by Christ, and our membership in His holy family, the Church, as was this woman? Let us stir up within us the graces we have received at our baptisms.
—Fr. Mike Comer
The Church offers parishes two options for the readings on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent. Parishes that are doing the Scrutinies on those Sundays are permitted to use the readings from Year A, rather than Year C. We will be using the Year A readings this year.
The Gospel for the Third Sunday of Lent for Year A is the story of the woman at the well and her dialogue with Jesus concerning the water in the well and the living water that He will give. The corresponding first reading is from the Book of Exodus, about the thirst of the Hebrews in the desert and how God gives them water from the rock. As Lent is about Easter, and Easter is about baptism, so these readings are about water and the graces that water represents.
Jesus and His disciples are traveling through Samaria and come to a town. Outside the town is a well. They stop there, and the Apostles go into town to get food and supplies. Jesus remains at the well. A woman comes to the well, and Jesus asks her to give Him a drink of water. He has no way of dipping water from the well, and she has a bucket. She is shocked that He has asked her, for she and her bucket are considered unclean, and if Jesus drinks from the bucket, He too becomes unclean. Jesus tells her that if she realized who He was, she would ask Him for a drink and He would give her water that would spring up from within, and she would never thirst again. Believing that He is talking about regular water, she asks for this water, so she did not have to keep coming to the well.
Jesus is using the image of living water as a metaphor for grace that He wants to give her if she becomes His disciple. This is the same grace that you and I received at baptism, the sacrament of salvation, and the grace our Elect will receive when they are baptized. The pouring of the water symbolizes the pouring out of God’s grace into our souls, filling us with divine life, and making us children of God, disciples of Jesus Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit. At the Easter Masses we will all be sprinkled with holy water, as we renew our baptismal promises, recalling those graces that have changed our lives.
The woman goes back into town and tells everyone about Jesus and this New Life that she has received from Him. They come out to Him, invite Him to stay with them for a while, so that they can come to follow Him as well.
Are we as excited about our salvation by Christ, and our membership in His holy family, the Church, as was this woman? Let us stir up within us the graces we have received at our baptisms.
—Fr. Mike Comer
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