THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
7 MARCH 2021
Water
plays an important role in the Exodus story.
It symbolizes the freedom of the Israelites as they leave their slavery
in Egypt and are sent into the desert to learn how to grow in relationship with
God. The infant Moses had been saved
from death when his mother hides him in a papyrus basket on the Nile
River. The adult Moses confronts Pharaoh
with the first of the ten plagues when he uses his staff to turn the water of
the Nile into blood. Moses dramatically
leads his people through the waters of the Red Sea, which saves his people and
drowns the Egyptian army pursuing them.
Throughout their forty-year journey in the desert, water plays a
powerful role in their growing understanding of their relationship with
God.
In today’s
reading from the Book of Exodus, they complain about their thirst for water and
accuse Moses of leading them into the desert to die. Moses strikes the rock with his staff,
causing water to flow to quench their thirst.
Despite the many times that God had proven his faithfulness, their
fidelity is weak. They are easily
distracted from God’s providence. But,
God displays the gift of mercy in abundance, like a stream of flowing water
that never runs dry. Saint Paul speaks
of this mercy incarnate in Jesus Christ and compares his grace to water being
poured out into our hearts.
When Jesus
approaches Jacob’s well, he is thirsting for much more than a drink of
water. He is thirsting for the faith of
this anonymous woman who represents the outcast Samaritans. Just as his ancestors had courted their
brides at this well, Jesus is the faithful bridegroom who courts the
Samaritans. He knows that they had
chased after six false gods in the course of their occupations by foreign
powers. During their conversation, this
woman responds to the courtship of the bridegroom. At first, she sees him as a kind man who
treats her with respect. Then she
recognizes him as a prophet, who speaks the truth with love. Finally, he reveals to her that he is the
Christ, the promised Messiah. With her
thirst for God satisfied, she leaves her most prized possession (her water jar)
and becomes the first evangelist and spreads the Good News to her fellow
Samaritans. They trust her witness and
come and see for themselves.
The Elect
of our parish are also thirsting for water.
After meeting every Tuesday night for the past year, they have come to
understand that their thirst for God’s grace in their lives will be satisfied
when they pass through the waters of Baptism at the Easter Vigil. They have come to understand that the love of
God, poured out into their hearts, will release them from all past sins and
free them to embrace the Lord’s Sanctifying Grace in their lives.
At the
10:00 Mass this morning, we prayed the first Scrutiny over them. When we hear that word, we think that these
poor people are being dragged to the front of church to be grilled about their
past lives. However, the three
Scrutinies acknowledge the reality of sin in our world. They acknowledge the truth that Satan does
not want anyone else to be conformed to Christ in Baptism. The Scrutiny invites the Elect to continue to
turn away from whatever might lead them away from Christ and look forward to
the grace of Christ poured into them in baptism.
The
Scrutinies teach a lesson to us who are baptized. Like the Israelites wandering in the desert,
we have experienced the water of God’s grace and love in the waters of
Baptism. Like them, we are easily
distracted from God’s providence. We
constantly seek to satisfy our thirst for God in many other ways. That is why we use this cycle of readings for
these three Sundays of Lent. They invite
us to scrutinize our lives, name our sins, and turn more completely to the
Lord. Through the Lenten disciplines, we
can express our awe and gratitude at the Lord’s presence in our lives. Like the Samaritan woman, we can bring this
Good News to others.
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