Sunday, March 8, is the Third Sunday of Lent. Mass readings: Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42 or John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42.

The Gospel says that a woman went to the well to draw water. She represents each one of us, and her desire for water is symbolic of all our desires.

The well in today’s Gospel symbolizes this world. Jesus says to the woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again.” The world cannot provide what we are really looking for. We were not made for this world; we were made for something, Someone, who is infinite, who alone can satisfy us. We were made for God.

Jesus says to the woman, “If you only knew the gift of God and who it is that is speaking to you now, you would ask him for a drink, and he would give you springs of living water unto eternal life.”

“The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 27).

Thirst brings the Samaritan woman to a well that cannot really satisfy. Thirst brings Jesus to the well, too, for he has a thirst for souls.

At first the woman doubts. But Jesus builds her trust and breaks through her anger and scorn. Jesus is patient with us as well, and he stays in a longer conversation with our often-stubborn hearts. In the end, the Samaritan woman is amazed at Jesus’ capacity to answer her deepest questions and free her from worldly pains and sorrows. How about you?

The woman leaves her water jar behind as she goes to tell others of Jesus. She no longer depends on worldly things to connect her to a worldly well that cannot satisfy. Her heart is now focused on other things. This, too, must be our journey: out of a finite world that cannot satisfy to the kingdom of God and God himself, who alone can satisfy our infinite longing.

Adapted from the guide posted on March 9, 2023.