20260308 SEEKING FOR LIVING WATER
08 March 2026, 3rd Sunday of Lent
First reading | Exodus 17:3-7 |
Strike the rock, and water will flow from it
Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses. ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt?’ they said. ‘Was it so that I should die of thirst, my children too, and my cattle?’
Moses appealed to the Lord. ‘How am I to deal with this people?” he said. ‘A little more and they will stone me!’ the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take with you some of the elders of Israel and move on to the forefront of the people; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the river, and go. I shall be standing before you there on the rock, at Horeb. You must strike the rock, and water will flow from it for the people to drink.’ This is what Moses did, in the sight of the elders of Israel. The place was named Massah and Meribah because of the grumbling of the sons of Israel and because they put the Lord to the test by saying, ‘Is the Lord with us, or not?’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 94(95):1-2,6-9 |
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Second reading |
Romans 5:1-2,5-8 |
The love of God has been poured into our hearts
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. And this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men. It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn4:42,15 |
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Lord, you are really the saviour of the world:
give me the living water, so that I may never get thirsty.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Gospel | John 4:5-42 |
A spring of water welling up to eternal life
Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied:
‘If you only knew what God is offering
and who it is that is saying to you:
Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask,
and he would have given you living water.’
‘You have no bucket, sir,’ she answered ‘and the well is deep: how could you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?’ Jesus replied:
‘Whoever drinks this water
will get thirsty again;
but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give
will never be thirsty again:
the water that I shall give
will turn into a spring inside him,
welling up to eternal life.’
‘Sir,’ said the woman ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water.’ ‘Go and call your husband’ said Jesus to her ‘and come back here.’ The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ He said to her, ‘You are right to say, “I have no husband”; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.’ ‘I see you are a prophet, sir’ said the woman. ‘Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said:
‘Believe me, woman,
the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You worship what you do not know;
we worship what we do know:
for salvation comes from the Jews.
But the hour will come
– in fact it is here already –
when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth:
that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.
God is spirit,
and those who worship
must worship in spirit and truth.’
The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah – that is, Christ – is coming; and when he comes he will tell us everything.’ ‘I who am speaking to you,’ said Jesus ‘I am he.’
At this point his disciples returned, and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, ‘What do you want from her?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’ The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people. ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the town and they started walking towards him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, do have something to eat; but he said, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone been bringing him food?’ But Jesus said:
‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me,
and to complete his work.
Have you not got a saying:
Four months and then the harvest?
Well, I tell you:
Look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest!
Already the reaper is being paid his wages,
already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life,
and thus sower and reaper rejoice together.
For here the proverb holds good:
one sows, another reaps;
I sent you to reap a harvest you had not worked for.
Others worked for it;
and you have come into the rewards of their trouble.’
Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of the woman’s testimony when she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to believe; and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.’
SEEKING FOR LIVING WATER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EX 17:3-7; PS 95; ROM 5:1-2,5-8; JN 4:5-42]
As we enter into the Third Sunday of Lent, the Church begins the final preparations for those who will be baptised at the Easter Vigil. These rites are celebrated on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent, also known as the Period of Purification and Enlightenment. The purpose of these rites is to uncover and heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the Elect through prayers of exorcism, intercessions, and the laying on of hands. Today marks the First Scrutiny for the Elect, in which the Church points them to Jesus as the Living Water. Hence, the Gospel text is taken from John, introducing the Samaritan woman at the well.
This Gospel text is very rich in meaning and reveals the deepest desire of every human person. Just like the Hebrews wandering in the desert on their journey to the Promised Land, we seek what is most essential in life. In the First Reading, water is shown to be critical to life. We can survive for a few days without food, but without water, we will die.
Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses, asking, “‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt?’ they said, ‘Was it so that I should die of thirst, my children too, and my cattle?'” While we can appreciate their frustration, the truth remains: they were never satisfied. From water, they would later complain about the lack of fresh vegetables and, most of all, meat. They grew bored with manna.
This is true for all of us. We are never satisfied with what we have in life, no matter how much we have – including those who are rich and have everything that money can buy. Without God, we will always lack fulfilment; as St Augustine said, “our hearts are restless until we rest in God.” Without God, we cannot attain the fulness of life, joy, and love.
In the Gospel, the Samaritan woman went to Jacob’s well to draw water, which was more than two kilometres away from the town of Sychar. She was fulfilling her basic needs, yet her life was empty. She went there to draw water – instead of using the well in her town – to avoid meeting the townsfolk, as she was considered a lady of ill-repute. As we later learn, she had a few failed relationships, and Jesus exposed these wounds: “You are right to say, ‘I have no husband’; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband.” Broken by these failures, she went through life each day without meaning or purpose. This is true for many of us who suffer from failed relationships – whether in marriage, friendships, or at work. Some of us may even feel like failures because we are not successful, or rich, or famous.
To all of us, Jesus comes to give living water. He comes to fulfil us and quench our thirst. It is significant that Jesus was sitting at the well at noon. The Evangelist John uses symbolism to convey meanings and themes; night to represent evil and emptiness, and in this instance, noon to represent the bright light of truth and liberation.
Next Sunday, at the Second Scrutiny, the Gospel will focus on Jesus as the Light of the World. What is most consoling for us is that Jesus’ thirst is more than just a physical need; He thirsts for our happiness. This is why Jesus told the woman, “If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.”
He says it again at the Temple on the Feast of Tabernacles, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” (Jn 7:37f) And just before He died, He repeats on the cross, saying, “I am thirsty.” (Jn 19:28) So Jesus was not just physically thirsty – He desires to give us the Living Water.
What is this living water? The Lord said to the woman, “Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again: but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.” So this living water not only quenches our thirst but becomes a spring within us, enabling us to provide water to others.
What could this be if not the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God that is poured into our hearts? When we have love, that love grows. The more we give love away, the more we grow in the capacity to love. This is what St Paul says in his letter to the Romans: “This hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.” And this Holy Spirit of course was given to us in principle at the cross. At the moment of His death, St John wrote: “When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished. Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (Jn 19:30)
This is why the episode of the Samaritan woman is chosen to prepare our Elect for the Sacrament of baptism at the Easter Vigil. Through baptism, they will be washed with water and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Yet, the waters of baptism can become true channels of God’s grace only because of Christ’s death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit was given to the Church at the moment of Christ’s death on the cross, but this gift became fully manifest after the Resurrection, when Jesus bestowed the Spirit upon the apostles. In the same way, it is only when we are baptised in Christ Jesus that the Holy Spirit is given to us and comes to dwell in us. As St Paul says, “It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.”
Indeed, when we welcome Jesus into our lives, He not only gives us His love, but He reveals the truth about us. Just as He revealed to the woman the obstacles that prevented her from finding life, and showed her what is real worship in spirit and truth, she was set free from her fears and ignorance. Jesus answered the profound questions that many of us have chosen to ignore. She discovered the true identity of Jesus as Prophet and Messiah. From that moment on, she was able to break free from her past. Coming to know Jesus is what will set us free.
This is why, for us to receive this love of God, we must be ready to leave our jug behind, like this woman did. After meeting Jesus, “the woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people, ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?'” We must be ready to leave our sins, our fears and our past behind if we are to receive this living water. As St Augustine reminds us, if we want God to fill us with new wine, then we need to cleanse our jug of the old substance. So we need to decide today to leave our sins behind us. From now on, we must be like Jesus, seeking only to do the will of God. Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.”
We need not fear that God will reject us. Indeed, the Gospel tells us that Jesus overcomes all barriers of hostility and prejudice that exist between us and Him. He reached out to the woman, taking the initiative to begin a conversation and coming down to her level. Jesus entered into an honest dialogue with the woman with great sensitivity. He broke down all social and psychological barriers by speaking to a woman in public – against the social norms of the time – and drinking from the utensil of a Samaritan, He also overcame all religious barriers. We, too, must come to our Lord like the Samaritan woman to experience the joy of liberation and the discovery of our true identity as the sons and daughters of God.
If we take courage, our lives will be radically transformed when we encounter God’s mercy in Christ. Like the woman, we will be changed; we will run into the city and tell people of our extraordinary experience, becoming evangelisers for our Lord. Indeed, “many Samaritans had believed in him on the strength of the woman’s testimony when she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. And when he spoke to them many more came to believe; and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.'”
Truly, every encounter with Jesus changes life. When we meet Jesus, everything else becomes unimportant, like the water jar. Only the love of God is all important. So let us leave that interior water jar behind and seek Jesus, to rediscover our Lord and renew our love for Him. This is what Christian witnessing and Christian life is all about – to enter into the joy of our Lord and share that joy with others.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
