Living Water
Homily for Sunday, March 8, 2026: Third Sunday of Lent
This is one of my favorite Gospel passages. John’s Gospel gives us a few of these extended one-on-one scenes with Jesus – more personal, more intimate than we get from the other three (the Synoptic) Gospels.
In the biblical commentaries and scholarship, a lot has been written about this Samaritan woman. Much is made of the fact that she comes to the well in the middle of the day, instead of in the morning when the other local women come for their water. As if she’s trying to avoid them.
We’re told that she has been married five times and now lives with a man she is not married to, so there is a general scholarly understanding that she probably has a reputation. She wants to avoid the gossip that buzzes around whenever she gathers with the other women of the village.
But then we find, by the end, she is announcing to all the village, “Come meet the man who told me everything I’ve ever done!”
It strikes me as being at odds with the idea of a woman ashamed of her own notoriety. I’ve always imagined some wag in the crowd remarking something to the effect that it doesn’t take a Messiah to tell everything she’s done.
And maybe that’s the real point.
Because this man who told her everything she’s ever done wasn’t mean about it. He didn’t scold her or put her down, didn’t shame her. Didn’t even tell her to go, and do not sin any more.
Instead, he spoke to her of the love of God. He offered her the grace of his life-giving water. He entrusted her with his mission, with his ministry, sending her forth to preach the Good News. He knew everything she had done in her life, but recognized that she is more than the sins she has committed.
We’re just about halfway through Lent now. Maybe we’re feeling good about how our Lenten practice and penance has been going. Or maybe we’re discouraged that we haven’t done better than we’d planned.
Hopefully we’ve taken the opportunity for the Sacrament of Confession, or plan to in the next couple weeks. And if it’s been a while, maybe we’re feeling discouraged about everything we have to confess.
And that’s where, maybe, today’s readings can give us some encouragement. Because Jesus, who already knows everything we’ve ever done, stands ready to wash it all away. That is the hope of the Gospel.
“And Hope does not disappoint,” Saint Paul tells us in the second reading, “because the love of God has been poured into our hearts.” That Living Water, the Love of God, the Waters of Baptism, poured into our hearts – this is what Jesus promises will become in us a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
And that is really what this season is all about, isn’t it? As we make our way through these forty days, our sights are set on what comes after, on the celebration of Easter.
As we move into this second half of the Lenten season, as we maybe renew our commitment to our Lenten sacrifices and spiritual practices, let’s remember the hope that guides us ever forward: that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.