Comment of the Gospel of the 3^rd  Sunday of Lent – Year A

In the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th  Sundays of Lent, the evangelist John will introduce some people who will help to point out to the Christians  the most important characteristic of Jesus. In this third Sunday of Lent, it is a Samaritan woman who comes face to face with the Lord.

Jesus, tired from his journey, sits by a water well. It is noon when a woman comes to draw water, and Jesus asks her for a drink. This is a touching description of the humanity of Jesus: tired, thirsty and without a bucket and a rope to draw water from the well. Jesus is in need of help! Who is this woman? she has no name. The only thing we know about her is that she is a “Samaritan”, which is equivalent to unfaithful to God and bitter enemy of the Jewish people. The Old Testament often speaks of the people of Israel as the bride to whom the Lord is tied with affection. This marriage did not have a happy outcome. The falling in love started in the desert where God and Israel had lived remarkable experiences. Then the infidelities of the bride began, causing the jealousy of her husband. According to the evangelist John, the Samaritan woman is the bride-Israel, marked by her story of love and infidelities. She had many “husbands” and what she has now is not her husband. At the well, Jesus meets her and wants to bring her back to the one true love, the Lord. The thirst of the Samaritan woman is the symbol of the needs that torment the heart of the bride-Israel: the need for peace, love, happiness. The water of the well indicates the attempts that man puts in place to quench this thirst that no material “thing” can satisfy. The living water that Jesus promises is the spirit of God. The Samaritan woman, at the beginning of the dialogue, was only thinking of material water. Gradually she began to understand the words of Jesus. Her gradual discovery is underlined by the evangelist. At first, for her, Jesus is a simple wandering Jew (v. 9), then he becomes a master (v. 11), then a prophet (v. 19), and afterward the Messiah (vv. 25-26), finally, with all the people, she proclaims him the Saviour of the world (v. 42). John wants that the spiritual journey of the woman of Samaria, becomes the journey of every disciple. Before meeting Christ, man is mainly concerned with the material aspects of life. They are important realities but they are not enough. Only a person who meets Christ, who discovers that he is the “Saviour of the world” and welcomes the gift of his Water, feels that he can be satisfied. The last part of the gospel presents the conclusion of the spiritual journey of the Samaritan woman and of every disciple. What does this woman do after meeting Christ? She leaves the pitcher and runs to announce her discovery and happiness to others. It is the call to become missionaries, apostles, catechists to tell everyone the joy and peace experienced by one who meets the Lord and drinks and is transformed by his water of life .