Third Sunday of Lent

Thirst

Jesus was waiting for her and asked her for a drink of water. He asks because he is thirsty. A simple, human need opens up a deep conversation with a woman who others ostracized. We all need water. Are we, like Jesus, willing to ask anyone for a drink? Will we receive what they provide?

Jesus initiates the conversation even though he knows it is “unlawful.” He knows that even his disciples disapprove of him talking to this woman. In his desire to know her, a woman who has been cast away by five different men (husbands), he holds out to her an abundance of “living water.” She drops her jar, runs to the village and brings the whole village back to the well.

Jesus’ tenderness in accepting who she was results in her joyful, exuberant sharing of how Jesus knew her and acknowledged her, listened to her and accepted her in spite of her gender, her residency and her community. Many believed because of her!

Jesus also entrusts his thirst to us. We encounter him in order to be filled. Yet he has no bucket or jar but ours. What is our role in fulfilling Jesus’ mission to the thirsty world in which we live?

Like many of you, I thirst for ways of responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Just before writing this reflection, I found this resource that I highly recommend that we read and LIVE! It is “A Faith Response to the Coronavirus.” In it, I am reminded of what Jesus asks of all of us individually and as a faith community.